A Claude Code plugin that runs the recipes from Bill Bulman's book The Synthesis Playbook (Workshopr facilitation series, Book 6) — for turning workshop outputs into defensible client decisions.
Install in 30 seconds (Claude Code CLI / VS Code / JetBrains):
/plugin marketplace add bbulman/workshop-synthesizer
/plugin install workshop-synthesizer
Then try /ws-help to see the decision tree, or jump straight to /ws-discovery if you just ran customer interviews.
The recipe runs the recipe. You author the call. This plugin doesn't write your synthesis for you. It handles the mechanical work — clustering, anti-flattening, draft transitions, audience-tiered framing — so you can focus on the parts that need your judgment: the interpretation, the priority call, the political read, the sentence at the top of the deck.
Every pipeline agent in this plugin pauses at named human-authorship checkpoints — the [INTERPRET] move, the [PRIORITIZE] move, the call slide, the personalized paragraph. It refuses to advance past those steps with model assistance. That's by design.
The book's Chapter 11 ("A gentle on-ramp to agents") describes the pattern. The agent is good at the recipe; the agent is not good at the engagement. An agent that runs the discovery recipe end-to-end produces output that's 80% of what you'd produce manually. The remaining 20% — the unexpected interpretation that requires you to remember interview nineteen, the political read on which opportunity area the CPO can stomach, the call slide phrased exactly right — does not fit inside an agent.
The plugin's job is to remove the paste-and-wait labor so the human's time goes to the parts that need a human.
| Skill | What it does | Book chapter |
|---|---|---|
ws-framework |
The four moves, the synthesis stack, the Stakes × Politics matrix, "human-authored, machine-assisted" | Chs 1–3 |
ws-discovery |
Customer discovery synthesis (14+ interviews → opportunity areas) | Ch 4 |
ws-offsite |
Strategic offsite synthesis (CEO memo + board deck + confidential appendix) | Ch 5 |
ws-sprint |
Design sprint synthesis (Decide vote + 5 user tests → Monday recommendation) | Ch 6 |
ws-ideation |
Ideation/roadmap synthesis (200 stickies → ranked shortlist + kill list) | Ch 7 |
ws-retro |
Retro/post-mortem synthesis (dissent preservation, blame-vs-cause) | Ch 8 |
ws-training |
Training debrief (3 audiences: participants, program owner, budget-holder) | Ch 9 |
ws-prompt-library |
Twelve workhorses + four-part prompt grammar + aloud test | Ch 10 |
/ws-help Index + decision tree — start here
/ws-discovery Run the Discovery recipe
/ws-offsite Run the Strategic Offsite recipe
/ws-sprint Run the Design Sprint recipe
/ws-ideation Run the Ideation/Roadmap recipe
/ws-retro Run the Retro/Post-mortem recipe
/ws-training Run the Training Debrief recipe
See MODE_REGISTRY.md for all recipes, modes, and variants.
Every prompt from the book's appendix in copy-paste form, organized by recipe in prompts/:
prompts/workhorses/— the 10 most-reused prompts + 2 disciplines (aloud test, audience-tiered narrator)prompts/discovery/— 7 prompts (#1–4, #24–26)prompts/offsite/— 3 prompts (#5–7)prompts/sprint/— 2 prompts (#8–9)prompts/ideation/— 5 prompts (#10–14)prompts/retro/— 5 prompts (#15–19)prompts/training/— 4 prompts (#20–23)
Each prompt file is verbatim from the book's appendix with [bracket] variables marked. They work in any long-context LLM — copy-paste into ChatGPT or Claude.ai if you don't run Claude Code.
One per recipe (under <skill>/agents/). Each implements the Chapter 11 agentic-pipeline pattern: automated steps with human-authorship pauses at the [INTERPRET] and [PRIORITIZE] checkpoints (and at the personalized-paragraph step in training, and the confidential-appendix step in offsite).
👉 docs/ARCHITECTURE.md — the full plugin view: file tree, how a slash command flows through the plugin, how skills reference each other, how pipeline agents pause at human-authored steps.
You just walked out of a workshop. Which recipe?
Customer discovery, user interviews, CAB, persona work → /ws-discovery
Executive offsite, board strategy day, founder/board → /ws-offsite
GV-style design sprint, prototype validation → /ws-sprint
Half-day ideation, brainstorm, roadmap workshop → /ws-ideation
Team retro, sprint retro, blameless post-mortem → /ws-retro
Multi-day training, cohort program, cross-functional → /ws-training
Don't know which fits? → /ws-help
Prerequisites:
- Claude Code (latest)
- An Anthropic API key, OpenAI key, or model provider configured in Claude Code
- Optional: a synthesis-ready file template stored somewhere stable (see
ws-framework/references/synthesis-ready-file.md)
Plugin install (recommended):
/plugin marketplace add bbulman/workshop-synthesizer
/plugin install workshop-synthesizer
Verify it works: run /ws-help — you should see a decision tree pointing at the six recipes.
For direct-clone install or installing without Claude Code, see QUICKSTART.md.
Every prompt in prompts/ works in any long-context LLM. The plugin is the convenient runner; the prompts are the product.
See docs/using-without-claude-code.md for the copy-paste path.
The book and the plugin are designed to be used together. The book teaches the moves and the rationale. The plugin runs the workflow. If you find a recipe in the book that the plugin handles oddly, the book is the source of truth; read the chapter again, then file an issue.
Book: The Synthesis Playbook by Workshopr.io will be available on Amazon KDP, Apple Books, and the Workshopr.io site.
See docs/relationship-to-book.md for the full chapter-to-skill map.
See CONTRIBUTING.md. Prompt improvements welcome via PR. New workshop-type recipes — open an issue first so we can scope it. The book's discipline is to keep "where AI helps" and "where AI hurts" in balance; PRs that only document failure modes will be asked to balance the framing.
MIT. The prompts and recipes are yours to copy, adapt, and steal. If you build a version that works better than mine, I want to see it. Send it. I'll print it out and steal it back.
The Synthesis Playbook plugin — v0.2.0, May 2026. By Bill Bulman. Pick up the pan.