Skill: stedmanhalliday/comms-md (version 1.0.1)

--- name: comms-md description: "Create a COMMS.md — a structured, queryable document expressing someone's communication preferences for humans and agents. Use when: (1) someone wants to articulate how they communicate (style, channels, rhythms, tone), (2) someone wants a document other people's agents can read before reaching out, (3) someone says 'comms.md' or asks about communication preferences documents." metadata: openclaw: version: "1.0.0" author: "stedman" related: - comms-md-reader --- # COMMS.md Creator Generate a structured communication preferences document through guided conversation. ## What COMMS.md Is A queryable personal document that expresses how someone communicates: their natural style, channel preferences, availability rhythms, async voice, and interaction protocols. Designed to be read by both humans and agents before initiating contact. ## Workflow ### 1. Orient Explain the concept briefly: > "A COMMS.md is a structured doc that captures how you communicate — your style, when you're available, which channels you prefer, how you write in different contexts. Think of it as a user manual for reaching you. Other people (or their agents) can reference it before getting in touch." ### 2. Interview Walk through these areas conversationally. Don't dump all questions at once — do 2-3 per turn, adapt based on answers, skip what's clearly not relevant. **Style & strengths** (start here — it's introspective and sets the tone): - What comes naturally when you communicate? (e.g. brevity, storytelling, humor, directness) - What requires effort? (e.g. small talk, follow-through, emotional labor, context-switching) - Where does communication break down for you? **Collaboration model:** - What kind of people do you work best with? - How do you prefer to set up working relationships? **Weekly rhythm:** - Walk through their week: energy, availability windows, protected time - Which days are meeting-heavy? Which are deep work? **Sync philosophy:** - What are calls for? What are they NOT for? - How tactical vs. strategic do calls get? **Channel preferences:** - For each situation type (urgent, professional, casual, etc.): what channel, what timing? - Role of email vs. text vs. voice notes vs. calls? - How does closeness change channel choice? - Notification habits, response triage, focus mode patterns **Async voice** (this section often needs the most drawing out): - How do they write to close friends vs. professional contacts? - Capitalization, punctuation, emoji habits? - What do they never do in writing? (anti-patterns) - How do they handle outreach to new people? Re-engaging after silence? - Do they have a gap between how competent they are and how warm they read? How do they bridge it? **Boundaries:** - What's the fastest way to annoy them? - What should people never do? ### 3. Draft Read `references/comms-template.md` for the output structure. Generate the COMMS.md using the template, filling in sections from the interview. Use the person's own words and phrasing where possible. For reference on what a completed COMMS.md looks like, see `references/example.md`. ### 4. Review and Iterate Present the draft and ask what feels off, what's missing, what's too specific or too vague. Expect 1-2 revision rounds. Common adjustments: - Tone too formal or too casual for how they actually talk - Missing a channel or context they care about - Weekly rhythm needs more nuance - Anti-patterns section needs real examples ### 5. Place the Document Ask where they want it saved. Common locations: - Personal website (for public/professional use) - Notes app or vault (Obsidian, Notion, etc.) - Workspace docs (for team use) ## Related Skills - **comms-md-reader** — the companion skill for reading and adapting to someone else's COMMS.md when drafting outreach ## Guidelines - **Use their voice.** The doc should sound like them, not like a template. Mirror their register. - **Earn specificity.** Generic preferences ("I prefer email for professional stuff") are less useful than specific ones ("Email for intros beyond close friends and anything they'll need to find later"). - **Skip irrelevant sections.** Not everyone has a weekly rhythm to document or sync philosophy to articulate. Leave out what doesn't apply rather than filling with filler. - **The Async Voice section is the highest-value section for agent consumption.** Spend extra time here. This is what another agent reads to calibrate tone when drafting a message to this person. - **Version the output.** Include `Version 0.1` at the bottom so they can track iterations.

path: README.md
content: # COMMS.md Creator

Create a structured communication preferences document through guided conversation.

A COMMS.md captures how someone communicates: style, channel preferences, availability rhythms, async voice, and interaction protocols. Designed to be read by both humans and agents before initiating contact.

## What it does

- Guides an interactive interview covering style, collaboration model, weekly rhythm, sync philosophy, channel preferences, async voice, and boundaries
- Generates a structured, queryable document using the person's own words
- Includes a template and example for reference

## When to use it

- Someone wants to articulate how they communicate
- Someone wants a document other people's agents can read before reaching out
- Someone says "COMMS.md" or asks about communication preferences

## Related

- **comms-md-reader** — read and adapt to someone else's COMMS.md when drafting messages


path: references/comms-template.md
content: # COMMS.md Template

> A queryable document expressing communication preferences for humans and agents.

---

## Style & Strengths

- **Natural modes**: _[What communication comes easily — e.g. concision, storytelling, directness, humor]_
- **Learned/effortful modes**: _[What requires conscious effort — e.g. small talk, sustained follow-up, emotional labor]_
- **Failure modes**: _[Where communication breaks down — e.g. context-switching, endurance, ambiguity tolerance]_
- **Meta-approach**: _[How they think about communication itself — e.g. prefer negotiating strategy upfront vs. improvising]_

## Collaboration Model

- _[What kind of collaborators they work best with]_
- _[How they use collaboration to compensate for gaps]_
- _[Preferences for structuring working relationships]_

## Weekly Rhythm

| Day | Energy & Availability |
| --- | --- |
| **Monday** | _[Energy level, availability windows, protected time]_ |
| **Tuesday** | _[...]_ |
| **Wednesday** | _[...]_ |
| **Thursday** | _[...]_ |
| **Friday** | _[...]_ |
| **Saturday** | _[...]_ |
| **Sunday** | _[...]_ |

## Sync Philosophy

- _[What sync time is for]_
- _[What sync time is NOT for]_
- _[How tactical/strategic calls should be]_

## Channel Preferences

### Decision Model

| Situation | Channel | Timing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Urgent + complex | _[e.g. Phone call]_ | _[e.g. Immediately]_ |
| Urgent + simple | _[e.g. Text]_ | _[e.g. Immediately]_ |
| High leverage | _[e.g. Whatever's fastest]_ | _[e.g. Immediately]_ |
| Low leverage | _[e.g. Any]_ | _[e.g. Deferred]_ |
| Needs persistence | _[e.g. Email]_ | — |
| Back-and-forth with weight | _[e.g. Text thread or call]_ | — |
| Low stakes, low urgency | _[e.g. Chat/DM]_ | — |

### Channel Notes

- _[Role of email]_
- _[Role of voice notes]_
- _[How closeness affects channel choice]_

### Notification & Response Behavior

- _[When they check notifications]_
- _[How they triage responses]_
- _[Deep work / focus mode patterns]_

### How to Get It Wrong

- _[Specific things that frustrate or alienate them]_

## Async Voice

### Core Principles

- _[1-3 principles governing their written communication style]_

### Tone by Closeness

**Close friends:**
- _[Register, conventions, examples]_

**Logistics/Planning:**
- _[Register, conventions, examples]_

**Professional/Business:**
- _[Register, conventions, examples]_

**Outreach/Asks:**
- _[Register, conventions, examples]_

**Re-engaging after a gap:**
- _[Approach, examples]_

### Warm Competence Signals

_[How they bridge the gap between their default efficiency and warmth for new contacts]_

### Mechanics

- _[Capitalization, punctuation, length, emoji, link-sharing conventions]_

### Anti-Patterns

- _[Specific things they never do in writing]_

## Interaction Protocols

_[How to escalate, signal urgency, preferred formats for different message types]_

---

_Generated with the COMMS.md convention._


path: references/example.md
content: # Example COMMS.md

> A queryable document expressing communication preferences for humans and agents.

---

## Style & Strengths

- **Natural modes**: concision, routing, strategy
- **Learned/effortful modes**: relational communication, sustained continuity, smooth context-switching
- **Failure modes**: endurance without frameworks, mid-stream mode switching, staying "in the middle" of competing communication demands
- **Meta-approach**: metarational — prefers spending sync time on _where to point strengths_ rather than both parties wrestling with the communication itself. Favors complementary collaboration over redundant effort.

## Collaboration Model

- Works best with people whose strengths complement rather than mirror theirs
- Treats collaboration as a tool for compensating known gaps (continuity, relational endurance)
- Prefers to negotiate communication strategy up front rather than improvise it throughout
- Frameworks and external structure are load-bearing, not optional scaffolding

## Weekly Rhythm

| Day | Energy & Availability |
| --- | --- |
| **Saturday** | Negative space. Whimsical, serendipitous. Chores and restoration of domestic/personal order. Low structure. |
| **Sunday** | Ordering and planning energy. Weekly planning. Full-fidelity wind-down routine in the evening is protected. |
| **Monday** | Slow acceleration. Morning cleared for building momentum with the week plan. Room for creative energy and weekend loose ends. |
| **Tuesday** | *[TBD]* |
| **Wednesday** | Meeting-heavy. Good day to batch sync. |
| **Thursday** | Unavailable before 3 PM. |
| **Friday** | *[TBD]* |

## Sync Philosophy

- Sync time is for: structuring the unstructured, surfacing signal from noise, doing both quickly
- Stays strategic — the most tactical it gets is clarifying what's actionable for each party after the call
- **Does not solve problems in calls.** Problems get solved async, with tools, in focused time.
- Calls are for alignment, routing, and decision-framing — not execution or deliberation

## Channel Preferences

### Decision Model

| Situation | Channel | Timing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Urgent + complex | Phone call | Immediately |
| Urgent + simple deliverable | Async (text/email) | Immediately |
| High leverage (low effort → high impact) | Whatever's fastest | Immediately |
| Low leverage (high effort → low impact) | Any | Deferred to low-cost time slots |
| Needs persistence or professionalism | Email | — |
| Needs back-and-forth with weight | Text thread, voice notes (close relationships), or schedule a call | — |
| Low stakes, low urgency | Text on best-fit network | — |

### Channel Notes

- **Email** serves two roles: archival (they need to find it later) and professional (intros beyond close friends, formal context)
- **Voice notes** are high-bandwidth and low-scheduling-overhead, but expose raw thinking. Reserved for closer relationships.
- **Closeness modulates** channel informality, voice note use, and tolerance for rawness

### Notification & Response Behavior

- Two deep work blocks per weekday — Focus mode on during these
- Does not check notifications incidentally before ~3 PM; inspects intentionally as part of focused work objectives
- Triage heuristic for responding: importance of person × ease of reply × consequence of delay. If the math doesn't clear the bar, it gets snoozed.

### How to Get It Wrong

- Spamming calls without genuine urgency
- Crossing implicit or explicit boundaries without a strong payoff on the other side

## Async Voice

### Core Principles

1. **Collapse meaning without losing precision.** Every word earns its place. Brevity isn't aesthetic; it's respect for the other person's attention.
2. **Don't hog the gravity; share the stage.** Make it easy for someone to return the ball. Lead with their context when possible, exit in a way that invites response.
3. **The mode should serve the message, not your aesthetic.** Logistics get logistics treatment; substantive asks get structure. Match the container to the content.

### Tone by Closeness

**Close friends:**
- Very casual, lowercase, rapid-fire
- Playful, internet-brained
- Abbreviations: "ty", "tm", "lyk", "rn", "w/"
- Example: "ya gummies r dumb but you can just look inside and get the stuff"

**Logistics/Planning:**
- Ultra-efficient, no fluff
- Example: "Tm between 1 and 6 works — what's best for you?"

**Professional/Business:**
- Sentence case, more structured, still concise
- No corporate filler
- Example: "Hey. Thinking of you while having conversations with people at the conference this week."

**Outreach/Asks:**
- Warm but direct. Reference their context before stating the need.
- End with genuine appreciation, not transactional sign-off.

**Re-engaging after a gap:**
- No apology for the silence, no empty "hope you're well"
- Lead with relevance, then a specific callback (proof of attention)

### Warm Competence Signals

Default mode reads high-competence: efficient, clear, no fluff. New contacts don't have that context and may read brevity as cold.

- **Use their name once.** Not repeatedly, just once to personalize.
- **Reference something specific to them.** Attention, not performance.
- **Close warm, not transactional.** "Appreciate you" over "let me know."

### Mechanics

- Lowercase with close friends; sentence case for longer messages; proper caps for professional
- Periods omitted on short messages; question marks always; exclamation points rare
- Emoji selective, one max per message, often none
- Links shared with minimal commentary or none

### Anti-Patterns

- Over-explaining or justifying
- Corporate speak ("per my last message", "just circling back")
- Unnecessary pleasantries ("Hope you're doing well!")
- Paragraphs when a sentence works
- Apologizing for reaching out

---

_Generated with the COMMS.md convention._


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