02-sops

strategy md per bet convention

Thu Apr 30 2026 20:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) ·sop
sopstrategybet-architecturedistillation-policy

STRATEGY.md per bet — convention + distillation policy

Why this exists

Lifted from Trevin Chow’s Compound Engineering plugin v3.4 (/ce-strategy skill), which expects a STRATEGY.md at every repo root with frontmatter (problem / approach / personas / key_metrics / work_tracks) and reads it for every per-bet decision. We adapt the convention to the RDCO vault: every active bet folder under ~/rdco-vault/01-projects/<bet>/ gets a canonical, narrative STRATEGY.md that ties the bet to the RDCO four-layer thesis (targeting / instrumentation / tools / feedback). Founder approved 2026-05-01.

The STRATEGY.md is the human-readable, narrative companion to the machine-readable ~/rdco-vault/07-bet-stacks/<bet>.yaml (when one exists). The yaml is the source of truth for HQ’s per-bet stack-view; the STRATEGY.md is the source of truth for “what is this bet, why does it exist, what’s the load-bearing approach.”

The convention

File location

~/rdco-vault/01-projects/<bet>/STRATEGY.md — at the bet folder root.

Schema (canonical)

---
date: <YYYY-MM-DD distilled date>
type: strategy
bet: <bet-slug>
status: active | discovery | dormant
last_distilled: <YYYY-MM-DD>
distilled_by: <Ray | founder | both>
companion_yaml: 07-bet-stacks/<bet>.yaml      # if exists, else null
tags: [strategy, bet]
---

# <Bet Name> — STRATEGY

## Problem
<1-2 sentence problem framing — what need / what user / what bottleneck>

## Approach
<3-5 sentences on the strategy. Not the tactics, not the to-do list — the load-bearing why-this-not-that decision.>

## Personas
- <persona 1 name>: <who, what they want, where we reach them>
- <persona 2 name>: <...>

## Key metrics
- <metric 1>: <current value or "not yet instrumented">
- <metric 2>: <...>

## Work tracks
1. <track 1>: <one-line description, owner, status>
2. <track 2>: <...>

## Targeting system  (RDCO 4-layer thesis)
<Where is the rev/conversion/usage signal coming from? P&L? Specific funnel?>

## Instrumentation  (RDCO 4-layer thesis)
<What sensors are wired up? What's missing?>

## Tools  (RDCO 4-layer thesis)
<What automation exists today for this bet? What's missing?>

## Feedback loop  (RDCO 4-layer thesis)
<How does signal flow back into action? Cadence? Owner?>

## Open questions for founder
- <bullet list — every TBD section above gets an explicit question here>

## Related
- [[../../06-reference/2026-04-30-rdco-thesis-targeting-systems-feedback-loops]]
- [[../../06-reference/2026-04-30-rdco-bet-architecture-playbook]]
- [[../../07-bet-stacks/<bet>]]   <- if companion YAML exists

The four RDCO-thesis sections (targeting / instrumentation / tools / feedback) are MANDATORY — they tie every bet back to 2026-04-30-rdco-thesis-targeting-systems-feedback-loops.md and 2026-04-30-rdco-bet-architecture-playbook.md.

Distillation policy

Ray drafts from existing vault notes, founder reviews. Ray’s first pass uses index/README + 2-3 most-recently-modified vault notes inside the bet folder + a QMD vault sweep for cross-references + the companion yaml if it exists. Sections that are ambiguous or haven’t been explicitly written down get marked _TBD — needs founder distillation_ rather than fabricated; every TBD becomes a bullet under “Open questions for founder.”

Re-distillation cadence: each STRATEGY.md should be re-distilled (a) whenever the bet’s portfolio status materially changes, (b) on a 90-day rolling cadence to catch drift, or (c) on demand when founder triggers a re-pass. Update last_distilled and distilled_by in frontmatter on every re-pass.

Staleness rule: if STRATEGY.md is missing OR last_distilled > 30 days old, Ray surfaces it as an “Open question for founder” rather than guessing or operating from the stale doc. The consuming skills (below) should treat missing/stale STRATEGY as a signal to ask before assuming.

Consuming skills

The following skills should read the bet’s STRATEGY.md before operating against it:

The parallel skill-update agent (running 2026-05-01) is responsible for wiring the read-STRATEGY.md step into each consuming skill’s SKILL.md. This SOP only documents the convention.

Initial coverage (2026-05-01)

Four STRATEGY.md files written today:

Bets explicitly excluded from v1 (per founder direction):

Reconsider for v2 once these mature.