Team Update

What Is Team Update?

Team Update is a productivity skill designed for Claude Code that streamlines the process of sharing project updates, gathering team feedback, triaging responses, and planning next steps—all while adapting to the communication and project management tools already in use. By integrating with your existing chat, git, issue tracking, and task management platforms, Team Update acts as a bridge between your codebase and team collaboration channels. Its core innovation is a “playbook” system that captures configuration and workflow rules in a plain markdown file, making the process repeatable, auditable, and easily customizable.

Why Use Team Update?

Modern software development demands transparent communication, rapid feedback loops, and tight integration between code and collaboration tools. However, project updates and collecting actionable feedback often become manual chores, leading to context-switching, outdated information, and missed input from stakeholders. Team Update addresses these pain points by automating the update-feedback-triage cycle, ensuring updates are delivered to the right channels and responses are tracked and acted upon.

By codifying update workflows in a version-controlled playbook, Team Update reduces friction and enables consistent, auditable communication processes. This is particularly valuable for distributed teams, fast-moving projects, or organizations with multiple preferred tools. The skill’s adaptive approach means it works with whatever chat, git, issue, or task systems your team already uses, reducing onboarding time and tool fragmentation.

How to Get Started

1. Install Claude Code and the Team Update Skill
   Download or clone the claude-skills repository and include the Team Update plugin in your Claude Code environment. See the official source for setup instructions.

2. Trigger Team Update
   You can invoke the skill using any of its supported trigger phrases, such as:

   • team update
   • post update
   • sync with team
   • standup
   • check team chat
   • feedback loop
   • project update
   • what did the team say

3. First Run: Discovery and Playbook Creation
   On initial execution, Team Update checks for the .claude/team-update-playbook.md file in your project root. If it does not exist, the skill enters a discovery phase:

   • It scans for available tools (e.g., Slack, Discord, GitHub, Jira, Asana).
   • It prompts you to specify preferences such as which chat channels or repositories to use and your preferred update message style.
   • It executes the update workflow and saves the resulting configuration in the playbook file.

4. Subsequent Runs: Automated Execution
   On subsequent runs, Team Update reads the playbook for all configuration and workflow rules, then executes the update-feedback-triage process according to your preferences.

Example: Basic Usage

claude team update

Example: Manually Creating a Playbook

## .claude/team-update-playbook.md

channel: slack://project-updates
message_style: concise
triage_rules:
  - if: "feedback contains 'bug'"
    action: "open issue on GitHub"
last_run: 2024-06-18T14:25:00Z

Key Features

• Automatic Tool Discovery: On first use, Team Update detects integrated chat, git, issue, and task tools, minimizing manual configuration.
• Editable Playbook: All settings are stored in .claude/team-update-playbook.md—a plain markdown file that users can edit to refine channels, style, or triage rules.
• Persistent Workflow: The playbook records not just preferences, but also last-run metadata, creating a repeatable, auditable communication loop.
• Feedback Triage: The skill reads responses from team channels, applies user-defined rules, and can trigger actions like creating issues or tasks.
• Flexible Triggers: Multiple natural language triggers make it easy to integrate into daily workflows (e.g., standups or project syncs).

Example: Advanced Triage Rule

triage_rules:
  - if: "feedback matches /urgent/i"
    action: "create high-priority task in Asana"
  - if: "feedback contains 'review needed'"
    action: "assign code review in GitHub"

Best Practices

• Refine Your Playbook Regularly: Edit the playbook to adjust channels, tailor message tone, and fine-tune triage rules as your team evolves.
• Version Control the Playbook: Keep .claude/team-update-playbook.md under version control with your codebase to track configuration changes and foster team transparency.
• Leverage Triage Automation: Write triage rules that map common feedback patterns to actionable steps, reducing manual follow-up.
• Use Consistent Triggers: Adopt a standard phrase (e.g., “project update”) in your team culture to ensure everyone knows how and when to run the skill.
• Review Feedback Promptly: Regularly check collected feedback and ensure triaged actions are completed, closing the communication loop.

Important Notes

• Compatibility: Team Update is designed for Claude Code environments only and supports any tool accessible from your setup.
• Customization: The playbook is intended to be user-edited. Any manual changes take effect immediately on the next run, making it easy to adapt workflows.
• Security: Ensure that your playbook does not expose sensitive channel or credential information if shared or versioned publicly.
• Manual Intervention: While Team Update automates much of the workflow, some actions—like resolving complex feedback—may still require human judgment.
• Troubleshooting: If the skill does not seem to use the correct channels or tools, verify the playbook for accuracy and completeness.
• Extensibility: Advanced users may script additional actions or integrate with custom tools by editing the playbook’s triage rules section.

Team Update provides a robust, adaptive foundation for keeping your team informed and engaged, fostering a culture of transparency and continuous improvement in your software projects.