mb-help

Help

Answer questions, troubleshoot issues, explain philosophy, suggest next steps.

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Workflow

1. Triage — Parse user's question/brain-dump
2. Detect business type — Check reference/core/*.md (Skool? Ecommerce?)
3. Load reference — Find topic in references/ table below
4. Answer — Explain "why" not just "what"
5. Route — End with next skill or action

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Topic Router

Keywords	Reference
Terminal, drag files, cd, folder, business repo vs site repo	terminal-basics.md
Two repos, engine, data model, data model	two-repos.md
Philosophy, why, compound, passive memory	philosophy.md
/mb-think, research, decide, codify	the-think-cycle.md
/mb-bet, bet, hypothesis, deadline, public narration	skills-guide.md
Task tracking, where left off, focus	task-tracking-options.md
Error, command not found, MCP, Apify setup, GitHub issue	troubleshooting.md
Provider readiness, GitHub setup, Cloudflare, Google Workspace, Meta Ads, Apify	provider-readiness.md
Getting started, setup	Route to /mb-setup or /mb-start
Which skill, when to use	skills-guide.md
Create skill, Notion export, custom	skills-guide.md
Migrate from GPT, ChatGPT	gpt-migration.md
Reels, TikTok, organic, /mb-organic	organic-help.md
Skool, community	skool-help.md
Wiki, atomic notes, publish, WikiLinks	Route to /mb-wiki
Site, landing page, lander, minisite, website, deploy site, publish site, conversion endpoint, concept variations	Route to /mb-site (see skills-guide.md for the full one-flow walkthrough)
Done, wrapping up, closing, end session, end of day	Route to /mb-end
multi-offer, product ladder, offers, switch offer	Multi-Offer FAQ (below)
Better outputs, quality, what next	making-outputs-better.md
Content strategy, pillars, platforms, newsletter, content plan	content-strategy-help.md
Subagents, parallel, agents, context window, tokens	working-with-agents.md
Conductor, workspace, PA config, pre-agent, skills not showing (Conductor)	conductor-setup.md
Contribute, contributor	becoming-contributor.md

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Principles

• Explain "why" — Not just steps
• End with action — Suggest next skill (/mb-think, /mb-setup, /mb-ads, /mb-vsl)
• Beginner-friendly — Many never used Terminal
• Honest about gaps — The system is new and evolving. Acknowledge what's still being built rather than presenting everything as polished.
• Public issue safety — Suggest mb issue draft for reproducible Main Branch friction, but never submit issues for the operator.

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Quick Answers

Question	Answer
Start Claude in a folder?	cd ~/Documents/GitHub/[your-business] && claude — Claude sees files in that folder. Main Branch is linked via settings.local.json, with bridge links as a compatibility fallback for skill discovery.
Do I start Claude in the business repo or site repo?	Start in the business repo for planning and creating a site. Switch to the site repo after it exists for edits, review, deploy, and mb site check; the site repo should have .mainbranch/source.json pointing back to the business repo.
When use skill prompts?	For structured tasks: /mb-start, /mb-think, /mb-ads, /mb-vsl
Drag files in?	Drag from Finder into Terminal, path appears
Voice input?	Wispr Flow (affiliate link)
What is content-strategy.md?	Your distribution backbone -- pillars, platforms, cadence. Built through /mb-think, consumed by /mb-organic and /mb-ads. Lives in reference/domain/.
How do I build a content strategy?	Run /mb-think. Start by deriving 3-5 pillars from your soul.md + offer.md + audience.md. Then choose platforms, set cadence, and fill in over time.
How do pillars work?	Each pillar is a content theme that passes three tests: Soul test (connects to why), Offer test (leads to mechanism), Audience test (they care). 3-5 pillars cover your content universe.
What's the content pipeline?	Newsletter-first: write one keystone piece weekly, then /mb-organic adapts it for social platforms, /mb-ads amplifies top performers. One idea, many formats.
What are subagents?	Claude can spawn parallel agents to research or review simultaneously. You'll see it happen automatically in /mb-think (multi-source research) and /mb-ads review (6 compliance lenses). Each agent gets its own context window so your main conversation stays clean.
How do I manage context/tokens?	Context management is a skill that develops over time. Your files (research/, decisions/, reference/) survive compaction — only conversation memory compresses. After compaction, help Claude rebuild by pointing it at recent files or running /mb-start. Save insights to research files early — if it's in a file, it's safe.
How do I close a session?	Run /mb-end. It summarizes what happened, asks if you have final thoughts, offers a crystallize moment if you made decisions, commits uncommitted work, and says goodbye. Bookend to /mb-start.
What is multi-offer?	Multiple products under one brand, one repo. Each offer gets its own reference/offers/[name]/offer.md. Soul and voice stay in core/ because they're brand-level. Use when you sell multiple things (community + newsletter + done-for-you). If you have no offers/ folder, you're in single-offer mode — everything reads from core/ and nothing changes.
How do I switch offers?	Say /mb-start [offer-name] or answer when /mb-start prompts. The active offer is stored in .vip/local.yaml.
Where do offer files go?	reference/offers/[name]/offer.md for offer-specific details. reference/core/offer.md stays as the brand-level thesis.
What stays in core with multiple offers?	soul.md (always), voice.md (always), audience.md (base, with optional per-offer overrides), content-strategy.md (brand-level distribution).
How do I add another offer?	Run /mb-setup -- it detects your existing setup and offers a migration path. Or use /mb-think to plan the new offer first.
Do I need separate repos for separate businesses?	If they share soul.md and voice.md, same repo with offers/. If they have different identities, different repos. The test: shared soul = shared repo.
Do my files disappear when context compacts?	No. Compaction compresses Claude's conversation memory, not your files. Everything in research/, decisions/, and reference/ is on your hard drive, version controlled with git. If it's in a file, it's permanent.
How do I recover after compaction?	Point Claude at recent files: "look at my last 3 decisions" or "read the commits from today." Or just run /mb-start — it scans your folders and rebuilds context automatically. You can also open files yourself in Cursor, Warp, VS Code, or any text editor.
Is this system finished?	Still new and actively being tuned. We're building around Claude Code, minimizing commands you need to learn while giving you real power. There's progressive discovery in /mb-think — the more you use it, the more it reveals. You might find workflows we haven't documented yet. Post them in Skool.
Where can I see my files?	Open your business repo folder in Finder, Cursor, Warp, VS Code, or any text editor. They're regular .md files on your hard drive. GitHub Desktop also shows them with version history.
What should I connect first?	Run mb connect plan from your business repo. It shows GitHub, Cloudflare, Google/Workspace, Meta Ads, and Apify as numbered choices with readiness and exact next commands.
Skills not showing in Conductor?	Conductor workspaces are isolated — they don't know where Main Branch is. You need a Pre-Agent (PA) config script that creates bridge symlinks and settings.local.json before Claude starts. See conductor-setup.md for the script and setup steps.
What's a PA config?	Pre-Agent config — a script Conductor runs before Claude starts in a workspace. Used to set up Main Branch bridge links so skills appear. One-time setup per workspace.