Onboard a trade client
Goal: a client workspace (profile.md + rates/ + calibration.md) built mostly from artefacts the client already has, plus the proof that earns their trust — the system's numbers tested against jobs where they know the right answer.
Privacy is absolute: client data stays in their space, their numbers never ship, never appear in public artefacts, never seed another client's defaults. One client is not the trade.
The flow
Collection matching. The client hands over a folder-of-everything. Cluster files into jobs (address/project-number/client-name joins — expect alias conflicts) so each job holds its plans, quote(s), POs, correspondence. Money documents (quotes, POs, invoices) are answer keys: quarantine them immediately, before any extraction agent runs. What can't be matched to a job is still profile signal (terms templates, insurance certs, rate exports).
Pricing-source import. Every quoting business has pricing somewhere: an estimating app (ask for an export), a spreadsheet, a supplier-annotated price file, or the estimator's head. Convert what exists to rates/ markdown tables (UOM | name | material rate | part no | section | labour units — extend per trade). Nothing exists → start from a trade baseline template (openly sourced data + award rates, prices TBD) and let the interview fill it. Audit the card against their real quotes later — expect drift (stale lines, lump entries that never appear in real quotes); surfacing drift is value, not rudeness.
Packs for the back-catalogue. Build a plan pack per matched job (build-plan-pack skill + the trade's lens; independent verifier mandatory — every verifier run on real packs to date has found real errors). Builders never see the quarantined money documents.
Calibration + profile. Join quote sections to verified takeoffs per the lens's calibration method → calibration.md (norms classified stable / variable / underdetermined, each with working and n=). Draft profile.md: identity, quote style, standard terms, section vocabulary — plus the interview questions the artefacts can't answer (client-decision toggles, charge-out rates, margin policy). The interview is short because the artefacts did the work.
The trust report (the practice run). Leave-one-out retrodiction: hold out each job, calibrate on the rest, re-draft the held-out quote blind, score section-by-section against what they actually charged. Present honestly per the lens rules — decomposition, never just totals; fences named; toggles surfaced as the questions we'd have asked. This is the artefact that converts a sceptic: their own job, our blind numbers, side by side.
Go live. New tender → pack → draft quote in their letter format with their norms applied (cited by n=) and RFIs where only they can decide. They price; we count, derive, and surface. Every live job they accept becomes calibration n+1 — the system gets more theirs with use.
Failure modes
- Skipping quarantine because "it's just onboarding" — one leaked answer key invalidates the trust report's blindness, which is the whole point.
- Presenting the trust report as accuracy theatre — if a section missed, show it missed and why; the client's confidence survives honest misses, not discovered spin.
- Promoting this client's norms anywhere beyond their workspace.
1---2name: onboard-trade-client3description: Turn a trade business's existing files (past plans, quotes, price data) into a calibrated planpack workspace, ending with a trust report that re-quotes their own past jobs blind. Use when onboarding a trades business to planpack, processing a back-catalogue of past jobs, or asked to "set up my business on planpack".4---56# Onboard a trade client78Goal: a client workspace (`profile.md` + `rates/` + `calibration.md`) built mostly from artefacts the client already has, plus the proof that earns their trust — the system's numbers tested against jobs where *they* know the right answer.910Privacy is absolute: client data stays in their space, their numbers never ship, never appear in public artefacts, never seed another client's defaults. One client is not the trade.1112## The flow13141. **Collection matching.** The client hands over a folder-of-everything. Cluster files into jobs (address/project-number/client-name joins — expect alias conflicts) so each job holds its plans, quote(s), POs, correspondence. Money documents (quotes, POs, invoices) are answer keys: **quarantine them immediately**, before any extraction agent runs. What can't be matched to a job is still profile signal (terms templates, insurance certs, rate exports).15162. **Pricing-source import.** Every quoting business has pricing somewhere: an estimating app (ask for an export), a spreadsheet, a supplier-annotated price file, or the estimator's head. Convert what exists to `rates/` markdown tables (UOM | name | material rate | part no | section | labour units — extend per trade). Nothing exists → start from a trade baseline template (openly sourced data + award rates, prices TBD) and let the interview fill it. Audit the card against their real quotes later — expect drift (stale lines, lump entries that never appear in real quotes); surfacing drift is value, not rudeness.17183. **Packs for the back-catalogue.** Build a plan pack per matched job (`build-plan-pack` skill + the trade's lens; independent verifier mandatory — every verifier run on real packs to date has found real errors). Builders never see the quarantined money documents.19204. **Calibration + profile.** Join quote sections to verified takeoffs per the lens's calibration method → `calibration.md` (norms classified stable / variable / underdetermined, each with working and n=). Draft `profile.md`: identity, quote style, standard terms, section vocabulary — plus the interview questions the artefacts can't answer (client-decision toggles, charge-out rates, margin policy). The interview is short because the artefacts did the work.21225. **The trust report (the practice run).** Leave-one-out retrodiction: hold out each job, calibrate on the rest, re-draft the held-out quote blind, score section-by-section against what they actually charged. Present honestly per the lens rules — decomposition, never just totals; fences named; toggles surfaced as the questions we'd have asked. This is the artefact that converts a sceptic: their own job, our blind numbers, side by side.23246. **Go live.** New tender → pack → draft quote in their letter format with their norms applied (cited by n=) and RFIs where only they can decide. They price; we count, derive, and surface. Every live job they accept becomes calibration n+1 — the system gets more theirs with use.2526## Failure modes2728- Skipping quarantine because "it's just onboarding" — one leaked answer key invalidates the trust report's blindness, which is the whole point.29- Presenting the trust report as accuracy theatre — if a section missed, show it missed and why; the client's confidence survives honest misses, not discovered spin.30- Promoting this client's norms anywhere beyond their workspace.
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