Product Pulse

ce-product-pulse queries the product's data sources for a given time window and produces a compact, single-page report covering usage, performance, errors, and followups. The report is saved to <root>/pulse-reports/ and the key points are shown in chat.

Done: a report of 30-40 lines exists at <root>/pulse-reports/YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM.md, its headlines and top followup are in chat, and Phase 3 (Scheduling) has been reached.

Boundaries

• Read-only, everywhere. The skill does not mutate the product, the database, or any external system. Its only writes are pulse settings appended to .compound-engineering/config.local.yaml (interview and opt-out writes stay on the local override) and the report file. MCP and other data-source tools are invoked read-only; if a tool offers write modes, do not use them. A database source must be a read-only connection — the interview refuses read-write credentials, and DB access is optional, since many products complete the pulse with analytics and tracing alone.
• No PII in saved reports. No user emails, account IDs, or message content in the file written to disk.
• Read it like a founder. No hardcoded thresholds, no default "good"/"bad" labels, no alerting: present the numbers and let the reader judge.
• Single page. Target 30-40 lines. If a section is thin, leave it thin; if the report is getting long, cut.
• Not a shipping log or a dashboard replacement. Shipped work lives in the issue tracker and commit history. Deep investigation still uses the native tools; this consolidates a single-page read, and every run is saved so past pulses browse as a timeline.

Interaction Method

Default to the host's blocking question tool already in the current tool list (match by capability, not by a host-specific name). Presence in the current tool list is proof the tool exists; never call a user-facing question tool to discover whether it exists. If a matching tool is listed but unloaded, use the host's tool-discovery primitive to load that capability — do not search for another host's tool name. Fall back to numbered options on the host's user-visible chat surface only when no such tool is in the list or a real question call errors. Never silently skip the question.

Ask one question at a time. Reserve multi-select for first-run configuration only.

Lookback Window

The lookback window is the time range this skill was invoked with (e.g. 24h, 7d) — present in the current prompt or conversation, whether the user gave it directly or a calling skill passed it. Common forms are trailing hours (24h, 48h, 72h), trailing days (7d, 30d), and 1h for launches.

If the argument is empty, default to pulse_lookback_default from config (resolved in Phase 0, Route by config state); if that is also unset, fall through to the hard default of 24h. If the argument is unparseable, ask the user to clarify.

Apply a 15-minute trailing buffer to the window's upper bound. Many analytics and tracing tools have ingestion lag; querying right up to now under-reports the most recent events. For a 24h window, query [now - 24h - 15m, now - 15m].

Artifact Root

This skill writes pulse reports under <root>/pulse-reports/. Resolve <root> when you first compose a <root>/ path (per the block below), never before you need it. A write to <root>/... and a read of <root>/solutions/ both count as composing a <root>/ path, so either one triggers resolution; only a run that touches no <root>/ path at all -- a scratch-only or no-repo flow -- skips it.

Resolve the CE artifact root <root> before composing any artifact path.

• Read docs_root from <repo-root>/.compound-engineering/config.yaml only (<repo-root> = git rev-parse --show-toplevel). Do not read it from config.local.yaml. Unset -> <root> is docs, exactly as before.
• Validate a set value: a repo-relative directory whose real, symlink-resolved path stays inside the repo and is neither the repo root nor under .git/. Otherwise stop with an error naming docs_root and the value -- never fall back to docs.
• Use <root> as the sole artifact location: create it if absent, compose each path as <root>/<subdir> with this skill's own subdirectory, and never also read docs.

Phase 0: Route by config state

Resolve ordinary CE yaml keys from the two repo files.

• Read <repo-root>/.compound-engineering/config.local.yaml, then config.yaml (<repo-root> = git rev-parse --show-toplevel). Missing files are skipped. Gitignore does not change resolution.
• Win with the first active (non-commented) value. For scalars, empty is unset; an invalid value continues to the next layer, then the skill default. For lists and maps, a present key — including an empty list or map — replaces the whole key.
• Do not use this rule for docs_root — that key is config.yaml only.

Resolve <repo-root> with git rev-parse --show-toplevel, then apply the ordinary-key rule above to the pulse_* keys. Read references/config.md whenever a pulse_* value has to be interpreted — it is the key schema and nothing else: each key, its allowed values, and its default, with an unset or invalid value taking the documented default rather than being guessed.

Routing: every run passes through Phase 2 (Run the pulse) and then Phase 3 (Scheduling). Run Phase 1 (First-run interview) first when pulse_product_name is unset after cascade (the ordinary-key rule above), when the repo root cannot be resolved, or when the argument was setup, reconfigure, or edit config. Otherwise start at Phase 2 (Run the pulse).

Phase 1: First-run interview

Read references/setup.md first; this read is required. It defines the strategy-doc seeding, the interview order and its pushback bar, the read-write database refusal, how the config is written to config.local.yaml without disturbing other keys, and the one-time scheduling offer. The questions themselves come from references/interview.md, which that file names as its own required read.

Phase 2: Run the pulse

If Phase 1 (First-run interview) ran, re-apply the ordinary-key rule (local then tracked) from the repo root using the native file-read tool before any query, to pick up edits accepted during the Phase 1 review step. Otherwise use the pulse_* values already extracted in Phase 0 (Route by config state), applying the defaults in references/config.md for anything unset.

Then read references/run.md before dispatching any query; this read is required. It defines which queries run in parallel and which run serially, the pulse_db_enabled check that decides whether database work runs, the optional quality sampling and its scoring discipline, the four report sections, and where the report is written.

Phase 3: Scheduling

Setup offers a recurring run once (references/setup.md). On later runs, mention it again lightly: if the argument was a schedule keyword (daily, hourly, weekly), say this run is ad-hoc and point at the harness's scheduling primitive; if no schedule is on file and this is the third or later run, mention once that scheduling is available. Do not nag on every run, and never schedule automatically — any handoff to a scheduling primitive requires explicit confirmation.