Dt Coaching Foundation
MicrosoftOfficialPublished by Microsoft
- Skill
- Role or persona
- Agent tooling
- MIT
- Low risk
AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
The dt-coaching-foundation skill serves as the core knowledge base for a Design Thinking coach agent. It establishes a consistent persona based on the Think, Speak, Empower philosophy, ensuring the agent acts as a collaborative guide rather than a task executor. The skill provides the logic for session state management, method sequencing across nine Design Thinking stages, and the optional canonical deck generation workflow. It enforces quality constraints and fidelity rules while providing a progressive hint engine to support users at varying levels of expertise.
What it does
- Defines the coach's identity, interaction philosophy, and communication boundaries.
- Manages session state persistence and recovery protocols.
- Provides a progressive hint engine to escalate support based on user needs.
- Governs the canonical deck and customer-card generation workflow.
- Enforces quality and fidelity constraints for all generated artifacts.
- Guides method transitions and non-linear iteration patterns.
When to use it
- At the start of a Design Thinking coaching session to initialize the agent's persona.
- During method transitions to ensure adherence to the nine-method sequence.
- When the team requires guidance on artifact generation or canonical deck creation.
- When the agent needs to assess user readiness or provide progressive hints.
- To recover session state after an interruption.
Advantages
- Ensures consistent coaching behavior across all Design Thinking methods.
- Maintains user agency by prioritizing exploratory questions over direct answers.
- Provides structured, repeatable workflows for artifact creation.
- Supports adaptive coaching through a tiered hint system.
- Enforces quality standards without imposing rigid, non-negotiable constraints.
Usage examples
- “I am stuck on the current method, what should I do?”
- The agent will assess the current method, apply the progressive hint engine to provide a level-appropriate suggestion, and end with a question to maintain user agency.
- “Can we generate the canonical deck now?”
- The agent will check if the project has sufficient validated content, generate the requested markdown artifacts, and then prompt the user to decide on customer-card generation.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://autogineer.com/agent-skills/microsoft/dt-coaching-foundation/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip dt-coaching-foundation.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by Microsoft
DT Coaching Foundation — Skill Entry
This SKILL.md is the entrypoint for the Design Thinking coaching foundation knowledge.
The dt-coach agent loads this skill at session start and during a coaching session to ground coaching behavior in a stable identity, enforce quality and fidelity expectations, navigate method transitions, persist and recover session state, and run the opt-in canonical deck workflow. The foundation knowledge stays constant across all nine Design Thinking methods.
Foundation references
Load the reference that matches the current coaching moment.
| Reference | When to load |
|---|---|
| coaching-identity.md | At session start and throughout — establishes coach identity, Think/Speak/Empower philosophy, boundaries, and the Progressive Hint Engine. |
| quality-constraints.md | Before any artifact generation — enforces fidelity rules, anti-polish stance, and quality-by-space expectations. |
| method-sequencing.md | At method transitions, space boundaries, and when the team asks what to do next — guides the nine-method sequence, transition protocol, next-method assessment, and non-linear iteration. |
| coaching-state.md | For persistence and session recovery — defines the coaching state schema, update rules, and recovery protocol. |
| canonical-deck.md | For opt-in canonical deck and customer-card generation — governs activation, offer points, and the customer-card branch. |
Skill layout
SKILL.md— this file (skill entrypoint).references/— the DT coaching foundation knowledge documents.coaching-identity.md— coach identity, philosophy, and interaction conventions.quality-constraints.md— fidelity rules and quality standards across all methods.method-sequencing.md— method transitions, space boundaries, next-method assessment, and iteration patterns.coaching-state.md— coaching state schema, file conventions, and recovery protocol.canonical-deck.md— opt-in canonical deck and customer-card workflow.
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer895 B
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer1.1 KiB
- SKILL.md3.2 KiB
- references/canonical-deck.md12.5 KiB
- references/coaching-identity.md3.9 KiB
- references/coaching-state.md11.0 KiB
- references/method-sequencing.md6.6 KiB
- references/quality-constraints.md3.5 KiB
SKILL.md
DT Coaching Foundation — Skill Entry
This SKILL.md is the entrypoint for the Design Thinking coaching foundation knowledge.
The dt-coach agent loads this skill at session start and during a coaching session to ground coaching behavior in a stable identity, enforce quality and fidelity expectations, navigate method transitions, persist and recover session state, and run the opt-in canonical deck workflow. The foundation knowledge stays constant across all nine Design Thinking methods.
Foundation references
Load the reference that matches the current coaching moment.
| Reference | When to load |
|---|---|
| coaching-identity.md | At session start and throughout — establishes coach identity, Think/Speak/Empower philosophy, boundaries, and the Progressive Hint Engine. |
| quality-constraints.md | Before any artifact generation — enforces fidelity rules, anti-polish stance, and quality-by-space expectations. |
| method-sequencing.md | At method transitions, space boundaries, and when the team asks what to do next — guides the nine-method sequence, transition protocol, next-method assessment, and non-linear iteration. |
| coaching-state.md | For persistence and session recovery — defines the coaching state schema, update rules, and recovery protocol. |
| canonical-deck.md | For opt-in canonical deck and customer-card generation — governs activation, offer points, and the customer-card branch. |
Skill layout
SKILL.md— this file (skill entrypoint).references/— the DT coaching foundation knowledge documents.coaching-identity.md— coach identity, philosophy, and interaction conventions.quality-constraints.md— fidelity rules and quality standards across all methods.method-sequencing.md— method transitions, space boundaries, next-method assessment, and iteration patterns.coaching-state.md— coaching state schema, file conventions, and recovery protocol.canonical-deck.md— opt-in canonical deck and customer-card workflow.
Requirements and compatibility
Written for: GitHub Copilot, Claude Code
Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta
“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.
Needs: Claude Code frontmatter
Security
What our scanner noticed· Low risk
- Instructions that use the network
A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.
Attribution and licence
- Published by
- Microsoft
- Publisher
- Microsoft (Official)
- Source
- microsoft/hve-core · .github/skills/design-thinking/dt-coaching-foundation · commit f425e94
- Licence
- MIT License (redistribution allowed)
- LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
- ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
- Synced
AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft or Microsoft.
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Download ZIP
The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download dt-coaching-foundation.zip