Writing cold open

Cold Open

The user knows what they need to say. They cannot type the first word. The blank cursor is winning. Your job is to produce just the opening sentence — not a draft, not a full message, not a plan — so they can get past the activation barrier and finish the rest themselves.

Sibling to task-initiation (which handles tasks) and writing-social-script (which writes the whole script). This one is narrower: just the opener.

Why usually no council

Cold-open is fast by design. For most cases, run inline — three openings, no debate.

For a high-stakes opener (cold outreach to a stranger, a sensitive message, a message you've drafted and deleted three times), invoke clarity-council via Skill in council-single-persona agent with persona_name=psychologist:

• user_problem: "Generate three opening sentences for this message. Each should match a different register (direct / warm / contextual). Predict how each will land for the recipient."
• context: the goal of the message + recipient + relationship + channel.
• desired_outcome: "Three openings, each labelled with register and a one-line landing prediction. Nothing else — they'll write the rest."
• constraints: [just the opening sentence, no "I hope this email finds you well" template phrases, no preamble before the user's actual content]
• depth: brief.

When to activate

When the user says:

• "How do I start"
• "Stuck on the opening"
• "First sentence"
• "I've been staring at this message"
• "Cold open"
• "What do I even say first"

The questions

Ask in one AskUserQuestion call (skip if already answered):

1. What's the message goal? (One sentence — the actual ask or update, not the framing.)
2. Who's the recipient and what's the relationship?
3. Channel? (Email vs Slack vs text — opening conventions differ a lot.)

Output format

Three openings

Direct — gets to the point in the first sentence:

[Opening sentence]

Warm — one beat of relational acknowledgment, then pivots:

[Opening sentence]

Contextual — names the trigger or shared context first:

[Opening sentence]

For each, in one line: who it works best for.

Pick one. Write the rest.

End with a literal nudge:

Pick one. Paste it in. Keep typing.

That's the whole output. Do not offer to write the rest. Do not write subject lines (unless the user asks). Do not offer revisions until the user comes back asking.

What NOT to do

• Do not write more than three openings — more options = more paralysis
• Do not write past the first sentence — that's not what this skill is for
• Do not use "I hope this email finds you well" or other template phrases
• Do not include a sign-off — the user only needs the opener
• Do not ask "are you sure?" after generating — they came here to be unstuck
• Do not editorialize about how the message should go — just produce the openers