writing-process-guides

Writing Business Process Guides

Write comprehensive Business Process Guide documentation and save as markdown files. The guide file is the business process's AI Registry record — the generated REGISTRY.md groups workflows under processes using the guide's frontmatter, and the guide's path is set as guide: frontmatter on the Process node itself. External trackers are out of scope. Process guides explain the strategic context and rhythm of a complete business process, while individual workflow SOPs handle the tactical execution details.

Process Guide vs Workflow SOP

Process

Registry entry: the workflow's registry entry is its Workflow concept node in the registry bundle (registry/ in the working folder: the workspace on Claude Code and Codex; the folder the user selected on Claude desktop; ai-workspace/registry/, or the user's own working folder, in the user's drive on the web and in Microsoft 365, written through the connection) — see indexing-registry/references/registry-bundle.md (in this plugin) for resolution, write rules, and your fields. If there's no registry/SCHEMA.md, offer the scaffolding-registry skill first; do not write registry entries until the bundle exists. In addition, this skill's primary record is the Process node itself: set guide: frontmatter on registry/processes/<slug>.md pointing at the guide file.

1. Load process context — Determine how the user is arriving:
   • From the AI Registry (primary path): Read the Process node's (registry/processes/<slug>.md) curated # Workflows list for its component workflows. Read each linked Workflow node for trigger and status, plus its Workflow Requirements, Design Plan, and SOP where they exist (via the node's # Artifacts links: "Requirements", "Design plan", "SOP").
   • From conversation: If no artifacts exist, gather process details interactively (name, component workflows, sequence, triggers).
2. Gather strategic context from user — frequency, timing, decision points between workflows, success criteria
3. Write Process Guide using template
4. Write process guide markdown file with YAML frontmatter. Default path: process-guides/<name>.md, beside registry/ in its parent folder (the workspace on Claude Code and Codex; the framework folder on Claude desktop, and on the web and in Microsoft 365 through the drive connection). Ask the user where process guides live if their project has a different convention.
5. Create or update REGISTRY.md beside registry/, in its parent folder, so the process appears with its workflows — follow the indexing-registry procedure if available, otherwise update its tables directly from the guide and registry data (only with no files and no drive connection that can write, give it complete with its location and say it's unsaved — never silently). Then invoke the indexing-registry skill for a maintenance pass (best-effort — a failed refresh never fails this step).