Onboard contour

Onboard contour

Purpose

Use this skill at the start of the first session. The goal is a usable contour, not a complete ontology. The owner spends 10 minutes giving enough shape for the agent to start reading sources. The contour includes the company model language: the language used for human-facing model text. It is not inferred from chat language.

When to use

Use this skill when:

• a new resident agent starts with an owner;
• the current model has no agreed business boundary;
• the owner wants to reset the starting contour.

Do not use it for a deep modeling workshop. If the owner wants to model a process live for 60-90 minutes, use the capture loop in the primary business-ontology skill.

Procedure

Start by inviting voice input:

You can answer by voice if it is easier. I can work from the transcript, and
voice usually carries more context. I will not store raw audio in the model.

Ask one question at a time:

1. What does the company do, in one paragraph?
2. What do you produce or sell, and to whom?
3. What directions, businesses, or product lines are inside it?
4. What hurts most right now?
5. Recommend the starting area yourself: "I will start with <area> because <pain/source>. OK?"
6. What mainly flows through this area?
7. Where does the truth about that flow live?
8. Who are the key roles in this area?
9. Which metric says this area is working well?
10. Which language should I use for the company model text? Recommend the language in which the owner and team make decisions. Technical ids stay stable and language-independent.

The recommendation in step 5 is the agent's job. Use answers 3 and 4 plus any available source readiness. Do not ask the owner to choose from a blank slate when you can make a defensible recommendation.

Before sending each unanswered setup question, record a human_request with kind=setup. When the owner answers, close that request and continue the ladder. Questions answered in the same incoming message may be recorded and closed immediately so the ledger still explains why no setup ask remains open. If the company model language is unanswered, keep it as pending-owner-selection, leave the human_request open, and do not mark onboarding complete.

Rules

• Ask one question at a time.
• Short answers are enough; do not force workshop-level detail.
• Stage candidate material as soon as an answer gives enough evidence.
• Mark unknowns as unknown and continue.
• Voice is welcome; treat transcripts as source content and redact by policy.
• Do not ask for review owners during onboarding. The owner is the starting reviewer until evidence shows otherwise.
• Do not mark anything accepted. Contour answers become candidate proposals.
• Do not infer company model language from chat language.

Output

Candidate material for:

• company or business card;
• selected starting area;
• primary flow object;
• source-of-truth hypothesis;
• key roles;
• success metric with formula unknown when needed;
• company model language or an open setup human_request if it is still pending;
• open questions from pain points and unknowns.

Then hand off to connect-source for Block B.

What good looks like

The owner answers briefly. The agent records a skeleton, recommends one starting area, confirms it, and moves to sources. The chat stays plain; technical ids stay in staged artifacts.

Eval cases

Case 1 - owner answers everything in one voice note. What good looks like: the agent splits the transcript into the ladder fields, summarizes the candidate contour back in plain language, asks only for the single missing confirmation of the recommended starting area, and stages candidate material. It does not ask the whole ladder again.

Case 2 - owner does not know the source of truth. What good looks like: the agent records source of truth as unknown, keeps the metric formula unknown if necessary, and proceeds to source setup. It does not invent a CRM or dashboard.