feat: /board — Board of Advisors with 8 knowledge-rich personas + Socratic moderator

[vmuttineni-1]

What this adds

A new /board skill that convenes a Board of Advisors — 8 specialist advisors with deep knowledge bases who debate your question Socratically, challenge each other's assumptions, and deliver structured recommendations.

This fills a gap in gstack's lineup. /office-hours is a 1:1 diagnostic. /plan-ceo-review is a single CEO lens. /board gives you 8 distinct perspectives arguing with each other — surfacing tensions, hidden assumptions, and contrarian takes that no single viewpoint would catch.

The 8 advisors

Each advisor has a persona file (who they are, how they think) and a knowledge base file (specific frameworks, data points, case studies, expert quotes, contrarian takes, and decision frameworks):

Advisor	Perspective	Example knowledge
Growth & Retention Strategist	Distribution beats product, retention is gold	Duolingo growth model, Racecar Framework, 7 Distribution Advantages, cohort retention benchmarks
Strategic Product Leader	Execution problems are strategy problems in disguise	LNO Framework, pre-mortem thinking, empowered teams vs. feature factories
Startup Founder & Fundraising Advisor	Speed as strategy, run toward fear	Build-Measure-Learn, reversible vs. irreversible decisions, bootstrap-through-PMF
Finance & Monetization Strategist	Unit economics don't lie, pricing is underleveraged	Value metric selection, tactical vs. strategic churn, CAC/LTV/payback benchmarks
Leadership & Organizational Coach	Culture eats strategy, the leader's job isn't happiness	Radical Candor, tempo > org design, values as trade-offs
AI & Technology Strategist	The biggest barrier to AI is organizational, not technical	Context engineering > prompt engineering, DORA metrics, evaluation frameworks
Customer Discovery & Design Expert	You don't understand the problem until you've talked to customers	Opportunity Solution Trees, jobs-to-be-done, customer story interviewing
Go-to-Market & Positioning Strategist	Positioning determines everything downstream	Category creation vs. competition, strategic narrative, stakeholder influence

The personas and knowledge bases are distilled from 500+ episodes of Lenny's Newsletter and Podcast — real frameworks from practitioners like Casey Winters (Duolingo/Pinterest), Shreyas Doshi (Stripe/Twitter), April Dunford (Obviously Awesome), Julie Zhuo (Facebook Design), and dozens of other operators. These aren't generic "be a growth expert" prompts — each advisor has specific mental models, known biases, and example positions that make them argue differently.

The Socratic moderator

The moderator isn't a summarizer — it's a case discussion leader (think MBA professor) that:

• Frames the case before soliciting input, surfacing underlying tensions
• Seeks disagreement — if all advisors agree, something is wrong
• Challenges hidden assumptions — "You're assuming your burn rate is fixed — Advisor 2, is it?"
• Names biases — "Your track record is in high-growth SaaS — how might that shape your read here?"
• Protects minority views — the dissenting advisor often has the most valuable insight
• Drives specificity — "Give me a number. What conversion rate would change your answer?"

How it works

A 7-step debate protocol with progressive output:

1. Read moderator + advisor roster → Frame the case
2. Select 3-5 advisors → Load knowledge bases for selected advisors only (lazy loading saves context)
3. Round 1 — Each advisor delivers their take, referencing specific frameworks and data
4. Reality Check — WebSearch verifies 2-4 factual claims from advisors
5. Moderator Interlude — Tensions, assumptions, gaps, corrections from reality check
6. Round 2 — Targeted challenges, cross-advisor debate, contrarian perspectives
7. Final Synthesis — Assessment, recommendations, next steps, hidden assumptions, disagreements, questions to go deeper

Transcripts are saved to ~/.gstack/projects/$SLUG/board-sessions/ so future /board sessions can build on prior discussions.

File structure

board/
├── SKILL.md.tmpl              # Skill template (7-step debate protocol)
├── SKILL.md                   # Generated
├── moderator.md               # Socratic moderator persona + discussion protocol
├── advisors/
│   ├── README.md              # Advisor schema + design principles
│   ├── 8 persona files        # Who they are, how they think
│   └── knowledge/
│       └── 8 knowledge files  # What they know (frameworks, data, case studies)

20 files, 2,122 lines. No hooks, no binaries — pure prompt skill with companion knowledge files (same pattern as /review/checklist.md).

When to use

• "Get me different perspectives on this"
• Before major product/business pivots
• Strategic decisions with multiple valid approaches
• After /office-hours for deeper multi-angle analysis
• Any decision where you suspect your own biases are limiting your thinking

Test plan

• bun run gen:skill-docs generates board/SKILL.md successfully
• bun run gen:skill-docs --dry-run reports board/SKILL.md as FRESH
• bun run gen:skill-docs --host codex generates .agents/skills/gstack-board/SKILL.md
• Manual test: invoke /board with a strategic question, verify all 7 steps execute
• Verify companion files are readable via .claude/skills/gstack/board/ paths

🤖 Generated with Claude Code