Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Founder Question Auto-Router agent skill
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
founder-mode is an agent skill for Claude Code and compatible agent environments that takes a strategic business question and sends it to the right chief-officer advisor, such as a CFO, CRO or CCO, or to a multi-role boardroom workflow. This guide explains what an agent skill is, how to install this one, how to trigger it with plain requests, and what it depends on. By the end you will know when to use it and what to check before relying on its answers.
Founder Question Auto-Routeralirezarezvani/claude-skills · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Confirm the prerequisites. Check that the c-level-agents plugin, its cs-* advisor agents, and the boardroom, brief and office-hours commands are installed, along with chief-of-staff, context-engine and decision-logger. Without them the routing has nothing to route to.
- 2Download the skill ZIP. Get the founder-mode ZIP file from this page and keep it somewhere you can find it.
- 3Unzip into a skills folder. Unzip the file into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into .claude/skills/ in a project folder to limit it to that project.
- 4Or upload it in the Claude apps. If you use the Claude apps, go to Settings → Capabilities → Skills and upload the ZIP.
- 5Ask a strategic question. Run /c-level-agents:founder-mode with your question in quotes, using concrete terms and numbers where you can.
- 6Read the routing line. Check the Routing and Why lines to confirm the question went to the role you expected.
- 7Follow the next step. Let the advisor answer, run the boardroom with the brief it saved, or answer the office-hours questions to sharpen the question.
What is an agent skill, and what does founder-mode do?
An agent skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file that tells an AI agent how to handle a certain kind of task. When the skill is installed, the agent can load these instructions when a request matches the skill's description.
founder-mode is the entry point of the c-level-agents toolkit. You type a strategic question, and the skill parses it for role signals. If one role fits, it invokes that role's advisor agent directly. If several roles are involved, it builds a brief and runs the /c-level-agents:boardroom command. If the question is too vague, it first runs /c-level-agents:office-hours to sharpen it.
- Single role: the router names the advisor, gives a short reason, and then the advisor answers.
- Multiple roles: the router builds a brief with /c-level-agents:brief and hands it to the boardroom.
- Ambiguous: the router runs a short office-hours intake before routing.
- Every routing decision is logged through the decision-logger component.
How does the routing work?
The router uses keyword and intent matching. It looks for signal words in your question and maps them to a role. The source file lists the signals for each role, for example burn, runway, fundraise, dilution, LTV and CAC map to the CFO advisor, while churn, GRR, NRR and renewals map to the CCO advisor.
If a question contains signals from two or more different roles, it goes to the boardroom. If no signal matches, it goes to office hours. Because matching is keyword-based, the wording of your question affects where it lands.
- CFO (cs-cfo-advisor): burn, runway, fundraise, dilution, model, LTV, CAC
- CRO (cs-cro-advisor): pipeline, win rate, forecast, quota, ramp, sales motion
- CMO (cs-cmo-advisor): positioning, ICP, message, brand, channel, campaign
- CCO (cs-cco-advisor): retention, GRR, NRR, churn, customer success, renewals
- CISO (cs-ciso-advisor): security, threat, breach, compliance, audit, SOC 2
- CHRO (cs-chro-advisor): hiring, comp, ladder, level, attrition, eNPS, equity
- Other roles cover product, operations, technology, legal, data, AI and engineering delivery, plus the CEO for strategy, vision, board, M&A, raise and exit
How do you install founder-mode?
Download the ZIP file for the skill from this page. Unzip it so that the skill folder containing SKILL.md sits in one of two places: your personal skills folder at ~/.claude/skills/, or a project's .claude/skills/ folder if you want the skill limited to one project.
If you use the Claude apps instead of Claude Code, you can upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
- Personal install: ~/.claude/skills/
- Project install: .claude/skills/ inside your project folder
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP
What do you need before it works?
The skill is a router, so it depends on other parts of the c-level-agents plugin. The source file references these components but does not include them in the single file reviewed here, so you need them installed for the skill to route anywhere useful.
The required pieces are the cs-* advisor agents, the boardroom, brief and office-hours commands, and the chief-of-staff, context-engine and decision-logger components. You also need Claude Code or a compatible agent environment with the plugin installed.
- The c-level-agents plugin with its cs-* advisor agents
- Commands: boardroom, brief, office-hours
- Components: chief-of-staff, context-engine, decision-logger
- Claude Code or a compatible agent environment with the plugin installed
How do you trigger founder-mode with a natural request?
You can call the command directly with a question in quotes. The skill is also described as useful when a founder asks a strategic question without knowing which advisor or command fits, so the core habit is to type the question you actually have rather than hunting for the right command.
Write the question in terms of the problem. Words such as burn, churn, hiring or security give the router clear signals. Vague questions are sent to office hours first, so adding a concrete number, time period or metric usually gets you to an answer faster.
- Use the command form: /c-level-agents:founder-mode "your question"
- Include the metric that moved, for example a percentage change or a time period
- Name the function if you know it, such as pipeline or retention
/c-level-agents:founder-mode "the win rate dropped 20% this month"What do the outputs look like?
The router returns one of three responses. A single-role route shows the chosen advisor, the reason for the choice, and the next step, followed by the advisor's answer. A multi-role route names the boardroom, explains which roles are touched, and points to a brief file to run. An ambiguous route names the office-hours command and starts a short set of framing questions.
The source's example multi-role output shows a brief saved under ~/.claude/briefs/ and a boardroom command that reads it. Treat that as an illustration of the format rather than a fixed path you will always see.
- Single-role: Routing, Why, Next, then the advisor response
- Multi-role: Routing set to the boardroom, Why lists the roles, and a brief file is saved
- Ambiguous: Routing set to office-hours, followed by framing questions
What are the safety notes?
The skill does not run scripts and does not use the network, according to the review of the file. It does write a record of each routing decision through the decision-logger component, and the multi-role path saves a brief file.
The advice itself comes from the AI advisor roles. The routing is keyword-based, so it can send a question to a role that is not the best fit. For financial, legal or security decisions with real consequences, have a qualified professional check the output before acting on it.
- No scripts are run by this skill
- No network use
- Routing decisions are logged, and multi-role runs save a brief file
- Do not treat advisor output as a verified financial, legal or security opinion
What people use it for
- Asking why the win rate dropped and getting routed to the CRO advisor
- Checking whether gross retention changes point to a customer success problem handled by the CCO advisor
- Deciding whether to raise a round now or later, which the router sends to the boardroom because several roles are involved
- Planning a senior hire, such as a VP of Marketing, where the boardroom combines people, marketing and finance views
- Clarifying a vague goal like should we grow faster by passing it through office hours first
Frequently asked questions
Is the founder-mode skill free to use?
The item is listed under the MIT licence. Check the repository's licence file for the exact terms before you use or redistribute it. The source does not state any price.
How do I install founder-mode?
Download the ZIP from this page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into .claude/skills/ in a project. In the Claude apps, you can instead upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
What does founder-mode require to work?
It needs the c-level-agents plugin with its cs-* advisor agents, the boardroom, brief and office-hours commands, and the chief-of-staff, context-engine and decision-logger components. It also needs Claude Code or a compatible agent environment. The skill file alone is not enough.
Why did my question go to the wrong advisor?
Routing is keyword-based, so the words in your question drive the choice. Rephrase it with the specific signal terms for the function you mean, such as churn for retention or runway for finance. If it still misroutes, call the advisor command directly.
What is the difference between founder-mode and calling an advisor directly?
founder-mode picks the advisor for you and explains why. Calling an advisor directly skips the routing step and is useful when you already know which function the question belongs to. The source does not compare them on quality or speed.
Does founder-mode send my data over the network?
The review of the file states that it does not use the network and does not run scripts. It does log routing decisions through decision-logger and saves a brief file on multi-role routes.
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Our verdict
Use founder-mode if you are a founder or small team that already has the c-level-agents plugin set and wants one command instead of memorising many specialist commands. Pick something else if you need a verified financial, legal or security opinion, or if you cannot install the sibling advisor, command and component files, since the routing depends on them.
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