/co-founder

A co-founder, not a yes-man.

Most AI tools do whatever you ask. That is the problem. /co-founder is a collection of 13 skills for Claude Code that runs your business with you, and pushes back like a real co-founder would:

• It refuses to build on half-baked ideas. Vision first, then the gauntlet, then the plan, then the work. Skip a stage and it asks you the missing questions instead of producing junk.
• It never ships consequential advice on vibes. Go/no-go, strategy, pricing, customer-facing, money, and hard-to-reverse recommendations need a fact about YOUR business plus a checked outside source. If either leg is missing, the recommendation parks and names the next check.
• It banks every lesson. Every lesson, decision, and research run lands in your own vault as plain markdown files you own. Week 20 is dramatically smarter than week 1.

Install

You need a paid Claude plan, Claude Code 2.1.206 or newer, and Git. Paste this line into a system terminal (not into a running Claude session):

claude plugin marketplace add machina-exm/co-founder

That adds the marketplace this plugin ships from. It installs nothing yet.

After adding the marketplace

Create your business folder, install the plugin, and open a fresh session:

mkdir -p my-business && cd my-business
claude plugin install co-founder@co-founder --scope user
claude

The last command opens a fresh session, which matters: newly installed skill triggers register the moment it starts. In that session, run /co-founder:co-founder-setup. Setup interviews you, writes your personalized business charter, and scaffolds your vault in the current folder. Most founders spend 15-20 minutes on its eight one-at-a-time questions and final confirmation.

Claude Desktop is optional. To use it after the CLI install, open Code → Local, select the same business folder, and start a fresh session there. Review the repository before granting folder and plugin trust.

Update

Marketplace plugins do not update on their own. Exit any running Claude session, then refresh the marketplace:

claude plugin marketplace update co-founder

After refreshing the marketplace

From your business folder, update the plugin and open a fresh session:

claude plugin update co-founder@co-founder --scope user
claude

Confirm the listed version, then run /co-founder:co-founder-setup in the new session. Setup enters re-sync mode: it updates the charter and scaffold contracts while preserving founder-written content.

Release history, compatibility, and migration notes live in CHANGELOG.md.

Troubleshooting

• co-founder@co-founder is not found: run claude plugin marketplace update co-founder, retry the install command, then inspect claude plugin details co-founder@co-founder.
• The skills do not appear after install or update: claude plugin list --json must show the plugin enabled and claude plugin details co-founder@co-founder must show 13 skills. Exit the running session and start a new claude process after that check.
• Setup opened in the wrong place: stop before accepting file changes. Create an empty business folder, start a new Code → Local session in it, and run setup there.
• A Windows Local session will not start: install Git, restart Claude Desktop, and select the folder again.
• The update still looks old: confirm the expected version in claude plugin list --json. If it did not change, update the marketplace and plugin again, then start a fresh session.

The skills

The boards

One board per skill — how each one actually works. Also in assets/visuals/, with the editable HTML original beside every image.

co-founder-setup

vision

plan

gauntlet

research

sprint

review

bank

steward

recall

offer

content-engine

help

Installed and namespaced as a Claude Code plugin. The charter, vault, and business artifacts it creates are plain markdown files that remain readable and portable outside Claude Code.

Other coding agents

Claude Code is the recommended way to run /co-founder: it is the only surface with the full plugin experience (marketplace installs, updates, the exact flows above). If you already live in another agent, the collection also runs there. Same skills, same gates, same vault.

After any install, the first move is the same everywhere: open your business folder and say “set up co-founder”. If a skill does not appear, the most common cause is a name clash with a skill you already have installed globally.

Maintainer porting notes and per-agent smoke checklists live in docs/porting/.