Context Portfolio

The durable asset. A versioned written record of how this team operates, which every agent reads instead of re-deriving. Build it before the first agent, not after the third one gets the voice wrong.

When to use

• Before any agent that writes, scores, or researches on the team's behalf
• Onboarding a new rep, which is the same problem
• The same correction is being given to an agent repeatedly
• Positioning changed and now every agent is wrong

Inputs

• Needs from user: roughly 30 minutes of interview per module, or existing docs to import
• Reads: any existing messaging, ICP, or playbook documents

Workflow

1. Understand why this exists

Prompts get rewritten every quarter. The portfolio survives model upgrades, tool migrations, and staff turnover, because it is a description of the business rather than an instruction to a model.

The practical payoff: when positioning changes, you edit one file and every agent is current. Without it, the positioning is copied into nine skill bodies and eight of them stay wrong.

2. Build the ten modules

Each one a separate markdown file. Interview rather than guess, and leave a module blank rather than filling it with plausible invention.

3. Write voice from real examples, never from adjectives

"Confident and conversational" tells an agent nothing. Three paragraphs the person actually wrote, plus an explicit banned list, works.

The banned list is the higher-value half. Words and structures to never use are enforceable in a way that aspirational adjectives are not.

4. Mark clearance on every proof point

Any named customer, metric, or case study carries its clearance status inline.

- 40% reduction in processing time  [source: mid-market customer deck, CLEARED for public use]
- Named logo reference             [source: enterprise QBR, NOT CLEARED, internal only]

Without inline markers, an uncleared metric eventually reaches a public surface, and nobody remembers where it came from.

5. Version it, and make corrections land here

The rule that decides whether this stays useful: when you correct an agent, the correction is written into the portfolio, not into the conversation. A correction made in chat is lost at the end of the session. A correction written to voice.md is permanent and applies to every agent.

Keep the files in git. decisions.md is append-only and dated, and it is the file the next operator will thank you for.

6. Point skills at it, never copy into them

Skills reference the portfolio path. No skill hardcodes positioning, ICP, or guardrails. When a file is missing, the skill falls back to house style rather than erroring, so a partial portfolio is still useful.

Output

• Writes: workspace/agents/context/*.md, ten files
• Uses: templates/context-portfolio-template.md
• Prints: which modules are filled, which are blank, and what each blank one is blocking

Rules & quality bar

• Interview, do not invent. A blank module is honest. A guessed module is a landmine
• Voice from real examples plus a banned list. Never adjectives
• Clearance status inline on every proof point
• No skill hardcodes what belongs in the portfolio
• Corrections write to the portfolio, not to the chat
• decisions.md is dated and append-only
• Missing files degrade gracefully. No skill should error on an absent module

Related skills

• Required by: every writing, research, and scoring skill in the agent plane
• Hands off to: skill-authoring
• See also: agent-guardrails for the guardrails module in detail