Ceos Accountability

If .ceos is not found, stop and tell the user: "Not in a CEOS repository. Clone your CEOS repo and run setup.sh first."

Sync before use: Once you find the CEOS root, run git -C <ceos_root> pull --ff-only --quiet 2>/dev/null to get the latest data from teammates. If it fails (conflict or offline), continue silently with local data.

Key Files

Accountability Chart Structure

The chart is a single markdown file (data/accountability.md) with this structure:

• Company heading: ## CompanyName at the top with a *Last updated: YYYY-MM-DD* line
• How to Use section: Instructions block (preserved during edits)
• Seats: Each seat is a ## SeatName heading followed by:
  • **Owner:** PersonName (or [Name] if unfilled)
  • A roles table with exactly 5 numbered rows

Example seat:

## VP of Sales

**Owner:** Mike Torres

| # | Role |
|---|------|
| 1 | Revenue — hit quarterly sales targets |
| 2 | Pipeline — maintain 3x pipeline coverage |
| 3 | Team — recruit, coach, and retain sales reps |
| 4 | Process — define and enforce the sales playbook |
| 5 | Reporting — weekly forecast and funnel metrics |

Hierarchy is implicit from the order of seats in the file. The Visionary and Integrator appear first (top of org), followed by functional seats (Sales, Ops, Finance, etc.).

Template placeholders: [Name] for empty owner, [Key responsibility] for undefined roles.

Process

Mode: View

When the user asks to see the accountability chart or check seat ownership.

Step 1: Read the Chart

Read data/accountability.md. If the file doesn't exist: "No accountability chart found. Run ./setup.sh init to create one from the template, or create data/accountability.md manually."

Step 2: Parse Seats

Walk through the file and extract each seat:

• Title: The ## SeatName heading text
• Owner: The name after **Owner:** (or "empty" if [Name])
• Roles: The numbered entries in the roles table
• Role count: How many non-placeholder roles are defined

Step 3: Display the Chart

Show the chart in a clear hierarchical format:

Accountability Chart — Acme Corp
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Last updated: 2026-02-01

  Visionary                Brad Feld         5/5 roles
  Integrator               Sarah Chen        5/5 roles
  ├── VP of Sales          Mike Torres       5/5 roles
  ├── VP of Operations     Daniel Kim        5/5 roles
  └── VP of Finance        (empty)           0/5 roles

If the user asks for detail, show each seat with its full role table.

Step 4: Summary Stats

Summary: 5 seats | 4 filled | 1 empty | avg 4.0 roles per seat

Mode: Update

When the user wants to modify the accountability chart — add, change, or remove seats.

Sub-mode: Add Seat

Step 1: Collect Seat Information

Ask for:

1. Title — "What's the seat title?" (e.g., "VP of Product")
2. Owner — "Who owns this seat?" (one person, or leave empty for a gap to fill)
3. Five roles — "What are the 5 key responsibilities for this seat?"
4. Position — "Where in the hierarchy? Under which seat, or at the leadership level?"

Step 2: Validate

• Title required. If empty, ask again.
• 5 roles recommended. If fewer than 5, warn: "EOS recommends exactly 5 roles per seat. You have [N]. Want to add more, or save as-is?"
• Check for duplicate title. If a seat with the same title already exists: "A seat called '[Title]' already exists. Did you mean to modify it instead?"

Step 3: Show the Addition

Display the new seat in the correct format:

## VP of Product

**Owner:** [Collected name or [Name]]

| # | Role |
|---|------|
| 1 | [Role 1] |
| 2 | [Role 2] |
| 3 | [Role 3] |
| 4 | [Role 4] |
| 5 | [Role 5] |

Ask: "Add this seat to the accountability chart?"

Step 4: Write

Insert the new seat at the correct position in data/accountability.md. Add a --- separator before the new seat. Update the *Last updated:* date to today.

Sub-mode: Modify Seat

Step 1: Select the Seat

Show the current chart (list seats with owners). Ask: "Which seat do you want to modify?"

Accept by title or owner name.

Step 2: Show Current State

Display the seat's current title, owner, and all 5 roles.

Step 3: Collect Changes

Ask what to change:

• Owner — "Change the owner?"
• Roles — "Update any roles?" (show numbered list, let user update by number)
• Title — "Rename the seat?"

Step 4: Show Diff

Display the before and after:

Modifying: VP of Sales
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Owner: Mike Torres → Sarah Chen

Roles changed:
  3. (was) Team — recruit, coach, and retain sales reps
  3. (now) Team — recruit and develop account executives

Ask: "Apply these changes?"

Step 5: Write

Update the seat in data/accountability.md. Update the *Last updated:* date to today.

Sub-mode: Remove Seat

Step 1: Select the Seat

Show the current chart. Ask: "Which seat do you want to remove?"

Step 2: Confirm

Show the seat being removed with all its details. Warn:

"Removing a seat means this function will no longer have a dedicated owner. Are you sure?"

If the seat has an owner: "The owner ([person]) will no longer be assigned to this seat. They may need to be assigned to another seat or evaluated."

Step 3: Write

Remove the seat section from data/accountability.md. Update the *Last updated:* date to today.

Always show the complete diff before writing any changes in Update mode.

Mode: Audit

When the user wants to check the chart for structural issues, stale data, or mismatches with People Analyzer data.

Step 1: Structural Checks

Read data/accountability.md and check each seat for:

Step 2: Cross-Reference with People Directory

Read all files in data/people/ and compare:

• Owner in chart but no person file: Flag: "[Owner] is listed in accountability.md but has no evaluation file in data/people/. Create one?"
• Person file references a seat not in the chart: Flag: "[Person]'s file says seat: '[Seat]' but no such seat exists in accountability.md."
• Name mismatch (fuzzy): Flag: "Owner 'Mike' in accountability.md may be 'Mike Torres' in data/people/mike-torres.md. Confirm match?"

Name matching should be case-insensitive and match on first name if the full name matches a person file.

Step 3: Multi-Seat and Empty Seat Detection

• Person owns multiple seats: Note (not an error — common in small companies): "[Person] owns [N] seats: [list]. Ensure they have capacity."
• Empty seats: Flag: "[Seat Name] has no owner. This is a gap — hire or reassign."

Step 4: Display Audit Report

Accountability Chart Audit
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Seat Checks:
| Seat           | Owner         | Roles | Placeholders | Status |
|----------------|---------------|-------|-------------|--------|
| Visionary      | Brad Feld     | 5/5   | None        | ✅     |
| Integrator     | Sarah Chen    | 5/5   | None        | ✅     |
| VP Sales       | Mike Torres   | 5/5   | None        | ✅     |
| Operations     | (empty)       | 3/5   | 2 remaining | 🔴     |
| Finance        | (empty)       | 0/5   | 5 remaining | 🔴     |

Cross-Reference:
  ⚠️  Mike Torres has no person file — create data/people/mike-torres.md?
  ⚠️  Operations seat is empty — hiring gap or reassignment needed

Multi-Seat Check:
  Brad Feld owns 1 seat (Visionary)
  Sarah Chen owns 1 seat (Integrator)
  Mike Torres owns 1 seat (VP Sales)

Chart Freshness:
  ✅ Last updated 14 days ago (within 180-day threshold)

Overall: 3/5 seats fully defined | 2 empty seats | 1 person missing evaluation

Step 5: Suggest Fixes

For each issue found, suggest an action:

• Empty seat: "Run Update mode to assign an owner or remove the seat."
• Missing roles: "Run Update mode to define all 5 roles for [Seat]."
• Missing person file: "Run ceos-people Evaluate mode for [Person]."
• Stale chart: "Run Update mode to refresh. Last updated [N] days ago."
• Name mismatch: "Update accountability.md to use the full name, or update the person file."

Output Format

View: Hierarchical chart display with seat titles, owners, and role counts. Summary stats at the bottom.

Update: Before/after diff for modifications. Complete seat preview for additions. Confirmation prompt before every write.

Audit: Table with per-seat status flags. Cross-reference results. Multi-seat ownership summary. Suggested fixes for each issue found.

Guardrails

• Always show diff before writing. Never modify data/accountability.md without showing the complete change and getting approval. This is the most important rule — the accountability chart affects everyone in the company.
• 5 roles per seat (recommended, not enforced). EOS methodology says exactly 5 roles per seat. Warn if fewer or more than 5, but allow the user to proceed after acknowledging. Some companies are still defining roles.
• One owner per seat. Every seat has exactly one person's name — not "the team", not two names. If multiple people share a function, split it into separate seats.
• Don't modify other files. This skill writes to data/accountability.md only. It reads from data/people/ for Audit, but never writes to people files. Suggest running ceos-people instead.
• Update the last-updated date. Every time data/accountability.md is modified, update the *Last updated: YYYY-MM-DD* line at the top of the file to today's date.
• Don't auto-invoke other skills. Mention ceos-people, ceos-quarterly, and ceos-annual when relevant, but let the user decide when to switch workflows.
• Sensitive data warning. On first use, remind the user: "The Accountability Chart may contain sensitive organizational data. Use a private repo."
• Preserve file structure. When editing, keep the ## How to Use This Chart section and all --- separators intact. Only modify seat sections.

Integration Notes

People Analyzer (ceos-people)

• Read: ceos-people reads data/accountability.md to determine which seat a person occupies during GWC evaluation. The seat: field in person files should match a seat title from the chart.
• Audit cross-reference: ceos-accountability Audit mode reads data/people/ to detect mismatches between seat owners and person files. It does not write to people files.
• Suggested flow: If Audit detects a missing person file, suggest: "Run ceos-people Evaluate mode for [Person]."

Quarterly Conversations (ceos-quarterly)

• Read: ceos-quarterly uses the accountability chart to understand reporting relationships — who reports to whom determines which conversations need to happen.
• Suggested flow: Before running quarterly conversations, run ceos-accountability Audit to ensure the chart is current and seats are correctly assigned.

Annual Planning (ceos-annual)

• Read: ceos-annual references the accountability chart during the organizational checkup — a key step where the leadership team reviews the chart top-to-bottom.
• Suggested flow: During Annual Planning, the team should review and update the accountability chart using ceos-accountability Update mode before setting next year's Rocks.

Read-Only Principle

Other skills (ceos-people, ceos-quarterly, ceos-annual, ceos-l10) read data/accountability.md for reference. Only ceos-accountability writes to this file. This preserves a single source of truth for organizational structure changes.