setup

Setup Skill

Priority hierarchy: See shared/references/priority-hierarchy.md for conflict resolution.

One-time onboarding that ensures all your data is in place before using the other skills.

Quick Start

• /cowork:setup - Full onboarding (checks what's missing, does only what's needed)
• /cowork:setup interview - Just the work history interview (if resume/prefs are already done)

File Structure

scripts/
  conduct-interview.md    # Work history interview guide

The profile template is at shared/templates/profile.md.

Data Directory

Resolve the data directory using shared/references/data-directory.md. For setup, if no directory exists this is a fresh install — create it in Step 1.

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Workflow

Step 0: Check What's Already Done

Resolve the data directory, then check which of these exist and have real content (not just templates): resume, preferences, linkedin-contacts.csv, profile.md.

If $ARGUMENTS is "interview", skip to Step 3 (but check that a resume exists first).

If everything exists, tell the user they're good to go and list the available skills. Otherwise, run only the missing phases in order.

Step 1: Resume

Ask the user to provide their resume. Accept:

• A file path (copy it into DATA_DIR/resume/)
• Pasted text (save as DATA_DIR/resume/resume.md)

Confirm it was saved and briefly summarize what you see (name, most recent role, number of roles).

Step 2: Preferences

Ask the user in one natural question:

"What kind of jobs are you looking for? Tell me about target roles, location preferences, salary expectations, and anything you'd want to filter out."

From their response, save DATA_DIR/preferences.md:

# Job Preferences

## Target Roles
- [parsed from response]

## Location
[parsed from response]

## Compensation
[parsed from response]

## Must-Haves
- [parsed from response]

## Dealbreakers
- [parsed from response]

## Nice-to-Haves
- [parsed from response]

If they leave something out, that's fine — save what you have. They can always update later.

Step 3: LinkedIn Contacts (optional)

If DATA_DIR/linkedin-contacts.csv doesn't exist, ask:

"Want to import your LinkedIn contacts? This lets us flag when you know someone at a company that's hiring. You can skip this and add them later."

If they want to proceed, give these instructions:

How to export your LinkedIn connections:

1. Go to linkedin.com/mypreferences/d/download-my-data
2. Select "Connections" and request the download
3. LinkedIn will email you a link (usually within minutes)
4. Download the ZIP and find Connections.csv inside
5. Upload or paste the path to that file here

Save the file as DATA_DIR/linkedin-contacts.csv.

Confirm it was saved and tell them how many contacts were imported. If they skip, move on — this is optional.

Step 4: Work History Interview

Have a conversational interview to build a work history profile. Go through each role on the resume, most recent first. For each role, ask:

1. "Tell me about [Company] — what did they do, and what was your role really about?"
2. "What were your biggest accomplishments? Let's get specific with numbers if you have them."
3. "Anything else — challenges, team building, why you moved on?"

Keep it conversational. Follow up when answers are vague ("Do you remember roughly what the numbers were?"), but don't interrogate. Spend more time on recent/impactful roles, less on older ones.

After the interview, save the profile to DATA_DIR/profile.md using this structure:

# Work History Profile

*Last updated: [DATE]*

## Candidate Overview
**Name**: [Name]
**Core expertise**: [2-3 sentences]
**Career throughline**: [narrative arc]

---

## Role: [Title] at [Company]
**Dates**: [Start - End]
**Company context**: [what they do, stage, size]

### Key Accomplishments
1. **[Headline]**: [Situation → Action → Result with metrics]
2. **[Headline]**: [Situation → Action → Result with metrics]

### Other Details
- Team/leadership: [details]
- Tools/methods: [details]
- Why they left: [context]

---

## Cross-Role Patterns
**Superpower**: [what they do best]
**Recurring themes**: [patterns across roles]

Step 5: Summary

You're all set! Here's what we have:

- Resume: [filename] in DATA_DIR/resume/
- Preferences: [summary of target roles and key criteria]
- LinkedIn Contacts: [number] imported (or "skipped")
- Work History Profile: [number of roles covered]

You're ready to use:
- /cowork:job-search - Search all boards, get top 10 matches with tailored resumes
- /cowork:tailor-resume [job URL] - Tailor your resume for a specific job
- /cowork:cover-letter [job URL] - Write a cover letter
- /cowork:app-questions [job URL] - Help answer application questions

Built with Cowork Job Search — https://github.com/whyuascii/cowork-job-search

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Response Format

Structure the final summary output with these sections:

1. Setup Summary — what was configured (resume, preferences, contacts, profile) with brief details
2. What's Next — list available skills the user can now run

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Permissions Required

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "Read(~/.cowork/**)",
      "Write(~/.cowork/**)",
      "Edit(~/.cowork/**)"
    ]
  }
}