When you have a decision to make and want a structured workflow that picks the load-bearing questions, walks through them, reaches a call (or "wait"), and archives the rationale for future reference. Based on the 37signals Guide to Making Decisions (38 questions) plus house additions like Q39 opport

/decide — Structured decision workflow + archive Picks load bearing questions from the 37signals guide, walks through them, reaches a call, archives the rationale with a revisit date. Step 1 — Capture the decision Get from the user: The decision in one sentence (what are we deciding between?) Stakes : low / medium / high (how much does this matter?) Reversibility : easy / hard / one way door Deadline : when does this need to be decided? Or "open"? Context (optional, 1–3 sentences) If any are missing, ask. Don't proceed with vague framing. Step 2 — Triage the question set Read references/questions.md for the full set (the 37signals 38 + house additions, e.g. Q39 opportunity cost) and category mapping. Pick 6–8 based on the decision's characteristics: Default 5 (always ask): Q1 — Does this decision actually need to be made? Q2 — Is the right person making this decision? Q8 — How easily can we reverse it? Q9 — First instinct? (capture before "thinking" muddies it) Q3 — A year from now, how will we feel about this? Add based on type: If… Add Reversibility = hard / one way door Q14 (is there a wrong decision?), Q17 (knock on effects), Q34 (principles bent) Time pressure Q5 (why hesitating?), Q15 (different tomorrow?), Q22 (when do we have to decide?) Multiple people involved Q21 (someone else's practice rep?), Q27 (would another opinion help?), Q35 (multiple people deciding what one should?) Lots of data / analysis Q19 (what missing info would change it?), Q26 (data vs gut?), Q9 deepened Recurring decision Q11 (last time?), Q23 (one and done or repeating?) Customer facing Q24 (anyone outside depending?), Q25 (customer vs us impact?) Money decision Q38 (in the end, is this about money?), Q36 (return on effort?), Q39 (what does yes displace?) Big time / focus commitment Q39 (opportunity cost), Q36 (return on effort?), Q20 (creates or eliminates work?) Stuck / not deciding Q4 (why hasn't it been made already?), Q10 (what if we don't decide?), Q31 (do you even care?) Cap at ~8 questions. More than that turns into analysis paralysis (which is itself one of the things this skill exists to prevent). Tell the user which questions you picked and why, then proceed. Step 3 — Walk through Ask the questions one at a time, or in a tight cluster if the user wants to write fast. Capture their answers verbatim — don't paraphrase into corporate speak. For Q9 (first instinct), get the answer BEFORE diving into analysis. The point is to surface the gut call so we can later check if "analysis" was just rationalization. Step 4 — Reach a call Synthesize the answers into a decision. Options: Decide now — answers point to a clear call Decide smaller — break into 2–3 smaller decisions (Q7) Wait — flag what info / time would change the answer (Q19, Q15) Don't decide — the decision doesn't need to be made (Q1, Q10) Wrong person — kick to the right decider (Q2, Q35) State the call clearly. No hedging. Step 5 — Set the revisit Pick a revisit date based on when consequences would show up: Decisions about tools/processes: 30 days Decisions about strategy/positioning: 90 days Decisions about hires/partnerships: 90–180 days Decisions about products/launches: 30–60 days post launch Write what to look for on the revisit ("did MRR move? did the partner ship? do clients still ask for X?"). Step 6 — Archive Archives live in ${MAKERSKILLS CONFIG: $HOME/.config/makerskills}/decide/archive/ (create the directory if missing). Never write archives inside the skill's own folder — skill installs and upgrades re sync from source and wipe anything saved there. Migration: if this skill's folder contains an old references/decisions archive/ with user entries, move those files into the archive directory before writing anything new. Write to <archive dir /<YYYY MM DD <slug .md : Append to <archive dir /INDEX.md (create if missing): Step 7 — Surface Show the archive entry in chat. Tell the user the archive path. Offer: "Want me to schedule a /loop reminder for the revisit date?" (would use the loop skill to fire at the right time) "Push to Notion as a decision card?" "Need a follow up decision after this one?" Future enhancements Auto create a calendar event or cron reminder for the revisit (via compound engineering:schedule ) Composable with business brainstorm — brainstorm scores the idea on 9 dimensions; decide formalizes the go/no go after Grep past decisions for patterns ("show me decisions I made that were marked 'easy reverse' but didn't reverse") Composes with business brainstorm — brainstorm → decide is a natural pipeline for "should I build X" deep research — when a decision is waiting on info (Q19), trigger research first Memory — load feedback .md for principles that might be at play (Q34) loop / compound engineering:schedule — for revisit reminders Notes on quality Don't ask all 38. The point of triage is to skip questions that don't apply. Eight relevant questions thirty eight padded ones. Don't soften the call. "Probably yes, lean toward, maybe should" wastes the skill. Pick. The first instinct (Q9) is sacred. Always capture it before analysis. If the final call differs from the first instinct, the rationale needs to explain why — that's the whole point of the question. Archive every decision, even small ones. The compounding value comes from being able to grep "what did I decide about pricing last year" — and that requires writing them down even when they feel obvious in the moment.