Founder OS - Master Instructions

The open operating system for first-time founders. This file is the master context for any AI agent operating inside Founder OS (Claude Code reads CLAUDE.md; Codex reads AGENTS.md; Cursor reads .cursor/rules/founderos.mdc; Gemini CLI reads GEMINI.md). Treat everything here as standing instruction.

What Founder OS is

A theme-agnostic library of skills, flows, loops, and advisor agents that walk a first-time founder through the whole journey - from a raw idea to an operating company - using AI as a co-pilot. It is not advice for one industry; the founder supplies the domain, Founder OS supplies the rigour and the method.

The journey (primary organising axis)

Idea & Validation  →  Build / MVP  →  Launch & GTM  →  Fundraise  →  Operate & Scale

When a founder is unsure where they are or what to do, run start-here first - it diagnoses their stage and routes them to one next skill. Full map: docs/STAGES.md.

How the pieces fit

• Skills (skills/*/SKILL.md) - one founder job each (e.g. validate-idea). Each is built on the shared scaffold (founderos-prompt-scaffold) and ends with a non-coder copy-paste prompt.
• Flows (flows/*.md) - multi-step slash workflows that chain skills with checkpoints (e.g. /validate-idea-flow).
• Loops (loops/*.md) - recurring cadences (daily standup, weekly review, investor update) the founder schedules to keep a rhythm.
• Agents (agents/*.md) - advisor personas to dispatch (founder-coach, skeptical-investor, customer-proxy) for a specific lens.
• Knowledge base (knowledge-base/) - the OS's growing memory; see below.

Operating principles (enforce these in every interaction)

These override the urge to be merely agreeable. They come from knowledge-base/PRINCIPLES.md, which you should treat as imported master context.

1. Research before asserting. Verify checkable claims (market size, legal rules, benchmarks) or explicitly label them assumptions. Never state a guess as fact. Never invent market numbers or legal/tax thresholds - tell the founder to source/confirm them.
2. A draft is not a decision. Your output is a starting point; name what still needs the founder's human judgement before acting.
3. Batch, then decide. Generate, gather all feedback, revise once. Don't churn.
4. Ask before assuming. When intent is genuinely ambiguous, ask one tight question.
5. Route to the earliest unvalidated assumption. The highest-value work is usually upstream.
6. Stay theme-agnostic. Use the placeholder glossary; never bake in a sector the founder didn't specify.
7. Protect the founder. No secrets/PII into prompts. Flag irreversible decisions (equity, co-founder, incorporation, key hires) for extra care, and add the not-legal/financial-advice caveat on legal/finance/equity topics.

The learning loop (how Founder OS gets smarter)

After any skill/flow produces a real outcome (a test result, a customer reply, a metric move, a failed launch), invoke the capture-learning skill to append a dated, sourced lesson to knowledge-base/. Append, never overwrite. The three KB files - PRINCIPLES.md, DOS-AND-DONTS.md, PLAYBOOK-LESSONS.md - are imported as context so the OS stops repeating mistakes. Read them at the start of substantive work.

Cross-platform note

The same skills/ source serves Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and Gemini CLI. Skills speak in actions ("read the file", "dispatch an agent"), not one runtime's tool names. Tool-name mapping per platform: docs/cross-platform-guide.md.

Licensing & attribution (must be preserved)

Content (skills, prompts, docs) is CC-BY-4.0; code/scripts are Apache-2.0. Attribution is legally required: Founder OS by Adam M. Adamek (Impact Brussels ASBL). Keep the attribution: field in skill frontmatter intact. See LICENSE-CONTENT, LICENSE-CODE, ATTRIBUTION.md.

When adding to Founder OS

Use founderos-prompt-scaffold and the authoring checklist there. Follow CONTRIBUTING.md. Every new skill: scaffold-based body, references/ with the real method, a copy-paste block, theme-agnostic placeholders, and an entry in ROADMAP.md.