Guide · Agent skill
How to use the office-hours founder interrogation agent skill
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
The office-hours skill is a set of instructions that makes your AI agent stop and ask a founder six structured questions before it gives any strategy advice. It is modeled on YC office hours and is meant for vague or exciting ideas that need pressure-testing before money is spent. After this guide you will know what the skill does, how to install it, how to trigger it with a natural request, and when to use something else.
Founder Six-Question Interrogationalirezarezvani/claude-skills · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Download the ZIP. Get the office-hours skill ZIP from the directory page.
- 2Unzip into a skills folder. Extract it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into .claude/skills/ inside a project.
- 3Or upload in the Claude apps. In the Claude apps, go to Settings → Capabilities → Skills and upload the ZIP.
- 4Start with a vague question. Run /c-level-agents:office-hours with your topic, such as a question that is too vague to route.
- 5Answer all six questions in writing. The agent withholds advice until you answer Problem, Customer, Distribution, Defensibility, Capital and Founder Fit.
- 6Read the brief and rating. Check the one-page brief and whether it is green, yellow or red.
- 7Route the result. If green, continue with /c-level-agents:brief and /c-level-agents:boardroom, or a single cs-* review for one role.
What the office-hours skill makes the agent do
When the skill runs, the agent asks the founder six questions: Problem, Customer, Distribution, Defensibility, Capital and Founder Fit. The founder must answer all six in writing before any advice is offered. The source describes this as a cognitive forcing function that prevents jumping straight to solutions.
After the answers are in, the skill produces a one-page brief that quotes the founder's answers under each heading. It then rates the idea green, yellow or red. Green means the brief can go to the boardroom command, yellow means a named question needs sharpening, and red means kill or redefine the idea.
The skill is a thinking discipline written as a prompt. It does not query data, call external services or run code.
Install the office-hours skill
The skill is distributed as a ZIP file from the directory page. You can install it in one of two ways.
For Claude Code, unzip the download into your user skills folder ~/.claude/skills/, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder if you want it limited to one project.
In the Claude apps, open Settings, go to Capabilities, then Skills, and upload the ZIP.
- Personal install: ~/.claude/skills/
- Project install: .claude/skills/ inside your project
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP
Trigger the skill with a request
You can call the command directly as /c-level-agents:office-hours followed by a topic. The source also says the skill is meant to run when a founder question is too vague to route, for example 'should we grow faster?', and before drafting a strategy brief.
Because the skill uses the c-level-agents command set, the command form is the most reliable trigger. Plain-language requests that describe a vague founder question can also prompt the agent to use it.
/c-level-agents:office-hours <topic>Examples of when to run it
Use the skill before a major initiative, before fundraising, before a strategic pivot, when you feel excited about an idea, or when the answer seems obvious. The source notes that excitement is a reason to pressure-test and that an obvious answer is often wrong.
Walk through each question in writing. A useful answer to Customer names one real person or company who would buy today. A weak answer to Distribution is 'we'll figure out marketing later', which the source treats as a no.
- Before raising a round, to check whether the customer and capital answers hold up
- Before starting a new product line, to test defensibility
- When a co-founder's idea is exciting but the problem statement is still vague
What the skill needs and its safety notes
The skill requires Claude Code or a SKILL.md-compatible agent with the c-level-agents command set installed. Its routing steps rely on the related commands /c-level-agents:brief and /c-level-agents:boardroom and on the cs-* advisor skills.
The source states that the skill runs no scripts and uses no network access. It is a SKILL.md prompt file only, so there are no scripts to review before you install it.
- Runs scripts: no
- Uses network: no
- Files: SKILL.md
Tips for getting useful output
Write answers in the founder's own words where possible, because the Problem question asks for how customers describe the problem, not your framing. If you cannot quote a customer, the source says the problem may not be worth solving yet.
If the assessment comes back yellow, revise only the question it names and run the skill again. If it comes back red, redefine the idea rather than proceeding.
- Use real names and figures for Customer and Capital
- Avoid answers like 'we'll execute better' for Defensibility, which the source rejects
- Hand a green brief to /c-level-agents:brief and then /c-level-agents:boardroom for multi-role discussion
What people use it for
- Testing whether a vague growth question like 'should we grow faster?' is ready for strategy work
- Preparing a one-page strategy brief before a fundraising conversation
- Giving an advisory team a structured intake step before multi-role discussion
- Checking a new product idea for a clear customer and distribution channel before spending money
Frequently asked questions
Is the office-hours skill free?
The source lists the skill under an MIT licence, which is shown on the item listing. It does not state any price, so check the directory page for current terms.
What do I need to run the office-hours skill?
You need Claude Code or a SKILL.md-compatible agent with the c-level-agents command set installed. The routing steps also use /c-level-agents:brief, /c-level-agents:boardroom and the cs-* advisor skills.
Where do I install the office-hours skill?
Unzip the downloaded ZIP into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder. In the Claude apps, upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
Does the office-hours skill run scripts or use the internet?
The source says it runs no scripts and uses no network. It consists of a single SKILL.md file.
Why won't the agent just answer my question?
The skill deliberately withholds advice until all six questions are answered in writing. The source says this is to prevent drift into solutionism and to surface weak framing early.
How is this different from /c-level-agents:brief or /c-level-agents:boardroom?
Office-hours gathers and checks the founder's six answers and rates them. Brief turns the answers into a one-page strategy brief, and boardroom runs multi-role deliberation on that output.
New agent skills, repos and AI tools — every week
The best new skills and open-source projects, the fastest-growing repos, and one free prompt. Five minutes to read. Unsubscribe anytime.
Our verdict
Use office-hours if you are a founder or advisor with a vague idea and want it challenged in writing before spending money or drafting a strategy brief. Skip it for routine tasks, quick factual questions, non-business decisions, or when you simply want a direct answer, because the skill is built to hold back advice until the six questions are answered.
Download the skill