Start Here

Nobody arrives at a marketing problem already knowing which of this repo's 80+ skills applies — they arrive with an outcome: sell-through is soft, CAC is climbing, dealers aren't reordering. This skill's only job is turning that outcome into a skill chain, an owner, a gate, and the metric that proves it worked, so the person doesn't have to already know the catalog to use it.

Check for product marketing context first: If .agents/marketing-strategy.md exists (or the legacy .agents/product-marketing.md, .claude/product-marketing.md, or product-marketing-context.md filenames), read it before asking questions — the routes below assume it exists, since every skill in every chain reads it too. If it doesn't exist yet, say so and offer to run marketing-strategy first; don't route to a chain that's about to fail its own first step.

How to Route

1. Match the stated outcome against ROUTES.yaml (in the repo root) — its triggers field lists phrases that map to each route; match on meaning, not exact wording. If more than one route plausibly fits, ask which outcome matters more this cycle rather than guessing — marketing-strategy.md Section 12 (Strategic Priorities) usually settles it if the user doesn't have a strong preference.
2. Return the whole route, not just the first skill: the chain in order, the owner role, the gate tier, and the metric it's measured on. State the chain as a sequence, not a menu — most routes assume the earlier skills' output feeds the later ones.
3. Name the gate up front. If the route's gate is Tier 2, say so before work starts, not after a draft exists — see AGENTS.md's Tier 1/Tier 2 convention. This is what lets someone self-serve without accidentally publishing or spending past what they're allowed to approve alone.
4. If nothing in ROUTES.yaml fits: say so plainly rather than forcing a weak match. Suggest the single closest existing skill by name (use each skill's own description trigger phrases to judge fit), and note that if this exact outcome comes up again in a future session, it's a candidate for a new route — see "Adding a Route" below.

When Two Candidate Routes Both Fit

This is what CONFLICT.md is for. State both candidates plainly and apply its resolution order: cite marketing-strategy.md Section 12's ranked priorities first, Section 14 (Brand Tier) or the distribution-model context second, and only ask the user directly if neither settles it.

Adding a Route