---
name: risk-register
description: Broad risk assessment — key-person, technical, regulatory, competitive, financial, and execution risks beyond product/market
type: analysis
version: v0.1
argument-hint: "[optional: focus area e.g. \"technical\", \"regulatory\", \"financial\"]"
---

## Pack Availability Guard

Before telling the user to run a skill from another project-local pack, check `.agents/project.json.enabled_packs`. If the target pack is not enabled, recommend `/pack install <pack>` instead of the target skill. Global skills are always valid. Skills from this same pack are valid because the current skill is already running from that pack.

# Risk Register — Systematic Risk Assessment

Identifies and tracks risks beyond product/market: key-person, technical, regulatory, competitive, financial, and execution risks. Complements `/assumption-tracker` (which focuses on product/market assumptions) with broader organizational and environmental risks.

## Soft Prerequisites

- Read all that exist: `research/icp.md`, `research/competitive-analysis.md`, `research/gtm.md`, `research/monetization.md`, `research/runway-model.md`, `research/assumption-tracker.md`, CLAUDE.md, README
- The more context exists, the more thorough the risk identification.

## Process

### 0. App Scope Resolution (Monorepo Support)

Before loading, determine the app scope:

1. If `$ARGUMENTS` specifies an app name matching a subdirectory of `research/`, use it.
2. If `research/` contains subdirectories (excluding files), list them and ask the user which app to target. If only one subdirectory exists, use it automatically.
3. If no subdirectories exist, proceed with flat structure (single-product mode).

When app scope `{app}` is active:
- Read research from `research/{app}/` instead of `research/`

### 1. Load Context

Read all available research docs and codebase files. Extract signals relevant to risk:
- **Financial**: runway, burn rate, revenue concentration
- **Technical**: tech debt, single points of failure, scaling concerns
- **Market**: competitive threats, market shifts, regulatory changes
- **Team**: key-person dependencies, skill gaps, hiring needs
- **Execution**: timeline risks, scope creep, dependency chains

### 2. Identify Risks

Use WebSearch with **3-5 targeted queries** for domain-specific risks:
1. "[industry/category] startup risks"
2. "[category] regulatory requirements"
3. "[technology stack] scaling risks"
4. "[category] common failure modes"

Systematically identify risks in each category:

#### A. Key-Person Risk
- Single points of failure in the team
- Critical knowledge held by one person
- Founder dependency

#### B. Technical Risk
- Architecture limitations, scaling bottlenecks
- Security vulnerabilities, data privacy
- Dependency on third-party services
- Technical debt accumulation

#### C. Regulatory & Legal Risk
- Compliance requirements (GDPR, SOC2, industry-specific)
- IP risks, patent exposure
- Terms of service dependencies on platforms

#### D. Competitive Risk
- Well-funded competitor entering the space
- Platform risk (building on someone else's platform)
- Open-source alternatives emerging

#### E. Financial Risk
- Revenue concentration (one big customer)
- Runway constraints
- Pricing pressure from competitors
- Cost structure changes (API pricing, infrastructure)

#### F. Execution Risk
- Scope creep, feature bloat
- Hiring challenges
- Timeline slippage
- Integration complexity

### 3. Score Each Risk

| Dimension | Scale |
|-----------|-------|
| **Likelihood** | 1 (unlikely) → 5 (near certain) |
| **Impact** | 1 (minor setback) → 5 (existential threat) |
| **Priority** | Likelihood × Impact (max 25) |

### 4. Define Mitigations

For each high-priority risk (score ≥ 12):
- **Accept**: Acknowledge and monitor
- **Mitigate**: Actions to reduce likelihood or impact
- **Transfer**: Insurance, contracts, or partnerships
- **Avoid**: Change plans to eliminate the risk

### 5. Present & Validate

Use AskUserQuestion to present the top risks:
- "Here are the highest-priority risks I've identified. Any I'm missing or scoring wrong?"
- "Are there any risks you're already mitigating that I should note?"

Incorporate feedback before proceeding.

### 6. Write Output

Only after confirmation, write the output file.

## Output

### `research/risk-register.md` (or `research/{app}/risk-register.md`)

```markdown
# Risk Register

> Last updated: [current date]
> Sources: [research docs reviewed]
> Total risks: [count] | High priority: [count]

## Summary
[2-3 sentences: the top risks and overall risk posture]

## Top Risks

| # | Risk | Category | Likelihood | Impact | Priority | Mitigation |
|---|------|----------|-----------|--------|----------|------------|
| 1 | [risk] | [category] | [1-5] | [1-5] | [L×I] | [strategy] |
| ... | | | | | | |

## Key-Person Risks
| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Priority | Mitigation |
|------|-----------|--------|----------|------------|
| [risk] | [1-5] | [1-5] | [L×I] | [action] |

## Technical Risks
[Same table format]

## Regulatory & Legal Risks
[Same table format]

## Competitive Risks
[Same table format]

## Financial Risks
[Same table format]

## Execution Risks
[Same table format]

## Mitigation Plan

### Immediate Actions (This Month)
1. [Action] — mitigates [risk #]
2. ...

### Ongoing Monitoring
| Risk | Trigger Signal | Check Frequency |
|------|---------------|-----------------|
| [risk] | [what to watch for] | [weekly/monthly/quarterly] |

## Next Steps

**Recommended:** [recommended skill] — [one-line reason grounded in the highest-priority risk]

Other options:
- `/assumption-tracker` — Cross-reference product/market assumptions with these broader risks
- `/experiment [top risk assumption]` — Test the riskiest uncertainty when it can be validated cheaply
- `/reconcile-research` — Update downstream research if risk findings contradict existing assumptions
- `/research-roadmap` — Check overall project status
```

Create the `research/` directory if it doesn't exist.

### 7. Populate Next Steps

Before writing, choose one recommended next step using the first applicable rule:

1. IF a high-priority risk is a product/market assumption: recommend `/assumption-tracker`.
2. IF the top risk can be cheaply validated: recommend `/experiment [top risk assumption]`.
3. IF the findings contradict existing research: recommend `/reconcile-research`.
4. Otherwise recommend `/research-roadmap`.

## Task Classification

When this skill produces follow-up work, file it by execution semantics:

- Immediately actionable implementation or documentation work goes in `tasks/todo.md`.
- Human-only external actions tied to automated steps go in `tasks/manual-todo.md` with `_(blocks: Step N.X)_` or `_(after: Step N.X)_`; repo edits, SDK wiring, generated assets, local commands, tests, audits, and authenticated CLI/API work stay in `tasks/todo.md`.
- One-time condition-gated records, baselines, or future measurements go in `tasks/record-todo.md` with source, condition, non-blocking reason, evidence, and promotion rule.
- Cadence-based reviews, playtests, adoption checks, investor updates, retros, or docs-health checks go in `tasks/recurring-todo.md` with cadence, owner/agent, next due, evidence path, and escalation conditions.
- Do not put non-blocking records or recurring obligations in `tasks/todo.md` unless they have been explicitly promoted into current execution work.

## Constraints

- **Complement, don't duplicate.** Product/market assumptions belong in `/assumption-tracker`. This skill covers organizational, technical, regulatory, competitive, financial, and execution risks.
- **Be specific.** "Competition" is not a risk. "Well-funded competitor X launching a free tier in Q3" is.
- **Present before writing.** Never write until the user validates the assessment.
- **Score honestly.** Don't inflate risks to seem thorough. Low-probability risks should be scored low.
- **Update, don't duplicate.** If `research/risk-register.md` exists, ask whether to update or overwrite.

## Alignment Page

When this skill produces durable deliverables (research, specs, plans, reports, prototypes, or any document output), build a full-depth HTML alignment page following `ALIGNMENT-PAGE.md` in this skill's directory. Output: `alignment/risk-register-{topic}.html`.

## Default Shipping Contract

Follow the shared shipping contract convention in CLAUDE.md.
