account-research

---
name: account-research
description: One-page, sourced sales brief on a named company before a first message or call.
---

# Turn any company into a one-page brief in ten minutes

Every fact dated and sourced, then the angle, who to contact, what to ask.

## Claude does

1. Get {COMPANY}, {DOMAIN}, {OFFER}, {ICP} with disqualifiers, {GOAL}, any CRM export. No goal or ICP: ask once, do not start.
2. Check `research-ledger.md`; reuse a brief under 7 days old and say so.
3. Seven fixed searches: "{COMPANY}" (home, about), "{COMPANY} news", "{COMPANY} funding", "{COMPANY} careers", "[person] {COMPANY} LinkedIn", "{COMPANY} product", "{COMPANY} customers".
4. One dated fact with URL per line, plain notes; skip pages not about this company. Fails a disqualifier: stop, say why.
5. Tag notes by brief section; hiring: open roles by department and the problem behind each; news: why it matters for this outreach.
6. Two people, likely buyer and starter: name, title, LinkedIn URL, one professional and one personal hook from public posts.
7. Reflect: any missing, uncertain or placeholder section gets one more targeted search; still unknown becomes a discovery question, never a blank.
8. Decide: positive signals with evidence; concerns and what to watch; unknowns; the angle, one honest sentence from their gap to {OFFER}, or stop, not ready; entry point and why; plain-words opening hook; three discovery questions (situation, pain, decision process); do-not-mention list.
9. Save `notes-<company>-<date>.md` (Facts, People, Decisions), fill CODEX.md, hand off.

## Then Codex does

Codex files the notes as brief, Clay outreach lines, sources list and ledger row: bulk formatting, no judgement.

```
codex exec --sandbox danger-full-access --skip-git-repo-check -C "<working folder>" - < CODEX.md
```

Fill first: {COMPANY}, {DOMAIN}, {GOAL}, {RESEARCH_DATE}, {NOTES_FILE}.

## Claude checks

1. Headings exact, in order, nothing before or after; one fact per bullet; Quick Take the only prose, opening "{COMPANY} is a ... that ... for ...".
2. No placeholders or "no information found"; gaps only under Unknown (Ask in Discovery).
3. Every fact, date, number and URL matches the notes; funding and news rules kept; sources lines equal brief facts.
4. Angle, hook, questions verbatim; hook has no jargon or dates; do-not-mention items nowhere; ledger row appended.

Failures go back to Codex with the line and the rule; never patch by hand.

## Rules

- Date every fact; never invent a number: "roughly 50 staff (LinkedIn)" yes, "52 staff" unsourced no.
- No goal and ICP: no research. Fails a disqualifier: stop, say so.
- Public information only; no guessed emails or phones; nothing that reads as surveillance (personal posts, litigation, layoffs) unless they raised it publicly.
- One fact per bullet, no paragraphs, padding, jargon or commentary; never date the hook; the brief is not the outreach.
- CRM and enrichment outrank the web; funding round once, never a range; news 90 days, newest first.
- Notes first, schema second, reflect before shipping; lead with their gap, not the pitch; calibrate on a known account first.

## If Codex is not installed

Claude does that half and says so.

## Built from

- Anthropic knowledge-work-plugins: https://github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins/blob/main/sales/skills/account-research/SKILL.md (23,876 stars, api.github.com)
- ericosiu/ai-marketing-skills: https://github.com/ericosiu/ai-marketing-skills/blob/main/lead-dossier/SKILL.md (3,482 stars, api.github.com)
- guy-hartstein/company-research-agent: https://github.com/guy-hartstein/company-research-agent/blob/main/backend/prompts.py (2,272 stars, api.github.com)
- Clay, "11 AI prompts for sales prospecting research": https://www.clay.com/blog/11-ai-prompts-for-sales-prospecting-research (Clay article)
- langchain-ai/company-researcher: https://github.com/langchain-ai/company-researcher/blob/main/src/agent/prompts.py (215 stars, api.github.com, archived)

# Turn any company into a one-page brief in ten minutes - Codex task

Research and decisions are done. You file and format, adding nothing.

## You are given

- {COMPANY}, {DOMAIN}, {GOAL}, {RESEARCH_DATE} (YYYY-MM-DD).
- {NOTES_FILE}, three parts. Facts: one per line, `[section] fact, date, URL`. People: two, each with name, title, LinkedIn URL, professional and personal hook. Decisions: positive signals, concerns, unknowns, angle, entry point, opening hook, three discovery questions, do-not-mention list.

Slug: company name, lower-case, hyphenated; {date} is {RESEARCH_DATE}.

## Produce

1. `brief-{slug}-{date}.md`, under 450 words before Sources, these headings only, in order:
   - `## Quick Take`: 2-3 sentences opening "{COMPANY} is a [what] that [does what] for [whom]", then the angle verbatim from Decisions.
   - `## Company Profile`: table: founded, HQ, size, funding, model, customers; present facts only.
   - `## Recent News`: `- **[Headline]**, [date], [why it matters]`, newest first.
   - `## Hiring Signals`: open roles by department, the problem behind each.
   - `## Key People`: name, title, LinkedIn URL, both hooks.
   - `## Tech Stack`: only if in Facts.
   - `## Qualification Signals`: `### Positive Signals`, `### Potential Concerns`, `### Unknown (Ask in Discovery)`, bullets from Decisions.
   - `## Recommended Approach`: `**Best Entry Point:**`, `**Opening Hook:**`, `**Discovery Questions:**` 1-3, verbatim from Decisions.
   - `## Sources`: `- [page](URL)`, one per distinct URL.
2. `lines-{slug}-{date}.md`, each with source fact in brackets: mission under 6 words; who they sell to, up to three job titles; B2B or B2C, nothing else; per open role, up to five: "I saw [short company name] is hiring a [title]. In my experience this means you're trying to improve [the problem behind the posting]."
3. `sources-{slug}-{date}.md`: one line per brief fact, in brief order: fact, date, URL as given.
4. Append to `research-ledger.md` (create if absent): `{RESEARCH_DATE} | {COMPANY} | {DOMAIN} | {GOAL} | brief path`.

British English.

## Rules

- One fact per bullet; Quick Take the only prose; no commentary before or after.
- No "no information found", "N/A" or placeholders; omit empty sections; Qualification lists take Decisions only.
- Copy dates, numbers, names and URLs exactly, never rounded or completed; flag undated facts.
- Each funding round once (same month and amount is one round), never a range; news over 90 days before {RESEARCH_DATE}: left out, flagged.
- Lines: no jargon, no reference to when an article ran, company name as a person says it.
- Do-not-mention items appear nowhere; a matching Fact is dropped and flagged.
- Two people; any other count filed as given, flagged.

## Return

Print last: four file paths; brief word count before Sources; fact count and sources line count (must match); people; empty sections; undated, out-of-window or dropped facts; flags or "none".