How to use the Board Meeting Prep agent skill (board-prep)

What is an agent skill and what does board-prep do?

An agent skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file that tells an AI agent how to handle a specific kind of task. When the skill is installed, the agent can load these instructions when your request matches the skill's description.

The board-prep skill focuses on adversarial preparation. It is built on the premise that your board has seen many companies and will ask the hard questions, so the aim is to be ready for them rather than hope they do not come up.

• Numbers cold: a checklist of metrics you should know without looking, such as MRR or ARR and growth rate, burn and runway, churn, CAC and LTV, net revenue retention, pipeline, gross and net margin, and open hiring positions.
• Hard questions: for each agenda item, the adversarial version of the question a skeptical director might ask, grouped by revenue, runway, product, team and competition.
• Narrative: a five-part structure (where we are, what we learned, what we got wrong, what we are doing, what we need from the room).
• Director-by-director prep: what each type of director is likely to care about.
• Checklists: pre-meeting (48 hours before and day of), in-meeting observations, and an after-meeting follow-up list.

How do you install the board-prep skill?

You can install the skill in either of two ways. Download the ZIP file from the skill's page on this site and unzip it into one of these locations:

• Personal skills folder: ~/.claude/skills/
• Project skills folder: .claude/skills/ inside your project directory
• Or upload the skill in the Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills

How do you trigger the skill with a natural request?

The skill's description covers preparing for a board meeting, an investor update, a fundraising presentation, or any high-stakes adversarial review. You can therefore ask for help in ordinary language that matches those situations. The source also documents a command form, /em:board-prep <agenda>, where the agenda is the list of items you will cover.

• "Help me prepare for next month's board meeting. Agenda: revenue miss, hiring plan, runway."
• "I have an investor update next week. Pressure-test my numbers and the questions I should expect."
• "Run a mock board meeting. Play the hardest director I have, who cares most about burn."
• "Prepare me for a fundraising presentation to a skeptical partner."

What should you expect the skill to produce?

Expect a preparation package rather than a finished deck. The skill is text-based and works from what you give it. Typical outputs follow the framework in its source: a list of numbers to memorise, the hard questions for each agenda item, a narrative outline, director-specific notes, and a checklist.

Run a mock board meeting by having someone play the hardest director you have. Present as you normally would, answer without referring to the deck, then note every question that made you pause or feel defensive. Those are the questions to prepare for.

What does the skill need and what are its limits?

The source lists no required dependencies. The skill does not run scripts and does not use the network. It is a prompt-based framework, so it does not do the work of checking your data.

• It does not calculate metrics such as burn, runway, churn or CAC/LTV from your raw data.
• It does not check your figures against source systems. The checklist asks you to do that yourself.
• It does not replace legal, governance or fiduciary advice on board matters.

Safety notes: scripts and network access

According to the source, board-prep runs no scripts and uses no network connection. Its only listed file is SKILL.md. Because it is plain instructions, the main risk is over-trusting its output. Treat the questions and narrative as a starting point and verify every number yourself before the meeting.

Tips for getting more from board-prep

The skill is most useful when you bring accurate, specific inputs and use its checklists to find gaps in your preparation.

• Verify all numbers against source systems, not last week's export, before you rehearse.
• Rehearse your three hardest expected questions out loud.
• Send the board bad news early, for example a short email three days before the meeting, so they are not surprised.
• Name the hard thing before they raise it.
• Schedule one-on-ones with any director likely to have concerns.
• Send action items with owners and dates within 24 hours after the meeting.