align - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: align description: "Cross-initiative alignment checker — surfaces misalignment, gaps, duplication, dependency risks, and synergy opportunities across active initiatives in the company and your groups roadmap. Complementary to /pulse (broad discovery); /align focuses on whether your initiatives are pulling in the same direction and have synergies with other company groups. Run ad-hoc or before key decisions."

/align — Initiative & Roadmap Alignment Checker

Surface misalignment, gaps, duplication, and synergy opportunities across your active initiatives, your group's roadmap, and the broader company. Not a feed of what's happening (that's /pulse) — a coherence check on whether your work is pulling in the same direction and connecting to what others are doing.

Run ad-hoc, before key decisions, or weekly alongside /pulse.

Step 1: Determine Alignment Target

Before loading any files, figure out what the user wants to align.

If the user provided a document or topic when invoking /align (e.g., /align Voice Agent PRD, /align CN AI team), use that as the anchor. The report will focus on how that initiative aligns with everything else.
If no target was provided, ask: "What do you want to check alignment on? A specific initiative, a document, or a full cross-initiative scan?"
- Specific initiative — one initiative checked against the rest of the portfolio and Slack
- Document — a PRD or strategy doc checked against active work and goals
- Full scan — all initiatives compared against each other and against company activity

Store the alignment mode (single-target vs. full-scan) — it determines how much to load and how to frame the output.

Step 2: Build the Initiative Map

Read files in two sequential batches. Start with the work, then load strategy and context.

Batch A — The Work (read together — max 3 sources):

Weekly Kanban.md — scan all columns for initiative-level items (not individual action items)
Tasks/ — glob for .md files (exclude Done/), then read the first 40 lines of each (frontmatter + Context section). Note which are P0/P1.
Tasks/Backlog/ — glob for files, then read description: frontmatter only via Grep (rg "^description:" Tasks/Backlog/). Do not open individual files unless one is ambiguous.

Batch B — Strategy & Context (read together — max 3 sources, only after Batch A): 4. GOALS.md — extract: quarterly objectives, north star, focus areas, success criteria, key relationships, deferred items 5. Context/Reference/stakeholders.md — org structure, team boundaries, key relationships 6. Context/Document Hub/ — glob for files, then grep frontmatter only. Do not open individual files.

From these sources, build an internal initiative model. For each initiative, note: name, stage, strategic fit, dependencies, and 2-3 Slack search keywords. Aim for 5-10 initiatives. Group related items if more than 10.

Step 3: Internal Alignment (brief — max 3 bullets)

Quickly check the anchor initiative against your own portfolio. This is context-setting, not the main event.

Assess strategic fit (High/Medium/Low) against GOALS.md objectives. Then check for conflicts, dependency risks, or synergies with other active initiatives. Condense into at most 3 bullets — pick the highest-signal items only. If nothing noteworthy, skip this section entirely.

Do NOT produce a detailed table of all initiatives. Do NOT enumerate all pairwise comparisons. The internal check is a brief preamble to the external alignment that follows.

Step 4: External Alignment (Slack)

After understanding internal alignment, scan Slack for what's happening in the broader company that your initiatives should connect to — or might conflict with.

Use slack_search_public_and_private to look for signals. Run searches in parallel.

For each initiative's keywords, search for: adjacent work by other teams, conflicting decisions, dependency signals ("blocked by", "waiting on"), duplication, company-wide shifts, and cross-initiative mentions. Run searches in parallel — at least 3 different keyword searches.

For any hit worth surfacing: use slack_read_thread to get enough context for a 2-line summary. Always capture the Slack permalink URL from search results — every signal in the final report must link to its source.

Recency filter: Only surface Slack messages from the last 14 days. Ignore older results unless they are the only evidence of a critical conflict. If using an older source, explicitly label it as historical.

If Slack MCP is not available: skip this step and note: "Slack not connected — alignment report based on file state only. Connect Slack MCP for richer signal detection."

Step 5: Cross-check Documents

If Confluence MCP is available, search for pages linked to the anchor initiative modified in the past 14 days. Check local Context/Document Hub/ for docs with upcoming deadlines but no recent edits. Recency filter: only reference documents modified within the last 3 months.

Step 6: Synthesise the Alignment Report

The report has three sections. External alignment is the main event — it should take up most of the report. Internal alignment is brief context. Next actions close with specific moves.

Total report length: 60 lines or fewer. If a section has nothing real, omit it.

Output format

## Alignment Report: [Anchor Initiative]
*[date] | Scanned: [sources used — Slack channels, Confluence, files]*

---

### Portfolio Context (max 3 bullets)
- [Anchor initiative] is [stage] — [one-line status + strategic fit to GOALS.md]
- [Key dependency or risk from own portfolio, if any]
- [Internal sequencing issue, if any]

---

### External Signals

**[Signal type: Adjacent Work / Duplication Risk / Conflict / Synergy / Company Shift]**
[2-line finding with named people, channels, dates.] [Source](permalink-URL)

**[Signal type]**
[2-line finding.] [Source](permalink-URL)

[Repeat for each finding — aim for 4-8 external signals. Every signal MUST have a source link.]

---

### Synthesis
*[One-sentence overall alignment health assessment]*

---

### Next Actions

1. **[Action verb] [who] [where]** — [what to say/do]. Draft: *"[suggested message text or first sentence]"*
2. **[Action verb] [who] [where]** — [what to say/do]. Draft: *"[suggested message text]"*
3. **[Action verb] [who] [where]** — [what to say/do].

Format rules:

Every external signal MUST include a source link (Slack permalink, Confluence URL, or file path)
Never use - [ ] checkbox syntax — use numbered action items with draft messages
Never use the heading "Don't-Miss Checklist" — use "Next Actions"
Portfolio Context is max 3 bullets — if nothing noteworthy internally, use 1 bullet
External Signals section should be the longest section in the report

Step 7: Deliver

Print the report in the terminal
Offer: "Want me to send this as a Slack DM to yourself?" — if yes, fetch user ID via slack_search_users and send via slack_send_message

Step 8: Compound-on-Touch (silent)

After delivering, silently fix what you find: stale task statuses, missing description/topics frontmatter, and append recurring alignment patterns to Context/Memory/learnings.md.

Behaviour Rules

External signals are the main event. The report's primary value is surfacing what other teams, channels, and people are doing that affects the anchor initiative. Internal portfolio context is a brief preamble, not the focus.
Every claim needs a source link. Slack permalinks, Confluence URLs, or file paths — inline, next to the claim. No unattributed statements about what other teams are doing.
Never hallucinate activity. Only report what is observed in files, Slack, or Confluence. If a data source is unavailable, say so and narrow the report scope.
Recency matters. Slack signals older than 14 days and documents older than 3 months are out of scope unless explicitly flagged as historical.
End with draft actions, not checklists. The closing section must include specific people, channels, and suggested message text — not vague follow-up items with checkbox syntax.
Be direct and brief. Total report under 60 lines. If a section has nothing real, omit it.
Respect existing skills. Don't duplicate /pulse (broad org discovery), /today (daily planning), or /slack-unactioned (message triage). This skill answers: "Are my initiatives coherent with each other and with the broader company?"

When to Run

Ad-hoc: Before a strategy review, exec presentation, or quarterly planning session
Weekly: Alongside /pulse on Monday mornings for a complete picture (pulse = what's happening out there; align = is my own house in order and connected to theirs)
Triggered: When a new initiative is added, a major scope change happens, or a dependency is flagged as blocked