Use when teams need shared direction and decision-making alignment. Invoke when starting new teams, scaling organizations, defining culture, establishing product vision, resolving misalignment, creating strategic clarity, or setting behavioral standards. Use when user mentions North Star, team values, mission, principles, guardrails, decision framework, or cultural alignment.
Create shared direction and decision-making frameworks with North Star, values, and behavioral guardrails. Use when starting teams, scaling organizations, resolving misalignment, or defining culture and principles.
/plugin marketplace add lyndonkl/claude/plugin install lyndonkl-thinking-frameworks-skills@lyndonkl/claudeThis skill inherits all available tools. When active, it can use any tool Claude has access to.
resources/evaluators/rubric_alignment_values_north_star.jsonresources/examples/engineering-team.mdresources/methodology.mdresources/template.mdCreate clear, actionable alignment frameworks that give teams a shared North Star (direction), values (guardrails), and decision tenets (behavioral standards). This enables autonomous decision-making while maintaining coherence across the organization.
Trigger phrases: "North Star", "team values", "mission", "vision", "principles", "guardrails", "what we stand for", "decision framework", "cultural alignment", "operating principles"
A framework with three layers:
Quick Example:
# Engineering Team Alignment
## North Star
Build systems that developers love to use and operators trust to run.
## Values
- **Simplicity**: Choose boring technology that works over exciting technology that might
- **Reliability**: Every service has SLOs and we honor them
- **Empathy**: Design for the developer experience, not just system performance
## Decision Tenets
When choosing between options:
✓ Pick the solution with fewer moving parts
✓ Choose managed services over self-hosted when quality is comparable
✓ Optimize for debuggability over micro-optimizations
✓ Document decisions (ADRs) for future context
## Behaviors (What This Looks Like)
- Code reviews comment on operational complexity, not just correctness
- We say no to features that compromise reliability
- Postmortems focus on learning, not blame
- Documentation is part of "done"
Copy this checklist and track your progress:
Alignment Framework Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Understand context
- [ ] Step 2: Choose framework
- [ ] Step 3: Develop alignment artifact
- [ ] Step 4: Validate quality
- [ ] Step 5: Deliver and socialize
Step 1: Understand context
Gather background: team/organization (size, stage, structure), current situation (new team, scaling, misalignment, crisis), trigger (why alignment needed NOW), stakeholders (who needs to align), hard decisions (where misalignment shows up), and existing artifacts (mission, values, culture statements). This ensures the framework addresses real needs.
Step 2: Choose framework
For new teams/startups (< 30 people, defining identity from scratch) → Use resources/template.md. For scaling organizations (existing values need refinement, multiple teams, need decision framework) → Study resources/methodology.md. To see examples → Review resources/examples/ (engineering-team.md, product-vision.md, company-values.md).
Step 3: Develop alignment artifact
Create alignment-values-north-star.md with: compelling North Star (1-2 sentences, aspirational but specific), 3-5 core values (specific to this team, not generic), decision tenets ("When X vs Y, we..."), observable behaviors (concrete examples), anti-patterns (optional - what we DON'T do), and context (optional - why these values). See Common Patterns for team-type specific guidance.
Step 4: Validate quality
Self-check using resources/evaluators/rubric_alignment_values_north_star.json. Verify: North Star is inspiring yet concrete, values are specific and distinctive, decision tenets guide real decisions, behaviors are observable/measurable, usable for decisions TODAY, trade-offs acknowledged, no contradictions, distinguishes this team from others. Minimum standard: Score ≥ 3.5 (aim for 4.5+ if organization-wide).
Step 5: Deliver and socialize
Present completed framework with rationale (why these values), examples of application in decisions, rollout/socialization approach (hiring, decision-making, onboarding, team meetings), and review cadence (typically annually). Ensure team can recall and apply key points.
For technical teams:
For product teams:
For company-wide values:
For crisis/change:
Do:
Don't:
resources/template.mdresources/methodology.mdresources/examples/engineering-team.md, resources/examples/product-vision.md, resources/examples/company-values.mdresources/evaluators/rubric_alignment_values_north_star.jsonOutput naming: alignment-values-north-star.md or {team-name}-alignment.md
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