Assign default skills when a hire is approved

The CEO's operating prompt instructed the model to inspect each direct
report every wake, compare assigned skills to role, and POST missing
ones — business logic routed through the LLM at O(reports) API calls
per heartbeat. The guarantee was unreliable and expensive.

Move the default-kit decision to hire approval, the one deterministic
event that knows both the agent's department and the company's seeded
skill catalogue. A static department → built-in-category mapping
selects the right bundle; the CEO remains free to override per agent
later. Remove the stale Priority 2 block from the CEO prompt and
collapse the renumbered priorities.

src/main/automation/automation-approval-handler.ts

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import type { AppDatabase } from "../database";
 import type { NotificationOptions } from "../notification-service";
 import { extractApprovalDocumentIds } from "@shared/approval-documents";
 import { notifyHireApproved } from "../hire-hook";
+import { autoAssignSkillsForHire } from "../skills/auto-assign-on-hire";
 import type { AutomationEventContext } from "./types";
 import { normalizeWorkflowSteps } from "./automation-workflow";
 
@@ -97,6 +98,29 @@ export function handleApprovalResolved(
     const agent = db.getAgent(approval.relatedAgentId);
 
     if (agent.status === "idle") {
+      // Deterministic default skill kit. The CEO's operating prompt
+      // used to carry this responsibility ("ensure every direct report
+      // has skills"), turning O(reports) API calls into a per-wake
+      // tax. At hire approval time we know the agent's department and
+      // the company's seeded catalogue — assign the default bundle so
+      // the new hire's first run already has the right SKILL.md
+      // manifest.
+      const { assignedSkillIds } = autoAssignSkillsForHire(db, {
+        agentId: agent.id,
+        companyId,
+        department: agent.department,
+      });
+      if (assignedSkillIds.length > 0) {
+        db.addActivity({
+          companyId,
+          actor: "system",
+          action: "agent.skills_defaulted",
+          entityType: "agent",
+          entityId: agent.id,
+          detail: `${assignedSkillIds.length} default skill(s) assigned on hire.`,
+        });
+      }
+
       db.addActivity({
         companyId,
         actor: "system",

src/main/prompt-builder/ceo-modes/operating.en.md

@@ -20,16 +20,7 @@ If there are NO active goals, this is your top priority — create strategic goa
     -d '{"title":"Goal title","description":"Measurable success criteria","ownerAgentId":"{{agentId}}","status":"active"}'
 Then decompose each goal into projects, and each project into tasks assigned to department leads.
 
-## Priority 2: Ensure All Agents Have Skills (SOP-002b)
-Every agent needs domain skills to produce quality work. Check and fix immediately:
-1. For EACH of your direct reports, check their skills: GET /api/agents/{agentId}/skills
-2. If an agent has ZERO skills assigned, this is urgent — assign skills NOW:
-   a. GET /api/companies/{{companyId}}/skills to list available skills
-   b. For each skill matching the agent's role: POST /api/agents/{agentId}/skills with {"skillId": "<id>"}
-   c. Match skills to roles — CTO gets engineering skills, CMO gets marketing skills, etc.
-3. This MUST happen before delegating any work — agents without skills produce poor output
-
-## Priority 3: Review Completed Work (SOP-004)
+## Priority 2: Review Completed Work (SOP-004)
 When tasks from your reports have status "in_review":
 - Read ALL comments on the task to understand what was done
 - Review any documents the agent created: GET /api/companies/{{companyId}}/documents
@@ -42,7 +33,7 @@ When tasks from your reports have status "in_review":
 - This is YOUR HIGHEST PRIORITY after standup — reviews unblock your entire team
 - NEVER let review requests sit — they cascade-block everyone downstream
 
-## Priority 4: Goal Decomposition & Delegation (SOP-003)
+## Priority 3: Goal Decomposition & Delegation (SOP-003)
 When you have active goals without projects or tasks:
 1. Create a project for each major workstream:
    POST /api/companies/{{companyId}}/projects with goalId, leadAgentId, description
@@ -56,21 +47,19 @@ When you have active goals without projects or tasks:
    - COO/Operations → process, coordination, company cadence
    - CFO/Finance → budget, spend tracking, financial health
    - Other roles → match by capabilities description
-   - Before delegating, check agent skills: GET /api/agents/{agentId}/skills
-   - If the agent lacks a needed skill, assign it first: POST /api/agents/{agentId}/skills with {"skillId": "<id>"}
-   - Skills give agents domain expertise (coding standards, frameworks, processes) — always ensure the right skills are assigned before sending work
+   - Default domain skills are assigned automatically when a hire is approved; only call GET /api/agents/{agentId}/skills or POST /api/agents/{agentId}/skills when you have a reason to override that default for a specific agent
 5. Leave a delegation summary comment on each parent task
 6. Wake the assigned agents so they start immediately:
    POST /api/agents/{agentId}/wake with reason explaining the new assignment
 
-## Priority 5: Unblock & Coordinate
+## Priority 4: Unblock & Coordinate
 - Review blocked tasks: read the blocker comments and take action
 - For credential needs: create secret_access approvals via POST /api/companies/{{companyId}}/approvals
 - For cross-department dependencies: send direct messages to the relevant department lead
 - For Board-level decisions: create an approval with clear context and options
 - Review failed runs from your reports: check what went wrong and decide whether to retry or reassign
 
-## Priority 6: Grow the Team
+## Priority 5: Grow the Team
 When workload exceeds capacity or new capabilities are needed:
 - Assess: count open tasks vs active agents per department
 - If a department is overloaded: propose hiring via POST /api/companies/{{companyId}}/agents
@@ -78,7 +67,7 @@ When workload exceeds capacity or new capabilities are needed:
 - Each hire needs: a distinct agent name, clear role/title, specific capabilities, budget justification, department assignment, and the correct manager (reportsTo)
 - After hire approval, create onboarding tasks for the new agent
 
-## Priority 7: Strategic Communication & Reporting
+## Priority 6: Strategic Communication & Reporting
 - Schedule all-hands meetings when major milestones are reached:
   POST /api/companies/{{companyId}}/meetings with type "all_hands"
 - Create status_report documents summarizing company progress:

src/main/skills/auto-assign-on-hire.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+import type { AppDatabase } from "../database";
+import type { DepartmentId } from "@shared/types";
+
+/**
+ * Server-side default skill assignment at hire approval time.
+ *
+ * Before this module existed, the CEO's operating prompt was explicitly
+ * told to inspect every direct report every wake, fetch the skill
+ * catalogue, and POST /agents/{id}/skills for any unassigned role-
+ * relevant entry. That is business logic routed through an LLM — wasted
+ * tokens and an unreliable guarantee. The hire approval is the
+ * deterministic moment to give a fresh agent a sensible default kit;
+ * the CEO is still free to add or remove skills later.
+ *
+ * The mapping is department → built-in skill categories. Each seeded
+ * company skill carries its category in `metadata.builtinCategory`
+ * (see `skills/runtime.ts#seedBuiltinSkills`); we match against that
+ * tag so a company that imported extra skills under the same category
+ * inherits them too, and deletes remove the assignment pool cleanly.
+ */
+
+const CATEGORIES_BY_DEPARTMENT: Record<DepartmentId, readonly string[]> = {
+  executive: ["basic-for-all", "document-process"],
+  engineering: ["software-engineer", "basic-for-all"],
+  product: ["frontend-design", "basic-for-all", "document-process"],
+  design: ["frontend-design", "basic-for-all"],
+  marketing: ["marketing", "basic-for-all", "document-process"],
+  sales: ["marketing", "basic-for-all", "document-process"],
+  hr: ["basic-for-all", "document-process"],
+  finance: ["basic-for-all", "document-process"],
+  legal: ["basic-for-all", "document-process"],
+  operations: ["software-engineer", "basic-for-all", "document-process"],
+  customer_support: ["basic-for-all", "document-process"],
+  research: ["basic-for-all", "document-process"],
+};
+
+function readBuiltinCategory(metadata: unknown): string | null {
+  if (!metadata) return null;
+  if (typeof metadata === "string") {
+    try {
+      const parsed = JSON.parse(metadata) as Record<string, unknown>;
+      const value = parsed?.builtinCategory;
+      return typeof value === "string" ? value : null;
+    } catch {
+      return null;
+    }
+  }
+  if (typeof metadata === "object") {
+    const value = (metadata as Record<string, unknown>).builtinCategory;
+    return typeof value === "string" ? value : null;
+  }
+  return null;
+}
+
+export interface AutoAssignSkillsInput {
+  agentId: string;
+  companyId: string;
+  department: DepartmentId | string | null | undefined;
+}
+
+export interface AutoAssignSkillsResult {
+  assignedSkillIds: string[];
+}
+
+export function autoAssignSkillsForHire(
+  db: AppDatabase,
+  input: AutoAssignSkillsInput,
+): AutoAssignSkillsResult {
+  const department = (input.department ?? "") as DepartmentId;
+  const categories = CATEGORIES_BY_DEPARTMENT[department];
+  if (!categories || categories.length === 0) {
+    return { assignedSkillIds: [] };
+  }
+
+  const alreadyAssigned = new Set(db.listAgentSkillAssignments(input.agentId));
+  const wanted = new Set(categories);
+  const catalogue = db.listCompanySkills(input.companyId);
+
+  const assigned: string[] = [];
+  for (const skill of catalogue) {
+    if (alreadyAssigned.has(skill.id)) continue;
+    const category = readBuiltinCategory(skill.metadata);
+    if (!category || !wanted.has(category)) continue;
+    db.assignSkillToAgent(input.agentId, skill.id);
+    assigned.push(skill.id);
+  }
+
+  return { assignedSkillIds: assigned };
+}