StartupKit

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What it is

StartupKit is an installable, contract-enforced, reality-grounded ideation pipeline for Claude Code. It decomposes the business-ideation problem into a bounded sequence of 11 phases — diverge → niche → competitors → positioning → offer → validate → money → leads → skills → pitch → export — each implemented as a Claude Code skill with its own prompt, required output sections, and session artifacts. A thin Node CLI (bin/cli.js) deterministically installs the skills and shared templates under ~/.claude/skills/, writes a content-hashed install manifest, and classifies every subsequent file transition as added / updated / skipped / conflict / unchanged. Session state lives as YAML frontmatter inside 00-session.md, so progress is a machine-readable artifact rather than a prose log. Every installable asset is declared in .install-contract.json and constrained by CONTRACTS.md, enforced in CI via .github/workflows/ci.yml. No API keys, no telemetry, no background agents.

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Why use StartupKit

• Structured ideation over open-ended prompting. An 11-phase pipeline enforces a discipline of diverge → converge → validate → monetize → pitch, backed by one skill per phase in skills/. You never start from a blank prompt.
• Collective founder counsel, not name-dropping. Seven Domain Expert Boards convene per phase (primary + secondary) via the mapping in skills/startupkit/SKILL.md. Every decision point surfaces agreement, disagreement, and application instead of quoting one founder.
• Deterministic installer. bin/cli.js uses SHA-256 content hashes and an install manifest at ~/.claude/skills/startupkit/.install-manifest.json to classify every file transition; locally edited files surface as conflict and require --force to overwrite.
• Machine-readable session state. 00-session.md begins with YAML frontmatter (session, phases, export, goldNiche) defined in templates/session-template.md. Dashboards and phase advancement read from structured data, not prose regex.
• Single source of truth. CONTRACTS.md declares the canonical asset layout (skills//SKILL.md, skills//references/*.md, templates/*.md). Duplicate mirrors (for example .claude/skills/) are explicitly forbidden.
• Reference-by-design. Heavy phases (competitors, positioning, pitch) carry declared mode contracts (quick / standard / deep) and output contracts under each skill’s references/ directory. Downstream phases consume only the sections a contract declares.
• Local-only, subscription-driven. Every LLM call is a Claude Code session. No API keys, no per-token billing, no outbound telemetry.
• CI guardrails. .github/workflows/ci.yml runs node bin/cli.js doctor plus an install dry-run on every push and pull request.

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Design principles

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Phases

/startupkit is the orchestrator, not a numbered phase. It creates sessions, renders the dashboard from frontmatter, and routes the user to the next skill.

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How a session flows

1. /startupkit      → create session, render dashboard from frontmatter
2. /sk-diverge      → raw idea surface (no judging)
3. /sk-niche        → converge via Taki Moore 3Q + Hormozi 4-criteria
4. /sk-competitors  → research, mode=quick|standard|deep
5. /sk-positioning  → Dunford 5+1, mode-contracted output
6. /sk-offer        → Grand Slam Offer (Six P's + Value Equation)
7. /sk-validate     → discovery calls, outreach, MVP plan
8. /sk-money        → pricing, offer ladder, projections
9. /sk-leads        → channels + nurture sequence
10. /sk-skills      → AI skill integration plan
11. /sk-pitch       → investor pitch materials (mode-contracted)
12. /sk-export      → one-pager summary

At every step, the active skill writes back into 00-session.md frontmatter (phases[id=N].status, session.activePhase, session.nextPhase, session.updated) as defined in skills/startupkit/references/session-state-protocol.md.

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Session state machine

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> notStarted
    notStarted --> inProgress: user opens phase
    inProgress --> complete: skill writes phase artifact + updates frontmatter
    inProgress --> notStarted: user resets phase
    complete --> inProgress: user redoes phase
    complete --> [*]: final phase completes

Each of the 11 phases is a row in phases[]. session.activePhase tracks the currently focused phase; session.nextPhase is the recommended next command.

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Architecture

flowchart TB
    subgraph Repo ["Repository"]
        skillsDir["skills/"]
        templatesDir["templates/"]
        contractJson[".install-contract.json"]
        contractsMd["CONTRACTS.md"]
    end

    subgraph CLI ["bin/cli.js"]
        init["init / upgrade / force / dry-run / verbose"]
        doctor["doctor"]
        uninstall["uninstall"]
    end

    subgraph Home ["~/.claude/skills"]
        installedSkills["<skill>/SKILL.md + references/"]
        installedTemplates["startupkit/templates/*.md"]
        manifest[".install-manifest.json"]
    end

    subgraph Session ["workspace/sessions/#123;name#125;"]
        sessionMd["00-session.md (YAML frontmatter)"]
        phaseArtifacts["01-..11-*.md artifacts"]
    end

    Repo --> CLI
    CLI --> Home
    Home --> Session
    contractsMd --> CLI
    contractJson --> CLI

• Serial by construction. One phase at a time. No background daemons, no multi-agent parallelism.
• Install target is stable. Skills always land in ~/.claude/skills//. Shared templates always land in ~/.claude/skills/startupkit/templates/.

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Domain Expert Boards

Seven boards, mapped per phase. Each skill convenes its primary board and consults its secondary board.

flowchart LR
    subgraph Boards
        OV[Opportunity and Vision]
        MF[Market Focus]
        CS[Competitive Strategy]
        VP[Value and Pricing]
        CV[Customer and Validation]
        SP[Storytelling and Persuasion]
        CE[Craft and Execution]
    end

    P1[1 Diverge] --> OV
    P2[2 Niche] --> MF
    P3[3 Competitors] --> CS
    P4[4 Positioning] --> CS
    P5[5 Offer] --> VP
    P6[6 Validate] --> CV
    P7[7 Money] --> VP
    P8[8 Leads] --> CV
    P9[9 Skills] --> CE
    P10[10 Pitch] --> SP
    P11[11 Export] --> SP

The full primary/secondary mapping lives in skills/startupkit/SKILL.md.

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Observability

Everything is on disk, in a form you can grep, diff, and replay.

workspace/sessions/{name}/
├── 00-session.md          # YAML frontmatter + progress tracker (source of truth)
├── 01-diverge.md          # Raw idea surface
├── 02-niches.md           # Scored niches + Gold selection
├── 03-competitors.md      # Competitive summary
├── 03-competitors/        # Full deliverables (battle cards, pricing, matrix)
├── 04-positioning.md      # Positioning summary
├── 04-positioning/        # Full deliverables (statements, alternatives, messaging)
├── 05-offer.md            # Grand Slam Offer
├── 06-validation.md       # Validation plan
├── 07-money-model.md      # Pricing, offer ladder, projections
├── 08-lead-strategy.md    # Channels + nurture
├── 09-skills-match.md     # AI skill recommendations
├── 10-pitch.md            # Investor pitch summary + scorecard
├── 10-pitch/              # Full pitch deliverables
└── 11-one-pager.md        # Final one-pager export

00-session.md is authoritative for phase status. The orchestrator renders the dashboard from its frontmatter.

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Install

Two equal paths. Both leave the same result on disk: skills under ~/.claude/skills/, shared templates under ~/.claude/skills/startupkit/templates/, and an install manifest alongside.

Option A — npm CLI

npx startup-ideation-kit init

The package is startup-ideation-kit; the binary is startupkit. Once available on your PATH:

startupkit init
startupkit init --upgrade
startupkit init --dry-run --upgrade
startupkit uninstall

Option B — skill registry

npx skills add mohamedameen-io/StartupKit

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Installer behavior

On init, every source file is classified against the install manifest and the current destination:

Flags:

A report is printed at the end of every run summarizing totals per action.

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Session output

Session files are written under the current working directory: workspace/sessions/{name}/. Each phase skill updates the frontmatter in 00-session.md after its save step. The export skill sets export.generated: true and updates session.status.

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Contracts

StartupKit treats the repository layout as a contract, not a convention.

• Canonical sources — declared in CONTRACTS.md:
  • skills//SKILL.md
  • skills//references/*.md
  • templates/*.md
• Enumerated assets — .install-contract.json lists every shipped skill and template; CI fails if filesystem and contract drift.
• Forbidden mirrors — tracking duplicate skill content under .claude/ or other mirror directories is disallowed.
• No absolute local paths — absolute host paths (for example /Users/...) are forbidden inside any SKILL.md.

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CLI reference

Commands not in this table are not implemented in bin/cli.js.

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Doctor and CI

• doctor is wired in bin/cli.js and dispatches to scripts/doctor/index.js; it runs repository contract checks against CONTRACTS.md and .install-contract.json.
• CI is defined in .github/workflows/ci.yml. On every push and pull request, it runs:
  • npm ci
  • node bin/cli.js doctor
  • node bin/cli.js init --dry-run --upgrade under a temporary $HOME

This is the same doctor the local CLI runs — CI has no parallel implementation to drift from.

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How it compares

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Non-goals

StartupKit intentionally does not do these things:

• No background agents. Phases are serial and user-driven. Nothing runs on a daemon.
• No in-context delegation. Skills do not @mention each other mid-conversation.
• No hidden CLI surface. If it is not in the CLI reference above, it is not implemented. Commands like founders search do not exist.
• No API keys. StartupKit depends on your Claude Code session, not direct LLM APIs.
• No telemetry. Nothing phones home. All state lives under workspace/ and ~/.claude/skills/.
• No duplicate mirrors. .claude/skills/ and other install mirrors are not tracked; CONTRACTS.md forbids them.
• No silent overwrites. Locally modified installed files surface as conflict until you pass --force.

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Project structure

StartupKit/
  bin/                        # Node CLI entrypoint (startupkit)
  skills/                     # Skill definitions and per-skill references
  templates/                  # Canonical shared templates
  scripts/doctor/             # Repository contract checks
  docs/                       # Register / evidence / project docs
  workspace/sessions/         # Session outputs (local)
  .install-contract.json      # Enumerated installable assets
  CONTRACTS.md                # Source-of-truth path contract
  .github/workflows/ci.yml    # doctor + install dry-run on push/PR

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Requirements

• Claude Code
• Node.js 18+ (for both npx skills add ... and npx startup-ideation-kit ...)

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Attribution

Frameworks used across phases draw from Alex Hormozi, April Dunford, Taki Moore, Geoffrey Moore, Marty Neumeier, Ali Abdaal, Rob Fitzpatrick, and the founder-biography corpus that informs the Domain Expert Boards. All credit for the underlying business frameworks goes to their respective creators.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.