# Observe Business > Observe Business - Skill: `merchantprotocol/observe-business` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add merchantprotocol/observe-business` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/merchantprotocol/observe-business/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: merchantprotocol (https://skillmd.com/u/merchantprotocol) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/merchantprotocol/observe-business --- # Observe Business This skill defines the observation topics for the business domain. Each topic spawns a parallel observer agent. The observer workflow reads these topics and creates one `` per topic. --- ## Observation Topics ### Topic: Revenue and Financial Health Observe the current financial state of the business. Focus on: - Revenue signals — mentions of income, MRR, sales, client payments - Expense patterns — tools, services, subscriptions, infrastructure costs - Cash flow signals — tight, comfortable, growing, declining? - Pricing discussions — are they adjusting prices, considering new tiers? - Financial goals vs. reality — how does actual revenue compare to targets? ### Topic: Products and Services Observe what the business offers and how it's evolving. Focus on: - Current products/services being actively worked on or delivered - New products/features in development or discussion - Products being deprecated, neglected, or abandoned - Quality signals — bug reports, client complaints, satisfaction indicators - Competitive positioning — how do they describe their offering vs. alternatives? ### Topic: Clients and Customers Observe the business's relationship with its clients/customers. Focus on: - Active clients — who is paying, who is engaged, who is at risk? - Client acquisition — new leads, outreach, sales conversations - Client retention — renewals, churn signals, satisfaction - Client communication patterns — frequent, sparse, reactive, proactive? - Key accounts vs. small accounts — where is effort concentrated? ### Topic: Market Position and Strategy Observe the business's strategic direction and market awareness. Focus on: - Target market — who are they trying to reach? Is this changing? - Competitive landscape — mentions of competitors, market shifts - Marketing efforts — content, ads, outreach, brand building - Strategic decisions — partnerships, pivots, new markets, doubling down - Growth strategy — organic, paid, partnership, product-led? ### Topic: Operations and Infrastructure Observe how the business actually runs day to day. Focus on: - Tools and systems in use — what's the tech stack, what's manual? - Workflow efficiency — smooth operations or constant firefighting? - Automation level — what's automated, what should be? - Infrastructure costs and maintenance burden - Bottlenecks — where does work get stuck? ### Topic: Team and Resources Observe the business's human and resource capacity. Focus on: - Team size and structure (solo, contractors, employees, partners) - Skill gaps — what can't they do in-house? - Hiring/outsourcing discussions - Workload distribution — is one person doing everything? - Resource constraints affecting growth ### Topic: Blog and Content Presence Observe the business's published content and online presence. Focus on: - Blog posts — what topics are being published? How recent? What's the publishing cadence? - Content quality and depth — thin posts or substantial pieces? - SEO signals — what keywords are being targeted? Are posts ranking? - Content gaps — topics the business should cover but hasn't - Reader engagement signals — comments, shares, backlinks if observable - Content pipeline — what's in draft, what's published, what's stale? **Tool guidance:** Use browser tools to visit the business's blog/website. Use `file_search` to find any content drafts or blog-related project files in workspaces. Check for blog-production projects. ### Topic: Social Media Presence Observe the business's social media activity and audience. Focus on: - Which platforms are active? (Twitter/X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) - Posting frequency and consistency on each platform - Content themes — what are they talking about publicly? - Audience engagement — followers, likes, comments, shares, growth trends - Tone and brand voice — professional, casual, educational, promotional? - Social media strategy signals — is this organic, paid, or both? - Audience demographics and behavior if observable **Tool guidance:** Use browser tools to visit social profiles. Check for social media projects or assets in workspaces. If social media integrations are connected, use those APIs for detailed analytics. ### Topic: Connected Integrations — All Available Before examining specific integration categories below, call `integration_list` and `vault/list_accounts` via the Tools API at `http://host.docker.internal:3000/v1/tools/list` to discover ALL connected integrations. For each connected integration not covered by a specific topic below, spawn an observation to understand what the integration is used for, its current state, and what it reveals about the business. Focus on: - What integrations are connected and what do they tell us about the business's operations? - For each integration: current activity level, health, and what business function it serves - Cross-integration patterns — how do the business's tools work together? - Integration gaps — what tools SHOULD be connected based on the business's needs? ### Topic: Connected Integrations — Email Marketing If email marketing integrations are connected (Beehiiv, Customer.io, Drip, Mailgun, Postmark, Resend), observe campaign health. Focus on: - Subscriber/audience growth trends - Campaign performance — open rates, click rates, engagement - Content themes — what topics are they emailing about? - Sending frequency and consistency - List health — bounces, unsubscribes, growth rate **Tool guidance:** Use integration API endpoints to pull campaign stats, subscriber counts, and recent activity. ### Topic: Connected Integrations — Sales and Outreach If sales integrations are connected (Instantly, Lemlist, Smartlead), observe outreach activity. Focus on: - Active campaigns — how many, what targeting, what messaging - Response rates and lead quality - Pipeline volume — leads in, leads converting - Outreach frequency and consistency - A/B testing signals — what messaging works? ### Topic: Connected Integrations — Automation If n8n or other automation integrations are connected, observe workflow health. Focus on: - Active workflows — what's running, what's broken, what's idle - Execution success rates — failures, retries, errors - Data flow patterns — what integrations talk to each other? - Automation coverage — what's automated vs. manual? - Workflow complexity — are automations getting out of hand? --- ## Integration Discovery Before starting observations, check which integrations are connected by calling `integration_list` and `vault/list_accounts` via the Tools API at `http://host.docker.internal:3000/v1/tools/list`. Only observe integrations that have active credentials. Skip integration topics when no integration is connected for that category. --- ## Output Format Each observer agent writes a log file at the provided log path: ``` {log_path}/{topic-slug}.md ``` Each log file should contain: ```markdown # [Topic Name] — Observation Log **Observer:** [agent identifier] **Domain:** Business **Date:** YYYY-MM-DD **Sources:** [what was examined] ## Observations ### [Observation title] **Priority:** 🔴/🟡/⚪ **Who:** [actor] **What:** [specific finding with evidence] **When:** [timestamp or date range] **Signal:** [what this might mean for goals/planning] --- ``` --- ## Curator-Added Topics The observation curator may add additional topics below this line based on current goals.