/professional-communication

name: professional-communication
description: "Draft interpersonal and meeting messages: emails, memos, status updates, structured pushback or disagreement."
user-invocable: false
allowed-tools:
  - Read
  - Write
routing:
  triggers:
    - "business communication"
    - "structured format"
    - "clear writing"
    - "write email"
    - "draft memo"
    - "executive summary"
    - "summarize for management"
    - "status update"
    - "compose email"
    - "draft response"
    - "reply to my boss"
    - "reply to manager"
    - "help me write back"
    - "work email"
    - "meeting summary"
    - "meeting notes"
    - "write a message to"
    - "pushback email"
    - "disagree professionally"
    - "difficult conversation"
  not_for: "critiquing or stress-testing a proposal's merits — that is multi-persona-critique; deciding what to prioritize or work on next — that is productivity; writing blog posts or articles with a voice profile — that is voice-writer. This drafts interpersonal messages; it does not judge ideas, set priorities, or generate content."
  category: content-creation
  pairs_with:
    - voice-writer

Professional Communication Skill

Overview

This skill transforms dense technical communication into clear, structured business formats using **proposition extraction** (identify all facts and relationships) and **deterministic templates** (apply consistent structure). It extracts every detail without loss, categorizes by business relevance, applies a standard template with professional tone, and verifies completeness before delivery.

**Core principle**: Transformation ≠ creation. Only restructure existing input; always extract from existing input and restructure it for executive clarity with preserved technical accuracy.

---

Reference Loading Table

| Signal | Load These Files | Why | |---|---|---| | transforming raw engineer notes: stream-of-consciousness debugging, blockers, crisis updates | `examples.md` | Loads detailed guidance from `examples.md`. | | drafting from section templates; phrase transformations | `templates.md` | Loads detailed guidance from `templates.md`. |

Instructions

Phase 1: PARSE

**Goal**: Extract every proposition from the input before structuring anything. This prevents information loss and ensures technical accuracy is preserved.

**Step 1: Classify input type**

Identify the communication type (this determines categorization strategy in Phase 2):

• Technical update (progress report with embedded facts)
• Debugging narrative (stream-of-consciousness problem-solving)
• Status report (project state with blockers/dependencies)
• Dependency discussion (constraints buried in defensive language)

**Step 2: Extract all propositions**

Parse each sentence systematically. Extract all propositions before summarizing — summarizing skips propositions and loses facts:

1. **Facts**: All distinct statements of truth 2. **Implications**: Cause-effect relationships 3. **Temporal markers**: Past/present/future actions 4. **System references**: All mentioned components 5. **Blockers**: Hidden dependencies and constraints 6. **Emotional context**: Frustration/satisfaction/urgency indicators (needed to transform defensive language)

**Step 3: Document implicit context**

Surface assumptions the author takes for granted but the audience needs stated. Non-technical audiences cannot act without this:

• Technical acronyms or project names the audience may not know
• Timeline context (when things happened relative to milestones)
• Organizational context (team relationships, reporting structures)

**Step 4: Count and validate propositions**

## Parsing Result
Input type: [technical update | debugging narrative | status report | dependency discussion]
Proposition count: [N distinct facts/claims]
Emotional markers: [frustration | satisfaction | urgency | neutral]

Extracted Propositions:
1. [Fact/claim 1]
2. [Fact/claim 2]
... (ALL propositions - NO information loss)

Implicit Context:
- [Assumption 1]
- [Assumption 2]

**Gate**: ALL propositions extracted with zero information loss. Proceed only when gate passes.

Phase 2: STRUCTURE

**Goal**: Categorize and prioritize all extracted propositions by business relevance. This prevents unsolicited sections and keeps output focused on what matters most.

**Step 1: Categorize propositions**

Organize by type (categorization determines template section placement):

Status:   [items with current state]
Actions:  [completed, in-progress, planned]
Impacts:  [business and technical consequences]
Blockers: [dependencies, constraints]
Next:     [required actions]

**Step 2: Priority order**

Rank by impact to executive decision-making, not completeness:

1. Business Impact (revenue, customer, strategic) 2. Technical Functionality (core operation) 3. Project Timeline (schedule implications) 4. Resource Requirements (personnel, infrastructure) 5. Risk Management (potential issues)

Only the highest-priority categories go into the output. Lower-priority items are preserved in Technical Details but not emphasized.

**Step 3: Identify information gaps**

Flag any propositions that need clarification before transformation. Ask for specifics only when severity classification is ambiguous:

• Ambiguous severity (could be GREEN or YELLOW — default to YELLOW if unclear)
• Missing ownership for action items (block on clarity, ask for clarity)
• Undefined technical terms critical to business impact (ask for definition)

**Gate**: All propositions categorized and prioritized. Proceed only when gate passes.

Phase 3: TRANSFORM

**Goal**: Apply standard template with professional tone. This ensures consistent, executive-ready formatting without speculative sections.

**Step 1: Apply standard template**

Include only the sections in the standard template (Risk Assessment, Historical Context, Mitigation Strategies). Use ONLY this structure:

**STATUS**: [GREEN|YELLOW|RED]
**