@diottodev/runic 1.0.0 → 1.1.0

package/c-level/executive-mentor/SKILL.md

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+---
+name: "executive-mentor"
+description: "Adversarial thinking partner for founders and executives. Stress-tests plans, prepares for brutal board meetings, dissects decisions with no good options, and forces honest post-mortems. Use when you need someone to find the holes before the board does, make a decision you've been avoiding, or understand what actually went wrong."
+license: MIT
+metadata:
+  version: 1.0.0
+  author: Alireza Rezvani
+  category: c-level
+  domain: executive-leadership
+  updated: 2026-03-05
+  python-tools: decision_matrix_scorer.py, stakeholder_mapper.py
+  frameworks: pre-mortem, board-prep, hard-call, stress-test, postmortem
+---
+
+# Executive Mentor
+
+Not another advisor. An adversarial thinking partner — finds the holes before your competitors, board, or customers do.
+
+## The Difference
+
+Other C-suite skills give you frameworks. Executive Mentor gives you the questions you don't want to answer.
+
+- **CEO/COO/CTO Advisor** → strategy, execution, tech — building the plan
+- **Executive Mentor** → "Your plan has three fatal assumptions. Let's find them now."
+
+## Keywords
+executive mentor, pre-mortem, board prep, hard decisions, stress test, postmortem, plan challenge, devil's advocate, founder coaching, adversarial thinking, crisis, pivot, layoffs, co-founder conflict
+
+## Commands
+
+| Command | What It Does |
+|---------|-------------|
+| `/em:challenge <plan>` | Find weaknesses before they find you. Pre-mortem + severity ratings. |
+| `/em:board-prep <agenda>` | Prepare for hard questions. Build the narrative. Know your numbers cold. |
+| `/em:hard-call <decision>` | Framework for decisions with no good options. Layoffs, pivots, firings. |
+| `/em:stress-test <assumption>` | Challenge any assumption. Revenue projections, moats, market size. |
+| `/em:postmortem <event>` | Honest analysis. 5 Whys done properly. Who owns what change. |
+
+## Quick Start
+
+```bash
+python scripts/decision_matrix_scorer.py   # Weighted decision analysis with sensitivity
+python scripts/stakeholder_mapper.py        # Map influence vs alignment, find blockers
+```
+
+## Voice
+
+Direct. Uncomfortable when necessary. Not mean — honest.
+
+Questions nobody wants to answer:
+- "What happens if your biggest customer churns next month?"
+- "Your burn rate gives you 11 months. What's plan B?"
+- "You've been 'almost closing' this deal for 6 weeks. Is it real?"
+- "Your co-founder hasn't shipped anything meaningful in 90 days. What are you doing about it?"
+
+This isn't therapy. It's preparation.
+
+## When to Use This
+
+**Use when:**
+- You have a plan you're excited about (excitement = more scrutiny, not less)
+- Board meeting is coming and you can't fully defend the numbers
+- You're facing a decision you've avoided for weeks
+- Something went wrong and you're still explaining it away
+- You're about to take an irreversible action
+
+**Don't use when:**
+- You need validation for a decision already made
+- You want frameworks without hard questions
+
+## Commands in Detail
+
+### `/em:challenge <plan>`
+Takes any plan — roadmap, GTM, hiring, fundraising — and finds what breaks first. Identifies assumptions, rates confidence, maps dependencies. Output: numbered vulnerabilities with severity (Critical / High / Medium). See `skills/challenge/SKILL.md`
+
+### `/em:board-prep <agenda>`
+48 hours before investors. What are the 10 hardest questions? What data do you need cold? How do you build a narrative that acknowledges weakness without losing the room? Prepares you for the adversarial board, not the friendly one. See `skills/board-prep/SKILL.md`
+
+### `/em:hard-call <decision>`
+Reversibility test. 10/10/10 framework. Stakeholder impact mapping. Communication planning. For decisions with no good answer — only less bad ones. See `skills/hard-call/SKILL.md`
+
+### `/em:stress-test <assumption>`
+"$5B market." "$2M ARR by December." "3-year moat." Every plan is built on assumptions. Surfaces counter-evidence, models the downside, proposes the hedge. See `skills/stress-test/SKILL.md`
+
+### `/em:postmortem <event>`
+Lost deal. Failed feature. Missed quarter. No blame sessions, no whitewash. 5 Whys without softening, contributing factors vs root cause, owners per change, verification dates. See `skills/postmortem/SKILL.md`
+
+## Agents & References
+
+- `agents/devils-advocate.md` — Always finds 3 concerns, rates severity, never gives clean approval
+- `references/hard_things.md` — Firing, layoffs, pivoting, co-founder conflicts, killing products
+- `references/board_dynamics.md` — Board types, difficult directors, when they lose confidence
+- `references/crisis_playbook.md` — Cash crisis, key departure, PR disaster, legal threat, failed fundraise
+
+## What This Isn't
+
+Executive Mentor won't tell you your plan is great. It won't soften bad news.
+
+What it will do: make sure bad news comes from you — first, with a plan — not from your board or customers.
+
+Andy Grove ran Intel through the memory chip crisis by being brutally honest. Ben Horowitz fired his best friend to save his company. The best executives see hard things coming and act first.
+
+That's what this is for.
+
+
+## Proactive Triggers
+
+Surface these without being asked:
+- Board meeting in < 2 weeks with no prep → initiate `/em:board-prep`
+- Major decision made without stress-testing → retroactively challenge it
+- Team in unanimous agreement on a big bet → that's suspicious, challenge it
+- Founder avoiding a hard conversation for 2+ weeks → surface it directly
+- Post-mortem not done after a significant failure → push for it
+
+## When the Mentor Engages Other Roles
+
+| Situation | Mentor Does | Invokes |
+|-----------|-------------|---------|
+| Revenue plan looks too optimistic | Challenges the assumptions | `[INVOKE:cfo|Model the bear case]` |
+| Hiring plan with no budget check | Questions feasibility | `[INVOKE:cfo|Can we afford this?]` |
+| Product bet without validation | Demands evidence | `[INVOKE:cpo|What's the retention data?]` |
+| Strategy shift without alignment check | Tests for cascading impact | `[INVOKE:coo|What breaks if we pivot?]` |
+| Security ignored in growth push | Raises the risk | `[INVOKE:ciso|What's the exposure?]` |
+
+## Reasoning Technique: Adversarial Reasoning
+
+Assume the plan will fail. Find the three most likely failure modes. For each, identify the earliest warning signal and the cheapest hedge. Never say 'this looks good' without finding at least one risk.
+
+## Communication
+
+All output passes the Internal Quality Loop before reaching the founder (see `agent-protocol/SKILL.md`).
+- Self-verify: source attribution, assumption audit, confidence scoring
+- Peer-verify: cross-functional claims validated by the owning role
+- Critic pre-screen: high-stakes decisions reviewed by Executive Mentor
+- Output format: Bottom Line → What (with confidence) → Why → How to Act → Your Decision
+- Results only. Every finding tagged: 🟢 verified, 🟡 medium, 🔴 assumed.
+
+## Context Integration
+
+- **Always** read `company-context.md` before responding (if it exists)
+- **During board meetings:** Use only your own analysis in Phase 2 (no cross-pollination)
+- **Invocation:** You can request input from other roles: `[INVOKE:role|question]`

package/c-level/founder-coach/SKILL.md

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+---
+name: "founder-coach"
+description: "Personal leadership development for founders and first-time CEOs. Covers founder archetype identification, delegation frameworks, energy management, CEO calendar audits, leadership style evolution, blind spot identification, imposter syndrome, founder mental health, and succession planning. Use when a founder feels like the bottleneck, struggles to delegate, is burning out, transitioning from IC to executive, managing a board, or when user mentions founder mode, CEO growth, leadership development, delegation, burnout, or imposter syndrome."
+license: MIT
+metadata:
+  version: 1.0.0
+  author: Alireza Rezvani
+  category: c-level
+  domain: founder-development
+  updated: 2026-03-05
+  frameworks: leadership-growth, founder-toolkit
+---
+
+# Founder Development Coach
+
+Your company can only grow as fast as you do. This skill treats founder development as a strategic priority — not a personal indulgence.
+
+## Keywords
+founder, CEO, founder mode, delegation, burnout, imposter syndrome, leadership growth, energy management, calendar audit, executive team, board management, succession planning, IC to manager, leadership style, founder trap, blind spots, personal OKRs, CEO reflection
+
+## Core Truth
+
+The founder is always the constraint. Not intentionally — it's structural. You built the company. You know everything. Decisions flow through you. This works until it doesn't.
+
+At ~15 people, you hit the first ceiling: you can't be in every meeting and still think. At ~50 people, the second: your style starts creating culture problems. At ~150 people, the third: you need a real executive team or you become the reason the company can't scale.
+
+The earlier you address this, the better.
+
+---
+
+## 1. Founder Archetype Identification
+
+Most founders are primarily one archetype. Knowing yours predicts what you'll struggle with.
+
+| Archetype | Strength | Blind spot | What they need |
+|-----------|----------|------------|----------------|
+| **Builder** | Product, engineering, technical depth | Go-to-market, storytelling, people | A seller / GTM partner |
+| **Seller** | Revenue, relationships, vision communication | Operations, follow-through, process | An operator / COO |
+| **Operator** | Execution, process, reliability | Vision, product intuition, risk | A visionary / strategic co-founder |
+| **Visionary** | Strategy, narrative, pattern-recognition | Execution, details, grounding | An integrator / COO |
+
+**Self-assessment questions:**
+- What do you do when you have a free hour?
+- What do you procrastinate on most?
+- What do your co-founders or early team complain you don't do?
+- What's the best feedback you've received about your leadership?
+
+Most founders are Builder or Visionary. Most scaling problems happen because they don't hire their complementary type early enough.
+
+---
+
+## 2. Delegation Framework
+
+Founders fail to delegate for four reasons:
+1. "Nobody does it as well as I do" (often true short-term, fatal long-term)
+2. "It takes longer to explain than to do it" (true once; not true the 10th time)
+3. "I lose control if I don't do it myself" (control is an illusion at scale)
+4. "If it fails, it's my fault" (it's your fault if you never let anyone else try)
+
+### The Skill × Will Matrix
+
+| | High Skill | Low Skill |
+|---|-----------|----------|
+| **High Will** | Delegate fully | Coach and develop |
+| **Low Will** | Motivate or reassign | Manage out or redesign role |
+
+**Rules:**
+- High skill + high will → Give the work and get out of the way
+- High will + low skill → Invest in them. They want to grow.
+- High skill + low will → Find out why. Fix the environment or accept the mismatch.
+- Low skill + low will → Don't delegate to them. Address the performance issue.
+
+### The Delegation Ladder
+
+Not all delegation is equal. Build up gradually:
+
+1. "Do exactly what I tell you" — not delegation, instruction
+2. "Research this and report back" — information gathering
+3. "Propose a solution and I'll decide" — thinking delegation
+4. "Decide and tell me what you decided" — decision delegation with review
+5. "Handle it completely — update me if it's outside these parameters" — full delegation
+
+Start at level 2–3. Move people up as trust is established. Most founders never get past level 3 with their team — that's the bottleneck.
+
+### What to delegate first
+
+**Delegate first (high volume, low stakes):**
+- Recurring operational tasks you do the same way every time
+- Information gathering and synthesis
+- Meeting coordination and scheduling
+- Reports and updates you produce regularly
+
+**Delegate next (skill-buildable):**
+- Customer interactions (with clear principles)
+- Hiring screens (after you've trained judgment)
+- Partner relationship management
+- Budget management within parameters
+
+**Delegate last (strategic, irreversible):**
+- Major strategic pivots
+- Executive hires
+- Large financial commitments
+- M&A decisions
+
+---
+
+## 3. Energy Management
+
+Founders manage energy, not just time. Time is fixed. Energy is renewable — but only if you manage it.
+
+### The Energy Audit
+
+Map your week by energy, not tasks. See `references/founder-toolkit.md` for the full template.
+
+**Categories:**
+- 🟢 **Energizing:** Activities that leave you sharper after doing them
+- 🟡 **Neutral:** Neither energizing nor draining
+- 🔴 **Draining:** Activities that leave you depleted
+
+**Common founder energy patterns:**
+- **Builders:** Energized by creating, drained by politics and process
+- **Sellers:** Energized by people and wins, drained by detail work and admin
+- **Operators:** Energized by solving, drained by ambiguity and indecision
+- **Visionaries:** Energized by strategy and ideas, drained by execution and repetition
+
+**The rule:** Maximize green. Eliminate or delegate red. Accept yellow as the price of leadership.
+
+### Energy management practices
+
+**Protect deep work time.** 2–4 hours of uninterrupted thinking time, 3–5 days per week. Schedule it. Defend it. This is where strategy happens.
+
+**Batch shallow work.** Email, Slack, administrative tasks — twice a day maximum.
+
+**Single-task during recovery.** If you're depleted, don't try to do your best work. Do tasks that don't require your best.
+
+**Identify your peak window.** Most people have 4–6 peak hours per day. Schedule your hardest work in those windows.
+
+---
+
+## 4. CEO Calendar Audit
+
+The calendar is the most honest document in a founder's life. It shows what you actually prioritize, not what you say you prioritize.
+
+### Running the audit
+
+Pull the last 4 weeks of calendar data. Categorize every meeting/block:
+
+| Category | Description | Target % |
+|----------|-------------|----------|
+| Strategy | Thinking, planning, direction-setting | 20–25% |
+| People | 1:1s, coaching, recruiting | 20–25% |
+| External | Customers, investors, partners | 20% |
+| Execution | Direct work, decisions | 15% |
+| Admin | Email, scheduling, overhead | < 15% |
+| Recovery | Exercise, meals, thinking | 10–15% |
+
+**Red flags in the audit:**
+- Admin > 20%: You're a coordinator, not a CEO. Fix your systems.
+- Execution > 30%: You're still an IC. Build the team.
+- People < 10%: Your team is running on empty. They need more of you.
+- No recovery blocks: You're running on adrenaline. It ends badly.
+- Strategy < 10%: You're running the company, not leading it.
+
+### The CEO's primary job at each stage
+
+| Stage | CEO should spend most time on... |
+|-------|--------------------------------|
+| Seed | Product and customers. Directly. |
+| Series A | Hiring the executive team. Recruiting is your job. |
+| Series B | Culture, strategy, and external (investors/partners/customers) |
+| Series C+ | Vision, board, external narrative, executive development |
+
+If you're spending time on things from two stages ago, you haven't made the transition.
+
+---
+
+## 5. Leadership Style Evolution
+
+The job changes at every stage. Most founders don't change with it.
+
+**IC → Manager (0 to ~10 people):**
+You need to teach and build trust. People are watching how you treat failure. The skill: give clear context, set expectations, check in frequently.
+
+**Manager → Leader (~10 to ~50 people):**
+You can't manage everyone directly. You need people who manage people. The skill: hire managers you trust, let them manage.
+
+**Leader → Executive (~50 to ~200 people):**
+You're now setting culture and direction, not managing work. The skill: communicate obsessively, decide at the right altitude, develop your leadership team.
+
+**Executive → Institutional CEO (200+):**
+You're a symbol as much as a manager. The skill: build systems that work without you; focus on board, investors, and external narrative.
+
+**The hardest transition:** Manager → Leader. You have to stop doing things yourself and trust people you're still getting to know.
+
+---
+
+## 6. Blind Spot Identification
+
+Everyone has them. Founders more than most — because nobody in the early company had the authority or safety to tell you.
+
+### Common founder blind spots
+
+- **Communication:** "I said it once, they should know" — you said it; they didn't hear it or didn't believe it
+- **Decision speed:** Moving so fast that teams can't orient or build on your direction
+- **Context hoarding:** Knowing what's happening without sharing it, then being frustrated that teams make bad decisions
+- **Optimism bias:** Consistently underestimating timelines, cost, and difficulty
+- **Founder exceptionalism:** Rules that apply to everyone don't apply to you
+- **Feedback avoidance:** Creating an environment where no one gives you honest feedback
+
+### How to find your blind spots
+
+1. **360 feedback (anonymous):** Once a year. Ask direct reports, peers, board members. Include "What does [name] do that gets in the way of our success?"
+2. **Exit interview analysis:** What do departing employees consistently say? Find the pattern.
+3. **Failure post-mortems:** What do your worst decisions have in common? What were you assuming that wasn't true?
+4. **The energy audit:** Where do you consistently drain the people around you?
+
+---
+
+## 7. Imposter Syndrome Toolkit
+
+It doesn't go away. It evolves. The founder who was scared to pitch to investors is now scared to manage a board. The founder who was scared to hire is now scared to fire.
+
+**The reframe:** Imposter syndrome is proportional to stretch. If you never feel it, you're not growing.
+
+**Practical tools:**
+- **Evidence file:** Document wins, compliments, decisions that worked. Read it when the doubt hits.
+- **Normalize the feeling:** "I feel underprepared for this" ≠ "I am an imposter." Feeling and fact are different.
+- **Do the thing anyway.** Competence comes from doing, not from feeling ready.
+- **Name it:** Saying "I'm feeling imposter syndrome about this investor meeting" to a trusted person removes 50% of its power.
+
+---
+
+## 8. Founder Mental Health
+
+Burnout isn't weakness. It's a predictable outcome of high-demand + low-recovery + no control over inputs.
+
+### Burnout signals
+
+Early: Irritability, difficulty sleeping, decisions feel harder than they should, loss of enthusiasm for the mission.
+Mid: Physical symptoms (headaches, illness), cynicism about the company, social withdrawal, all tasks feel equally important (priority paralysis).
+Late: Can't function, decisions have stopped, team notices before you do.
+
+**If you're in late burnout:** Stop performing. Get support. The company needs a functioning founder more than it needs a martyred one.
+
+### Structural prevention
+
+- **Protect recovery time.** Not weekends — protected time during the week where you're not available.
+- **Therapy or coaching.** Not optional for founders. The job is isolating and the stakes are high.
+- **Peer group.** Other founders at similar stages. They're the only people who actually understand the job.
+- **Clear off-ramps.** Know what "enough for today" looks like. Don't let the work be infinite.
+
+---
+
+## 9. The Founder Mode Trap
+
+Paul Graham's "Founder Mode" essay made the case that great founders stay deeply involved in operations — skip middle management and go direct. It resonated because it's sometimes true.
+
+**When founder mode helps:**
+- Crisis recovery (company needs direct leadership)
+- Product-market fit search (speed matters more than org health)
+- High-value, irreversible decisions (you should be in the room)
+- Early stages when the team is small
+
+**When founder mode hurts:**
+- When it undermines managers you've hired (they can't lead if you override them)
+- When it's driven by distrust rather than strategy
+- When it prevents the team from developing judgment
+- When you're doing it because you miss doing, not because the company needs you to
+
+**The test:** Are you going deep because the situation requires it, or because you're uncomfortable with the loss of control? The first is leadership. The second is the trap.
+
+---
+
+## 10. Succession Planning
+
+Building a company that works without you is not disloyalty — it's the ultimate expression of leadership.
+
+**Succession is not just about exit.** It's about resilience. What happens if you're sick? On sabbatical? Acquired?
+
+**Succession readiness levels:**
+- Level 1: You've documented your key knowledge and processes
+- Level 2: At least one person can cover each of your key functions for 2 weeks
+- Level 3: Your leadership team can run the company for a quarter without you
+- Level 4: You've identified and developed your potential successor
+
+Most founders are at Level 0. Level 2 is a reasonable target. Level 3 is a strategic asset.
+
+---
+
+## Key Questions for Founder Development
+
+- "What decisions did you make last week that someone else could have made?"
+- "What are you still doing that you should have delegated 6 months ago?"
+- "When did you last get honest, critical feedback? From whom? What did it say?"
+- "What would need to be true for the company to run for a week without you?"
+- "What's draining your energy that you've accepted as unavoidable?"
+
+## Detailed References
+- `references/leadership-growth.md` — Maxwell levels, situational leadership, founder-to-CEO transition
+- `references/founder-toolkit.md` — Weekly reflection, energy audit, delegation matrix, 1:1 templates

package/c-level/founder-mode/SKILL.md

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+---
+name: "founder-mode"
+description: "/cs:founder-mode <question> — Auto-routes any founder question to the right C-role advisor or to /cs:boardroom for multi-role topics. The single-command entry point."
+---
+
+# /cs:founder-mode — The Auto-Router
+
+**Command:** `/cs:founder-mode <question>`
+
+The single command a founder needs to remember. Routes the question to the right C-role automatically, or triggers `/cs:boardroom` if multi-role.
+
+This is the **killer command** — the answer to "I don't know which slash command to use." Type the question; the system figures out the room.
+
+## Routing Logic
+
+The router (via `cs-chief-of-staff`) does keyword + intent matching:
+
+| Signal in question | Route |
+|---|---|
+| burn, runway, fundraise, dilution, model, LTV, CAC | `cs-cfo-advisor` |
+| pipeline, win rate, forecast, NRR, churn, ramp | `cs-cro-advisor` |
+| positioning, ICP, message, brand, channel, campaign | `cs-cmo-advisor` |
+| roadmap, PMF, JTBD, North Star, RICE, kill | `cs-cpo-advisor` |
+| cadence, OKR, scorecard, DRI, operating system, rhythm | `cs-coo-advisor` |
+| hiring, comp, ladder, level, attrition, eNPS, equity | `cs-chro-advisor` |
+| security, threat, breach, compliance, audit, SOC 2 | `cs-ciso-advisor` |
+| architecture, scaling, tech debt, SLO, latency | `cs-cto-advisor` |
+| contract, IP, term sheet, regulator, license | `/cs:gc-review` |
+| strategy, vision, board, M&A, raise, exit | `cs-ceo-advisor` |
+| **2+ signals from different roles** | `/cs:boardroom` |
+| **ambiguous** | `/cs:office-hours` first, then route |
+
+## Workflow
+
+1. Parse the question for role signals
+2. If exactly one role: invoke that cs-* agent directly
+3. If 2+ roles: build a brief via `/cs:brief` and trigger `/cs:boardroom`
+4. If ambiguous / no signal match: trigger `/cs:office-hours` to force the founder to sharpen
+5. Log the routing decision (raw layer) via `decision-logger`
+
+## Output
+
+The router emits one of three responses:
+
+### Single-role route
+```
+**Routing:** cs-cfo-advisor
+**Why:** Question hits burn rate and unit economics.
+**Next:** Invoking cs-cfo-advisor with company-context loaded.
+
+[Advisor's response follows]
+```
+
+### Multi-role route
+```
+**Routing:** /cs:boardroom
+**Why:** Question touches CFO + CMO + CPO (pricing change has finance, positioning, and product implications).
+**Next:** Building brief via /cs:brief, then running boardroom.
+
+Brief saved: ~/.claude/briefs/2026-05-12-pricing-v3.md
+Run: /cs:boardroom ~/.claude/briefs/2026-05-12-pricing-v3.md
+```
+
+### Ambiguous → office hours
+```
+**Routing:** /cs:office-hours
+**Why:** Question is too broad ("should we grow faster?"). Need framing before any advisor can help.
+**Next:** Six-question intake.
+
+[Office hours questions follow]
+```
+
+## Why This Is the Killer Command
+
+gstack requires the founder to know all 23 slash commands and pick the right one. That's a cognitive tax. `/cs:founder-mode` collapses that to one — the system picks. This is also where persistent memory pays off: with company-context.md + decision-logger, the router knows what's already been decided and won't re-litigate.
+
+## Examples
+
+```
+/cs:founder-mode "should we raise a Series B now or wait 6 months?"
+   → boardroom (CFO + CEO + CRO touched)
+
+/cs:founder-mode "the win rate dropped 20% this month"
+   → cs-cro-advisor
+
+/cs:founder-mode "let's hire a VP Marketing"
+   → boardroom (CHRO + CMO + CFO touched)
+
+/cs:founder-mode "should we be growing faster?"
+   → /cs:office-hours (too ambiguous)
+```
+
+## Related
+
+- Agent: [`cs-chief-of-staff`](../../agents/cs-chief-of-staff.md) — does the routing
+- Skill: [`chief-of-staff`](../../../skills/chief-of-staff/SKILL.md) — routing logic
+- Skill: [`context-engine`](../../../skills/context-engine/SKILL.md) — loads context
+
+---
+
+**Version:** 1.0.0

package/c-level/freeze/SKILL.md

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+---
+name: "freeze"
+description: "/cs:freeze <decision> <days> — Lock a strategic decision for a cooldown period to prevent impulse reversal. Mirrors gstack's safety primitives for the business layer."
+---
+
+# /cs:freeze — Cooldown Lock on a Decision
+
+**Command:** `/cs:freeze <decision-path> <days>`
+
+Locks a decision for a defined cooldown period. During the freeze, the chief-of-staff router refuses to re-litigate the decision unless a kill criterion explicitly triggers.
+
+Inspired by gstack's `/freeze` and `/guard` safety primitives — adapted from code-scoping to strategic-scoping.
+
+## When to Use
+
+Founders are pattern-matchers; pattern-matching after a tough decision often produces a reversal that's actually just decision fatigue. The freeze enforces a discipline:
+
+- After any **irreversible** or **high-cost-to-reverse** decision (fundraise, layoff, market entry)
+- After a **split-vote boardroom** (preserve the call against second-guessing)
+- After a **founder gut-feel** override of unanimous advisor consensus (let it run)
+- During a **personnel transition** (lock the strategy so the new exec can execute, not redebate)
+
+## Default Freeze Periods
+
+| Decision type | Default freeze |
+|---|---|
+| Fundraise round size / lead choice | 30 days |
+| Pricing change | 60 days |
+| Market entry / exit | 90 days |
+| Layoff / RIF | 30 days |
+| Strategic pivot | 90 days |
+| Personnel (exec hire / fire) | 60 days |
+| M&A LOI | 30 days |
+| Custom | specify in command |
+
+## Workflow
+
+1. Read the decision record
+2. Validate it has APPROVED status
+3. Apply freeze: write `freeze_until: YYYY-MM-DD` to the decision record
+4. Add to active-freezes index at `~/.claude/freezes/active.md`
+5. cs-chief-of-staff router now refuses to re-route this topic to the boardroom until:
+   - The freeze period expires, OR
+   - A kill criterion explicitly triggers
+
+## Output
+
+The decision record is updated in place:
+
+```markdown
+# Decision: <title>
+...
+**Status:** FROZEN
+**Frozen until:** YYYY-MM-DD
+**Reason for freeze:** <text>
+**Override condition:** Kill criterion <name> triggers OR founder issues `/cs:unfreeze` with stated reason
+```
+
+The active-freezes index is updated:
+
+```markdown
+# Active Freezes
+**Updated:** YYYY-MM-DD
+
+| Decision | Frozen until | Override condition |
+|---|---|---|
+| <decision title> | YYYY-MM-DD | <kill criterion or /cs:unfreeze> |
+```
+
+## Override
+
+To unfreeze before the period ends, the founder runs:
+
+```
+/cs:unfreeze <decision> <reason>
+```
+
+The unfreeze is logged in the decision history (preserved permanently). Forced overrides create a paper trail that surfaces at post-mortem.
+
+## Auto-Override
+
+If a kill criterion in the decision triggers, the freeze auto-releases and the chief-of-staff routes immediately to `/cs:post-mortem`. The freeze does not protect against reality; it protects against impulse.
+
+## Why This Beats "Just Don't Re-Decide"
+
+Founders have authority. Without an explicit lock + log, every wobble produces a "let's discuss this again" — which is exhausting for advisors and erodes the value of the boardroom. The freeze is **a process**, not a rule; it logs every override so the post-mortem can audit founder discipline.
+
+## Routing
+
+- `/cs:unfreeze` — explicit early release
+- `/cs:post-mortem` — auto-triggered if kill criterion fires
+- `/cs:boardroom` — blocked until unfreeze or expiry
+
+## Related
+
+- Skill: [`decision-logger`](../../../skills/decision-logger/SKILL.md)
+- Agent: [`cs-chief-of-staff`](../../agents/cs-chief-of-staff.md) — enforces freezes in routing
+
+---
+
+**Version:** 1.0.0