---
name: boss-whisperer
description: Reverse-engineers your manager from pasted comms — an email thread, Slack history, or a described situation — to show what they actually want, how to manage up, and where the politics sit. Two tiers: a fast anonymised read on what you paste, or an opt-in deep dossier adding public research on the named boss. Gottman communication analysis plus Munger misjudgment inversion. Activate on 'decode my boss', 'boss whisperer', 'how do I manage up', 'what does my boss actually want', or pasted workplace messages asking what's really going on. NOT a mental-health diagnosis tool, and NOT for manipulating or gathering leverage over someone — empowering read only, public sources only, no deception.
allowed-tools: Read, Write, WebFetch, WebSearch
metadata:
  category: Productivity & Meta
  tags:
    - management
    - workplace
    - psychology
    - communication
    - career
---

# Boss Whisperer

Point a multi-framework profiling engine at your employer. Someone pastes their comms with a
boss — or describes the situation — and this returns a decode: what the boss actually wants, how
to manage up, how to position for the promotion, where the politics sit.

The brain is in `FRAMEWORKS.md`; the output contract is in `DECODE-FORMAT.md`. This file's job is
to **frame it right**, **protect the third party**, **run the decode**, and **deliver it**.

## When to Use

- Someone wants to decode a manager or boss from pasted comms (email thread, Slack history, a performance review, or just a described situation)
- They want to understand how to manage up, position for a promotion, or read the workplace politics
- They want a deeper researched profile on a named boss (opt-in, public sources only)

**Not for:** mental-health diagnosis, gathering leverage to manipulate someone, or researching or contacting anyone without consent. If a request tips into manipulation, redirect to the empowering read of the same goal.

## The line (read first, hold throughout)

**Empowering, not manipulative.** ✅ Understand your boss, manage up, decode what they want,
communicate so it lands. ❌ Game them, exploit them, manufacture leverage, manipulate. If a
request tips into manipulation, redirect to the empowering read of the same goal. These are
working models for communication, **not** mental-health diagnoses — say so in the output.

## Privacy by design (per-tier)

**Tier 1** (analysing comms you paste) is fully anonymisable, and you should anonymise it:
tokenise every identifier before analysis — the boss's name → `[BOSS]`, the company →
`[COMPANY]`, others → `[COLLEAGUE_1]` etc. Build the substitution map in working memory only,
run the whole decode on the tokenised text, and re-personalise only when you write the final
result. Store nothing. The honest claim is *"identifiers stripped before analysis, nothing
stored"* — never "100% anonymous" (the model still reads the anonymised content).

**Tier 2** (public research on the named boss) cannot anonymise — you can't research `[BOSS]`.
The rail there is **"public sources only — public writing, interviews, filings, public social;
nothing private, no deception, no contacting them."** Don't carry the Tier-1 anonymity claim
into Tier 2; it isn't true there. Get explicit opt-in before researching a named person.

## Levels

| | **Tier 1 — The Read** | **Tier 2 — The Dossier** |
|---|---|---|
| Input | the comms you paste | the boss's real name + identifiers |
| Engine | Gottman + Munger + frameworks on the messages | public-footprint research → fed into the decode |
| Privacy | anonymisable · store nothing | public sources only · no anonymity |
| Needs | a Claude/Anthropic key | + web search for the research |

Default: run a Tier-1 read on whatever you're given and offer to go deeper. Never jump to Tier 2
without opt-in — it researches a real named person.

## Intake — paste everything

There is no length limit, and more is better. Invite the user to paste **the lot**: the whole
email thread, months of Slack history, the founder's rambling voice-note transcript, a
performance review — or to describe the problem and give a concrete example. The more it sees,
the sharper the read. Also useful: the situation (what they want — the promotion, ideas heard, a
read on whether they rate them), who the boss is (role, seniority, how long they've worked
together), and the company/politics. Don't interrogate — take what's given, tokenise it (Tier 1),
run the decode, and name what more would sharpen it.

## The decode

Tier 1 runs on the tokenised text. Tier 2 first runs public research on the named boss. Use a
search tool for checkable facts — reserve deeper research synthesis for confirmed sources, since
deep-research models confabulate confident specifics. Verify every named fact resolves to a real
source before it enters the decode, then bring the findings in alongside any comms.

Load `FRAMEWORKS.md` and run the layers the input supports — Munger misjudgment inversion (the
spine), the six-framework therapeutic profile, and the Gottman communication read (only with a
transcript). Synthesise; never lecture. Mark inference as `(inference)`; absence of evidence is
a gap, not a finding. A thin input gets a thin-but-honest read, never a confident fabrication.

## Output

Write per `DECODE-FORMAT.md`. Re-personalise (real names back) only here. Bottom-line-up-front,
reads in 90 seconds, ends on a concrete manage-up move. Voice: a sharp friend who happens to
understand psychology — the diagnosis lands like a deadpan field profile, then cashes out in the
concrete win (the raise, the greenlight, the upgrade). Plain English, no clinical distance, no
AI tics. Close with: *this is a working model for communication, not a diagnosis — the goal is to
manage up, not to manipulate.*

## Running the deep tier yourself

Tier 2 needs a research source — a web-search tool. Without one, Tier 1 still works fully on
pasted comms. It all runs in your own session, on your own keys (privacy rails per *Privacy by
design* above).

---

Original: [github.com/b1rdmania/boss-whisperer-skill](https://github.com/b1rdmania/boss-whisperer-skill) — also live at [bosswhisperer.fun](https://bosswhisperer.fun)