Business-First AI Framework¶

Skills and an agent implementing the Business-First AI Framework — analyze where AI fits in your workflows, deconstruct those workflows into AI building blocks, and build working AI workflows. These are plain-text Markdown files that work in any AI tool supporting skills. Download them from GitHub, install as a Claude Code plugin, or paste directly into your system prompt.

Get These Skills¶

These skills and agents are plain-text Markdown files that work in any AI tool. Choose how you want to get them:

/plugin install business-first-ai@handsonai

Using These Skills¶

Agents activate automatically in Claude Code and Cowork — describe what you need and Claude picks the right one. In other platforms, paste the agent's Markdown file into your system prompt or project instructions.

Skills trigger automatically when relevant, or invoke them directly:

Recommended path:

1. Run /business-first-ai:analyze (or say "Help me analyze AI workflow opportunities") → Step 1
2. Run /business-first-ai:deconstruct (or say "I want to deconstruct my [workflow] into AI building blocks") → Step 2
3. Run /business-first-ai:build-workflow to design and build the AI workflow → Step 3
4. Review your outputs in the outputs/ folder

For platform-specific setup (Claude.ai ZIP upload, Cowork install, API integration), see Using Plugins.

Platform Compatibility¶

Components¶

Step 1–3 — Full Orchestration¶

framework-orchestrator¶

What it does: Orchestrates the end-to-end Analyze, Deconstruct, and Build process. Runs candidate discovery, deep deconstruction, design, and build sequentially, with file-based handoffs between stages so you can also run each step individually in separate conversations.

When to use it: Use this when you want to go through the entire process in one session. The agent manages the flow between steps, saves intermediate files, and keeps you involved at each stage. If you prefer to work step-by-step across separate conversations, invoke the individual skills instead.

How it works: The agent runs three skills in sequence:

1. Analyze (analyzing-workflows) — Audit your workflows, interview you about your work, and produce an opportunity report with structured candidates. If you already know which workflow to deconstruct, this step is brief.
2. Deconstruct (deconstructing-workflows) — Interactive deep-dive that decomposes the workflow into refined steps using the 5-question framework. Produces the Workflow Definition.
3. Build (building-workflows) — Design phase: gather architecture decisions, choose an execution pattern and interaction mode, classify steps, map building blocks, identify skill candidates, configure agents. Construct phase: generate platform-appropriate artifacts (prompts, skills, agents, configs) and a Run Guide tailored to your platform and technical comfort level.

Files are saved to outputs/ using kebab-case workflow names (e.g., outputs/lead-qualification-definition.md).

Example prompts:

"I want to deconstruct my client onboarding workflow"
→ Walks you through all three steps, asking questions during
  discovery, presenting the analysis for review, and generating
  the build deliverables

"People keep dropping off during enrollment. Help me build
a workflow for that."
→ Starts from a problem description, proposes a candidate
  workflow, then deconstructs and designs it

"Help me figure out which parts of my weekly reporting process
could be automated with AI"
→ Decomposes the reporting process, chooses an execution pattern,
  and identifies quick wins vs. complex automation opportunities

What you'll get: Multiple files in outputs/:

1. Opportunity Report — ai-opportunity-report.md — categorized opportunities with structured workflow candidates (if generated)
2. Workflow Definition — [name]-definition.md — structured decomposition of every step
3. AI Building Block Spec — [name]-building-block-spec.md — execution pattern, autonomy classifications, building block mapping, skill candidates, agent configs
4. Platform Artifacts — prompts, skills, agents, and configs generated for your platform
5. Run Guide — [name]-run-guide.md — step-by-step setup and first-run instructions

Step 1 — Analyze Workflows¶

Find which workflows are candidates for AI.

analyzing-workflows¶

Command: /business-first-ai:analyze

What it does: Runs a structured audit of your workflows to analyze where AI can help. Scans memory and conversation history, interviews you about your work, then produces a prioritized opportunity report with structured workflow candidates ready for the Deconstruct step.

When to use it: Use this when you want to figure out where AI fits in your work. Especially useful when you're new to AI and need a starting point, or when you want a systematic review before choosing which workflow to deconstruct.

How it works:

1. Memory & history scan — The AI reviews everything it knows about you from prior conversations, memory, and project files. Presents findings for you to confirm or correct.
2. Targeted discovery interview — The AI asks focused questions one at a time about your role, repetitive tasks, information synthesis, multi-step processes, quality issues, communication overhead, and decision-making. Follows up based on your answers.
3. Opportunity analysis & report — Produces a summary table and detailed opportunity cards grouped by category (Deterministic Workflows, Collaborative AI, Autonomous Agents), ordered by impact.
4. Workflow candidate summary — You pick your top candidates, and the AI produces structured metadata for each: name, description, trigger, deliverable, category, pain point, AI opportunity, frequency, priority, and reasoning. Recommends which to deconstruct first.

Example prompts:

"Help me analyze AI workflow opportunities"
→ Runs the full audit and produces a categorized opportunity
  report with structured workflow candidates

"I want to figure out which parts of my job could benefit from AI"
→ Interactive discovery session followed by a structured report
  with specific, actionable recommendations

What you'll get: An opportunity report (outputs/ai-opportunity-report.md) with a report header, summary table, top 3 recommendations, detailed cards for each opportunity, and a structured workflow candidate summary with metadata for each candidate you select.

Platform compatibility: Claude Code ✓ | Claude.ai ✓

Step 2 — Deconstruct Workflows¶

Break workflows into structured definitions.

deconstructing-workflows¶

Command: /business-first-ai:deconstruct

What it does: Interactively deconstructs a business workflow into a structured Workflow Definition using the 5-question framework. This is the Deconstruct step.

When to use it: Use this when you want to thoroughly document a workflow's steps, decisions, data flows, and failure modes. Also useful standalone when you just need a structured breakdown of a complex process — even without planning to automate it.

How it works:

1. Scenario analysis — The AI determines how you're arriving: if you reference an opportunity report from the Analyze step, it reads the workflow candidates and pre-populates metadata. Otherwise, it asks about the business scenario, objective, high-level steps, and ownership. If you describe a problem instead of a workflow, the AI proposes a candidate workflow for you to react to.
2. Scope check — The AI assesses whether this is one workflow or multiple bundled together. If multiple, it recommends splitting and asks which to start with.
3. Name the workflow — The AI presents 2-3 name options (2-4 word noun phrases, Title Case) and confirms name, description, outcome, trigger, and type.
4. Deep dive — For each step, the AI probes five dimensions:
   • Discrete steps (is this actually multiple steps?)
   • Decision points (if/then branches, quality gates)
   • Data flows (inputs, outputs, sources, destinations)
   • Context needs (specific documents, files, reference materials)
   • Failure modes (what happens when this step fails)
5. Propose and react — From step 4 onward, the AI proposes a hypothesis across all five dimensions and asks "What's right, what's wrong, what am I missing?"
6. Map sequence — The AI identifies sequential vs. parallel steps and the critical path
7. Consolidate context — The AI presents a rolled-up "context shopping list" of every artifact the workflow needs
8. Generate Workflow Definition — The AI writes the structured Workflow Definition to the output file

Example prompts:

"Use deconstructing-workflows to break down my expense reporting process"
→ Interactive discovery session producing
  outputs/expense-reporting-definition.md

"I need to document how our team handles customer escalations"
→ Walks through the discovery process, probing for hidden steps
  and decision points

What you'll get: A Workflow Definition file (outputs/[name]-definition.md) containing: scenario metadata, refined steps (with sub-steps, decision points, data flows, context needs, and failure modes for each), step sequence and dependencies, and a context shopping list.

Platform compatibility: Claude Code ✓ | Claude.ai ✓

Step 3 — Build Workflows¶

Design your AI implementation and construct the workflow.

building-workflows¶

Command: /business-first-ai:build-workflow

What it does: Takes a Workflow Definition and runs the full Build process: Design (architecture decisions, execution pattern with interaction mode, autonomy classification, building block mapping, skill candidates, agent configuration) and Construct (platform-appropriate artifacts and a Run Guide). This is the Build step.

When to use it: Use this when you have a Workflow Definition (from the Deconstruct step) and want to design and build your AI workflow. The Design phase produces the AI Building Block Spec; the Construct phase generates everything you need to run the workflow.

How it works:

Design phase:

1. Load Workflow Definition — The AI reads the Workflow Definition from outputs/
2. Confirm understanding — The AI summarizes the workflow and asks you to confirm
3. Architecture decisions — Confirm platform (the one question), then extract tool integrations, trigger/schedule, and constraints from the Workflow Definition and present a confirmation block
4. Execution pattern assessment — The AI walks you through the four execution patterns and recommends one with an interaction mode (Interactive, Autonomous, or Hybrid)
5. Classify each step — Autonomy level, AI building blocks, tools, human review gates
6. Identify skill candidates — Steps tagged for skill creation with generation-ready detail
7. Agent configuration (when applicable) — Platform-agnostic agent blueprint
8. Generate AI Building Block Spec — Complete design document

Construct phase:

1. Pattern-specific build path — Only the steps relevant to your chosen execution pattern
2. Generate platform artifacts — Prompts, skills, agents, and configs in whatever format your platform needs (researched via web search at runtime)
3. Run Guide — Plain-language setup instructions, first-run test, and next steps tailored to your platform

Example prompts:

"Use building-workflows on my workflow definition"
→ Reads the most recent Workflow Definition, runs Design and
  Construct, produces all build deliverables

"Design and build the expense-reporting workflow"
→ Reads outputs/expense-reporting-definition.md, recommends
  an execution pattern, and generates the full build output

What you'll get:

• AI Building Block Spec (outputs/[name]-building-block-spec.md) — architecture decisions, execution pattern with interaction mode, step classifications, skill candidates, agent configs, implementation order
• Platform Artifacts — prompts, skills, agents, and configs in whatever format your platform needs
• Run Guide (outputs/[name]-run-guide.md) — step-by-step setup, first-run test, and next steps

Platform compatibility: Claude Code ✓ | Claude.ai ✓

Recommended Workflow¶

These skills cover the full Business-First AI Framework. Here's the recommended path:

1. Analyze — Run analyzing-workflows to audit your workflows and identify where AI creates the most value
2. Deconstruct — Pick your highest-impact candidate and run it through the framework-orchestrator agent (or use the skills individually: deconstructing-workflows → building-workflows)
3. Build — Follow the Run Guide to get your workflow running, then iterate. See the AI Workflow Examples plugin for working examples of real AI workflows.

FAQ¶

Which step should I start with? Start with Step 1 (Analyze) if you're not sure where AI fits in your work. Browse AI Use Cases to see what types of work AI handles — content creation, research, coding, data analysis, ideation, and automation. Start with Step 2 (Deconstruct) if you already know which workflow you want to automate.

Can I start from a problem instead of a workflow? Yes. Tell the framework-orchestrator agent about your problem (e.g., "people keep dropping off during enrollment") and it will propose a candidate workflow for you to refine during discovery.

What if I lose context mid-conversation? The file-based handoffs mean you can continue in a new conversation. Just invoke the next skill and point it at the file from the previous step (e.g., "Use deconstructing-workflows on outputs/lead-qualification-definition.md").

What are AI building blocks? The categories used during analysis: Prompt (single instruction), Context (reference material), Skill (multi-step workflow), Agent (autonomous personality), MCP (external tool connection), and Project (workspace configuration). Each step gets mapped to one or more of these.

Where are the example agents and prompts? They're in the AI Workflow Examples collection — agents for executive writing, editorial review, research, meeting prep, and AI news.

Do I need Claude Code for all of this? No. These are plain-text Markdown files — download them from GitHub and add them to any AI tool. See Get These Skills for all the options, or check the Platform Compatibility table for per-component details.