Business systems Claude

Before you install that skill

Hey, it's Cindy 🧠 Prove the process manually, document the decisions and edge cases, then make every borrowed skill justify what it changes.

btw the waitlist for AI System Club is now open! If you're keen on using AI to automate your content, video editing, job search, business or build AI agents, feel free to sign up (only if you want to hehe). Ps. the waitlist gets first dibs:)

The operating sequence

MANUAL PROOF
  → DOCUMENTED PROCESS
  → REVIEW EXTERNAL SKILL
  → AUTOMATE STABLE STEPS

Do not start with the download button.

1. Prove the manual process

Run the work yourself at least three times when practical. Capture:

input
output
time taken
decisions made
examples of good and bad
edge cases
rework
approval needed
what the customer or downstream person actually valued

If the result is not useful manually, automation will only produce the wrong thing faster.

2. Write the process brief

PROCESS NAME:

OUTCOME
What observable result must exist?

INPUTS
What must be present before work starts?

DECISIONS
Which choices require context or judgment?

STEPS
What repeatable actions create the result?

GOOD EXAMPLES
Which real outputs passed, and why?

BAD EXAMPLES
Which real outputs failed, and why?

DEFINITION OF DONE
What objective checks must pass?

APPROVAL
Who approves external-facing, costly, destructive, or customer-visible action?

EDGE CASES
What happened in reality that the original instructions missed?

3. Classify every step

Class	Meaning	Default treatment
Deterministic	Same input and rule should produce the same decision	Automate first
Judgment	Several reasonable answers depend on context	AI draft plus human review
Approval	Creates spend, publication, deletion, customer contact, or legal risk	Human gate
Exception	Rare condition outside the normal route	Escalate and log

An agent is not a reason to remove the approval class.

4. Audit an external skill or plugin

Paste the external workflow and your process brief into Claude:

You are reviewing an external AI skill, plugin, or workflow before it enters my business.

MY CURRENT PROCESS
[PASTE PROCESS BRIEF]

EXTERNAL WORKFLOW
[PASTE SKILL INSTRUCTIONS, MANIFEST, TOOL LIST, PERMISSIONS, OR DOCUMENTATION]

Do not install, execute, authenticate, publish, message, spend, or delete anything.

Return:
1. Duplicate steps we already have
2. Assumptions that conflict with our business
3. New steps that genuinely improve the result
4. Permissions and external actions it requests
5. Data it reads, writes, stores, or sends
6. Claims or dependencies that need verification
7. Steps that should stay human
8. Edge cases it does not cover
9. The smallest safe pilot
10. A revised workflow importing only the useful parts

For every recommendation, cite the exact line from my process or the external workflow that supports it. Mark unknowns instead of guessing.

5. Check permissions before capability

Give the narrowest permissions needed for the pilot. “It might be useful later” is not a reason for permanent write access now.

6. Run the smallest safe pilot

Automation-readiness score

Run log

Update the process when reality disagrees. Do not keep fixing the output manually while leaving the instruction wrong.

The goal is not the biggest skill library. It is one workflow your business can actually trust.

Question	0	1	2
Outcome is measurable	vague	partly	objective
Inputs are stable	inconsistent	usually	defined
Good examples exist	none	one	several
Edge cases are documented	none	some	updated from runs
Approval owner is clear	no	partial	named
Failure is visible	silent	manual check	logged and alerted
Duplicate action is prevented	no	partly	idempotent
Manual process works	no	inconsistent	repeated