Geekbot — AI-Powered Standup & Poll Management

Overview

This skill wraps the geekbot CLI to let users manage async team rituals conversationally. It handles two broad workflows:

Manager workflows — create standups/polls from templates, edit configs, manage members and schedules, analyse team engagement from report data
Reporter workflows — draft standup reports with AI assistance, carry over unresolved blockers, calibrate tone from history, post reports

The CLI produces structured JSON output with machine-readable error codes, making it reliable for agent-driven automation.

Prerequisites

Before any operation, verify the CLI is available and authenticated.

Run check-cli.sh on first invocation. If it fails:

CLI not found: Install via npm install -g geekbot-cli (requires Bun >= 1.3.5 runtime). Note: npx geekbot-cli also requires Bun on PATH — it is not a Node.js fallback.
Auth not configured: Guide the user to run geekbot auth setup which stores the API key in the OS keychain. Alternatively they can set GEEKBOT_API_KEY as an environment variable.

Do not attempt any Geekbot operation until both checks pass.

How the CLI Works

The CLI follows a noun-verb pattern: geekbot <resource> <action> [options].

Every command returns a JSON envelope on stdout:

Success: { "ok": true,  "data": <T>,  "error": null,  "metadata": {...} }
Error:   { "ok": false, "data": null,  "error": { "code", "message", "retryable", "suggestion" }, "metadata": {...} }

Always check the ok field first. On errors, the error.suggestion field often contains the exact fix — including listing valid IDs when a resource isn't found. Use this to self-correct without bothering the user.

For the full command reference with flags, defaults, and examples, read cli-commands.md.

Quick Reference

Most common operations at a glance:

Task	Command
List my standups	`geekbot standup list` (add `--brief` for compact output, `--name`/`--channel` to filter, `--mine` for member-only, `--member <id>` for a specific user, `--limit <n>` to cap results)
Get standup details + question IDs	`geekbot standup get <id>`
Create a standup	`geekbot standup create --name "..." --channel "..." --questions '[...]'`
Update a standup (PATCH)	`geekbot standup update <id> --time "09:30"`
Delete a standup	`geekbot standup delete <id> --yes`
List reports	`geekbot report list --standup-id <id> --limit 10`
Submit a report	`geekbot report create --standup-id <id> --answers '{"<qid>":"..."}'`
My profile + user ID	`geekbot me show`
Create a poll (Slack only)	`geekbot poll create --name "..." --channel "..." --question "..." --choices '[...]'`
Search team members	`geekbot team search <query>` (matches username, realname, email)
Check auth	`geekbot auth status`

For full flag details, see cli-commands.md.

External Context Enrichment

The skill becomes dramatically more useful when it can pull data from where work actually happens. This is opportunistic — check what MCP servers are connected in the current session and use whatever is available. Never fail or complain if nothing is connected; just fall back to asking the user.

For report drafting: Pull the user's recent activity from connected MCP servers (GitHub, Jira, Calendar, Slack) and use it to pre-populate a draft. The user reviews and approves instead of writing from scratch.

For analytics: Cross-reference standup report data with delivery data to give richer insights — not just "who posted" but "what was actually shipped."

For entity mapping tables and deduplication strategy, see reporter-workflows.md.

Important boundaries:

Always show the user what data you pulled and from where
Never post a report containing enrichment data without user review
If an MCP server query fails, skip it silently and move on
Enrichment provides specifics (PR numbers, ticket IDs); the user's voice still drives the narrative

Intent Routing

Pattern-match on the user's request to pick the right workflow. Don't ask "are you a manager or a reporter?" — the request itself makes intent clear. The same person can manage standups and submit reports in one conversation.

Route to Manager Workflows (§ below) when you see:

Creation/config language: "create", "set up", "configure", "schedule", "add members", "change the questions", "duplicate", "delete"
Analytics language: "how is my team doing", "engagement", "response rate", "who hasn't posted", "participation", "trends"
Member summary language: "what has X been up to", "X's reports", "1-1 prep for X", "summarize X's work", "what did X report", "catch me up on X", "X's recent standups"
Poll language: "create a poll", "voting results", "survey"

Route to Reporter Workflows (§ below) when you see:

Drafting language: "help me write", "draft my report", "what should I say", "fill in my standup"
Posting language: "post my answers", "submit my report"
Context language: "what did I say last time", "carry over blockers", "my recent reports"
Identity queries: "what standups am I in", "show my profile"

When ambiguous, ask one clarifying question — never more than one.

Manager Workflows

For detailed multi-step guides, read manager-workflows.md.

Creating a Standup

This is the most common and most complex manager operation.

If the request is vague ("set up a standup for my team"), offer templates. Load standup-templates.json and present the 3–4 most relevant options based on context. Templates provide pre-built questions and sensible schedule defaults — the user just needs to supply a name and Slack/Teams channel.

Gathering required fields:

--name — the standup name (required)
--channel — Slack/Teams channel to post in (required)
--questions — JSON array of question objects (required; from template or custom)
--time — defaults to 10:00 if not specified
--timezone — infer from geekbot me show → data.timezone if not given
--days — defaults to Mon–Fri
--users — comma-separated user IDs (can add later via update)

Always confirm the full configuration with the user before executing. Show: name, channel, questions, schedule, timezone.

Note: The CLI sets which days of the week to run but cannot set frequency (bi-weekly, monthly). For non-weekly schedules, create the standup via CLI and tell the user to adjust the frequency in the Geekbot web dashboard.

Editing / Deleting / Other Operations

Edit: Fetch current state with standup get, show the user, confirm changes, use standup update (PATCH). Use standup replace only for full config replacement.
Delete: Always fetch and show what will be deleted first. Get explicit confirmation. Execute with --yes.
Duplicate: geekbot standup duplicate <id> --name "New Name"
Trigger now: geekbot standup start <id> — confirm before executing.
Polls (Slack only): See cli-commands.md for poll commands.

Analytics

Analytics come from report data fetched via the CLI. The skill computes metrics; the CLI provides raw data. For the full analytics playbook with 6 named analysis patterns (response rate, participation gaps, blocker frequency, trends, answer quality, cross-referencing), read manager-workflows.md.

Quick start: Identify the standup with standup list, get member count with standup get <id>, fetch reports with report list --standup-id <id> --after <date> --limit 100, then compute.

Team Member Summary

Summarize what a specific person has been working on — ideal for 1-1 prep. For the full step-by-step workflow, read manager-workflows.md §Team Member Summary.

Quick start: geekbot team search <name> → get user ID → geekbot standup list --member <id> --brief to find their standups → geekbot report list --standup-id <sid> --user-id <id> --after <3 weeks ago> --limit 20 → synthesize by work stream, not chronologically.

Reporter Workflows

For the full drafting pipeline, tone calibration, blocker carry-over logic, and edge cases, read reporter-workflows.md.

Report Drafting Pipeline (Summary)

Identify the standup — standup list, auto-select if only one
Fetch questions — standup get <id> → extract question IDs and text
Gather context — from MCP servers (if connected), previous reports (for style calibration), and the user's direct input
Draft answers — match their historical tone/length, weave in specifics from MCP data, run blocker carry-over check on last 3–5 reports
Review and post — present draft, get explicit approval, then report create --standup-id <id> --answers '{...}'

Never post a report without explicit user approval.

Quick Actions

One-shot commands that don't need the full pipeline:

"What standups am I in?" → geekbot standup list
"Show my recent reports" → geekbot report list --user-id <uid> --limit 5
"Show my profile" → geekbot me show
"What teams am I in?" → geekbot me teams
"Trigger my standup now" → confirm first, then geekbot standup start <id>

Confirmation Policy

Operation	Confirmation required?	What to show
CREATE standup/poll	Yes	Full config: name, channel, questions, schedule
UPDATE standup	Yes	Current vs proposed (diff)
DELETE standup	Yes, always	What will be deleted (name, channel, members)
POST report	Yes, always	Complete draft with all answers
TRIGGER standup	Yes	Which standup, who it targets
List / Get / Analytics	No	Just execute and present results
Error recovery retries	No	Transparent to user

Error Handling

For the complete recovery guide, read error-recovery.md.

Core pattern: always parse the JSON envelope, check ok, branch on exit code.

Exit code	Meaning	Agent action
0	Success	Proceed normally
3	Not found	Parse `error.suggestion` — it lists valid IDs. Offer them to the user.
4	Auth failed	Guide user through `geekbot auth setup`. Do not retry.
5	Forbidden	Explain permission issue. The user may need admin access.
6	Validation	Show `error.message`, help the user fix the input.
7	Network	If `error.retryable` is true, retry once after 2s silently. If it fails again, report.
8	Conflict	Explain the conflict (e.g., duplicate name). Suggest resolution.
9	Schema validation (`schema_validation_error`)	API response didn't match expected format. Don't ask user to fix input — suggest updating CLI or reporting a bug.
1, 2, 9	General / usage / API	Report `error.message` to the user clearly.

Never retry errors where retryable is false.

Common Mistakes

Inventing report answers — if the user didn't provide enough context for a question, ask. Never guess or fabricate.
Retrying auth errors — exit code 4 is never transient. Guide the user to geekbot auth setup instead.
Skipping confirmation for deletes — always show what will be deleted and get explicit approval, even if it feels obvious.
Dumping raw JSON — format output as tables, summaries, or narratives. The user should never see a raw JSON envelope.
Ignoring error.suggestion — when a resource isn't found (exit 3), the CLI already lists valid alternatives. Use them.
Asking "are you a manager or reporter?" — the request itself reveals intent. Pattern-match, don't interrogate.

Output Patterns

CRUD confirmations — brief, factual, include key identifiers:

Created "Sprint Retro" standup (ID 789) in #engineering — Fridays at 15:00 Chicago time with 3 questions.

Lists — concise table: ID, name, channel, schedule. Don't dump raw JSON.

Analytics — narrative summary first, data table for details. Use visualisation (chart/graph) when showing trends over time.

Report drafts — one question per block, clearly labelled with question text and proposed answer. Easy to scan and approve.

Errors — plain language: what happened, why, what to do next. Always use error.suggestion when available.

geekbot-run