How to use the International Expansion Planner agent skill

What the International Expansion skill makes the agent do

The skill is a reference framework for planning international hiring. Once loaded, the agent asks a single block of intake questions covering the country, roles, planned headcount in the next 12 months, start timing, existing legal entity or EOR use, tax and finance involvement, outside counsel, and the executive sponsor.

From those answers it frames the choice between using an Employer of Record (EOR) and setting up a legal entity, without making the decision itself. It flags permanent establishment (PE) risk for sales, business development, account management and any role that can negotiate or sign contracts, and routes that to tax counsel. It drafts specific questions for finance, tax, HR and outside counsel, produces a briefing request for outside counsel and keeps a persistent gap tracker across sessions.

• Assumes the expansion is already decided; it is not a 'should we expand?' tool.
• Contains no country-specific employment law. Each country goes to an outside-counsel briefing.

Install the skill from the ZIP or the Claude apps

Download the ZIP for this skill from this page and unzip it. The skill's files include SKILL.md. You can put the skill in one of two locations: your personal skills folder at ~/.claude/skills/, or a project's .claude/skills/ folder if you want it available only within that project.

If you use the Claude apps instead, open Settings, go to Capabilities, and upload the skill under Skills.

• Personal install: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
• Project install: unzip into the project's .claude/skills/ folder
• Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload

Set up the claude-for-legal configuration it expects

The skill reads context from a claude-for-legal plugin configuration. It expects CLAUDE.md files in ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/. The skill reads the practice-level CLAUDE.md for the jurisdictional footprint, escalation table and any existing expansion notes, and the output header from its Outputs section.

Matter tracking is optional. If your practice-level CLAUDE.md has matter workspaces enabled, the skill will ask which matter the work is for and write outputs to a matter folder under the same employment-legal directory. If matter workspaces are off, which is the default for in-house users, the skill uses practice-level context only.

Trigger the skill with the expansion commands

You do not invoke this skill directly, because its metadata marks it as not user-invocable. It loads when the expansion kickoff or update commands run. The source names /expansion-kickoff and /expansion-update as those commands. Start with the kickoff command when planning a new country and use the update command when returning to an existing expansion.

The skill's intake step asks you to answer in one block and waits for your responses before building the plan. Answer what you can; the source notes that gaps in the answers are themselves useful data.

• Start a new country: run /expansion-kickoff
• Return to an existing expansion: run /expansion-update

Work through the outputs: framing, questions and the gap tracker

The EOR vs. entity framing is a structured table of factors such as headcount in 12 months, timeline to first hire, strategic commitment, cost sensitivity, control needs and IP sensitivity. Specific break-even points, markups, setup costs and timelines are not hardcoded; the skill routes them to tax, finance and the EOR provider.

Each function gets an explicit set of questions to ask. Tax counsel is required before the first hire. Finance and payroll are required before the first paycheck. HR and Total Rewards are required before an offer is made. Outside counsel is required and should not be skipped. The gap tracker records open items so the project continues across sessions.

• Use the PE risk flag as a prompt for tax counsel, not a conclusion.
• Send the outside-counsel briefing request to counsel who knows the country.
• Review the gap tracker at each /expansion-update.

Safety notes: scripts and network access

According to the skill's listing, it runs no scripts and uses no network access. It is a set of instructions in SKILL.md that shape how the agent plans and writes. Outputs are written to your matter folder only when matter tracking is enabled. The skill states it reads another matter's files only if cross-matter context is switched on.

Treat its outputs as planning material. It does not provide current employment rules for any country, so anything involving legal requirements must be confirmed by outside counsel.

• No scripts are run by the skill.
• No network use is listed for the skill.
• Cross-matter reads happen only when that setting is on.