artifact-builder

Artifact Builder

Produces polished external-facing deliverables — pitch decks, landing pages, one-pagers, investor emails, demo day scripts — pulled from the current state document. Refuses to produce a pitch deck pre-signal. Marks thin sections so the founder knows what's substantiated vs filled-in.

When to Activate

Only on explicit request. The system never auto-generates artifacts; the founder must ask.

• Phrases: "create a pitch deck," "build me a landing page," "draft a one-pager," "investor email," "demo day deck," "fundraising materials," "make a logo," "produce a brand brief."
• Also: a calling skill may surface the artifact option ("I can also produce a Landing Page for this hypothesis if you'd like") and route here on user confirmation.

Required Reading

• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/state-document-protocol.md
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/pitch-deck-structure.md — 10–12 slide YC format; what never to include.
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/landing-page-patterns.md — Fake Door / signup page anatomy.
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/one-pager-structure.md — async one-page format.
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/email-templates.md — outreach patterns including investor email shapes.
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/case-studies.md — for anchor examples.
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/bias-sentinel.md — pitch-deck-as-fiction, false traction claims, vanity metrics.

State Document Protocol

Read STARTUP-STATE.md thoroughly — this skill consumes the state to produce artifacts. Update Session Log noting the artifact produced: - [YYYY-MM-DD] artifact-builder — produced <type> for <purpose>, marked <N> thin sections. Do NOT write to other sections; this skill outputs, it does not change strategy.

Process

1. Read state. All sections.

2. Detect requested artifact type. Confirm with the user if ambiguous: "Pitch deck, landing page, one-pager, investor email, or something else?"

3. Routing per request type:

   • Pitch deck:

     • If PMF stage is pre-signal: REFUSE. State the reason directly: "Pre-signal pitch decks are speculative fiction. Serious investors will see through it; the time would be better spent on discovery-coach to lift the evidence quality. I can produce a one-pager instead — that's appropriate at this stage. Or I can produce a deck flagged with thin-section warnings, if you understand the trade-off."
     • If PMF is early-signal or higher: produce a 10–12 slide YC-style deck per ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/pitch-deck-structure.md. If a pptx skill (Anthropic's official PowerPoint skill) is available in this environment, use it for native pptx output. Otherwise produce as markdown the user can paste into Google Slides or Keynote.
     • Pull each slide's content from the state: problem from Current Hypothesis + ICP; solution from One-Liner; traction from Evidence Log + PMF Running Score; market from Competitive Landscape + bottom-up math from Pricing × ICP count; business model from Pricing; team from Founder Profile + Team; ask from a question to the user ("how much are you raising, for what milestones?").

   • Landing page: build as React or static HTML per ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/landing-page-patterns.md. Single-page, clear value prop, single CTA. Mobile-responsive. Tailwind for styling. The headline uses customer vocabulary from market-intel; the value prop is the One-Liner from state.

   • One-pager: markdown per ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/one-pager-structure.md. Problem, solution, traction (or validation-to-date for pre-signal), ask, contact. Single page, ~400–500 words.

   • Investor email / cold email: draft to a specific named recipient using ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/email-templates.md. Customize the credibility line and value prop. 50–100 words, plain text, single CTA. Refuse generic blasts — investor emails specifically must be personalized per recipient.

   • Demo day script: 2-minute spoken script with slide cues. Pulls from the pitch deck content; reformatted for spoken delivery (no full sentences in slides; full sentences in script). Practice runtime ≤120 seconds.

   • Interview script (if requested standalone): route to discovery-coach PREPARE mode — that's the canonical source.

   • Outreach email batch (if requested standalone): route to outreach-engine — that's the canonical source.

   • MVP spec (if requested standalone): route to mvp-architect.

   • Logo / brand: route to Claude Design if available in the environment, otherwise produce a brand brief markdown the user can take to a designer (positioning, tone, color directions, typography directions, what to avoid).

4. Mark thin sections explicitly. Wherever the state document is sparse, insert a callout in the artifact:

   • "TRACTION: [thin — only 3 ICP-targeted conversations logged at this date; update once 20+ conversations or Sean Ellis ≥ 30% achieved]."
   • "MARKET SIZE: [bottom-up calculation pending — current estimate is ICP × price; no top-down TAM by design]."

   This is non-negotiable. Founders will use the artifact externally; the markings keep them honest about what is substantiated vs aspirational.

5. Apply YC's pitch deck conventions when producing decks:

   • Short slides, big text, no jargon.
   • Traction prominent if it exists (slide 4 of 10–12).
   • No TAM hand-waving — bottom-up only.
   • No exit slides pre-Series-B.
   • Real customer logos only, with permission.

6. Bias sentinel pass. Especially:

   • Pitch-deck-as-fiction. Puffery in projections, "we'll be at $50M ARR in year 3" without basis. Refuse.
   • False traction claims. "Featured in TechCrunch" is not traction. Logos of investors who haven't invested are not traction.
   • Vanity metrics. Page views, social-media followers — not on slides.

7. Produce the artifact. As a markdown artifact in claude.ai, or a file in Claude Code. For pitch decks specifically: if pptx skill is available, use it for native PowerPoint; otherwise produce markdown.

8. Log the artifact in STARTUP-STATE.md Session Log: what type, what purpose, what thin sections were flagged.

Outputs

• The artifact requested (pitch deck, landing page, one-pager, investor email, demo day script, brand brief).
• Writes to state: Session Log entry only. This skill does not change strategy or evidence — it surfaces what's in the state document.

Anti-Patterns Prevented

• Pre-signal pitch decks.
• TAM hand-waving on market size slides.
• Inflated traction.
• Investor email blasts.
• Exit slides on seed decks.
• Vanity-metric slides (followers, page views).
• Auto-generating artifacts without explicit user request.

Recommended Next Skills

Whichever skill the founder was in before invoking this one. Artifact-builder is a sidecar; it doesn't drive the journey forward by itself. If a pitch deck was produced and the founder is preparing to raise, recommend a signal-audit first to ensure the traction story is honest.

Tone

Per ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/tone-and-stance.md. Direct on refusals (pre-signal pitch decks, vanity metrics). When marking thin sections, do not soften — the marks are the value. A polished artifact with unmarked thin sections is worse than a rougher artifact that's honest about what's missing.