Compounding Marketing

Make each unit of marketing work easier than the last.

A cross-platform AI plugin — 61 marketing skills and 16 workflow commands for B2B SaaS. Built for Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Cursor, OpenAI Codex, ChatGPT, Zed, and any other AGENTS.md-compatible tool.

v1.6.0 — Marketplace-first install for Claude Code. Hardened npx wizard with --dry-run / --uninstall / per-tool target paths. Writes real MCP config files at each tool's documented location. All 61 skills brought up to gold-standard structure, enforced by a built-in validator.

Safety contract. No silent overwrites, no postinstall hooks, full rollback. Every install writes a manifest at .compounding-marketing-install.json; --uninstall reverses it exactly — .bak backups are restored byte-identical and marker blocks are stripped.

Why This Plugin

Frameworks, not prompts. Every skill teaches the methodology — April Dunford's positioning, Strategyzer's Value Proposition Canvas, Jobs-to-be-Done, PAS / AIDA copy frameworks. You get a process, not a one-shot template.

Research before execution. Most marketing plugins jump straight to "write a landing page." Compounding Marketing forces clarity first: cm-context → positioning → messaging-framework → only then copywriting. 80% of marketing success is clarity. These skills make it systematic.

Built to compound. The /cm-compound workflow captures what worked, what didn't, and what surprised you after every project. Over time your .agents/learnings/ directory becomes a library specific to your business, your audience, your market.

Safety-first install. Every existing-file collision prompts you. npm install writes zero files outside node_modules/. Roll back any install with one command.

Who It's For

• Technical founders who need to ship marketing without hiring a marketer.
• Solo marketers who want 61 specialized playbooks in their corner.
• Marketing managers accelerating their team with AI and needing a quality bar AI outputs can be measured against.
• Growth engineers who think in systems, processes, and measurable outcomes.

Quick Start

Claude Code — Marketplace Install (Recommended)

Inside Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add classicchins/compounding-marketing
/plugin install compounding-marketing

All 61 skills and 16 workflow commands become available immediately. Zero file writes to your project.

When you're ready to wire the plugin into a specific project — with a merged CLAUDE.md, MCP config files at the right locations, and an install manifest for safe rollback — run:

/cm-setup

Roll back any time with /cm-uninstall or npx compounding-marketing --uninstall.

Everything Else — npx Wizard

npx compounding-marketing                          # interactive wizard
npx compounding-marketing --tool=cursor            # Cursor
npx compounding-marketing --tool=codex             # OpenAI Codex (project scope)
npx compounding-marketing --tool=codex --scope=global
npx compounding-marketing --tool=zed               # Zed
npx compounding-marketing --tool=chatgpt           # ChatGPT (Custom GPT)

The wizard walks four steps: Tool → Scope → MCP servers (optional) → Install. Every collision prompts for merge / overwrite (with .bak) / skip.

Useful flags:

npx compounding-marketing --dry-run     # preview every action without writing
npx compounding-marketing --yes         # accept safe defaults (CI-friendly)
npx compounding-marketing --uninstall   # reverse a previous install via manifest
npx compounding-marketing --target=/abs/path   # custom install location
npx compounding-marketing --version
npx compounding-marketing --info
npx compounding-marketing --help

Per-Tool Targets

The wizard writes to each tool's documented location — verified against the official docs for Claude Code, Cursor, OpenAI Codex, and Zed.

| Tool | Project install | Global install | Instructions file | MCP config | |------|-----------------|----------------|-------------------|------------| | Claude Code / Cowork | .claude/commands/cm-*.md + .claude/skills/<skill>/ (symlinks) | ~/.claude/{plugins,commands,skills}/ | CLAUDE.md (project) / ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md (global) | Project: .mcp.json. Global: prints claude mcp add --scope user ... commands. | | Cursor | .cursor/rules/cm-*.mdc (Cursor frontmatter) | n/a (project-scoped tool) | AGENTS.md | .cursor/mcp.json (project) or ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) | | Codex (OpenAI) | ./.agents/skills/<skill>/ | ~/.agents/skills/<skill>/ | AGENTS.md (project-scoped — Codex uses Git-root discovery) | ./.codex/config.toml or ~/.codex/config.toml | | Zed | project root only — Zed reads AGENTS.md directly | n/a | AGENTS.md | n/a | | ChatGPT | project files + printed copy-paste block for the Custom GPT editor | n/a | AGENTS.md | n/a |

Three Worked Workflows

1. New Project Foundation (Week 1)

You just started building a B2B SaaS analytics tool. Before writing any copy, lock in the strategic foundation.

/cm-context           # 30 min — answer ~15 questions about product, audience, competitors
                      # → writes .agents/product-marketing-context.md
/cm-research          # 2–3 hr — ICP, customer interviews synthesis, competitive landscape,
                      # market sizing — uses Perplexity / Exa MCP if configured
/cm-position          # 2 hr — April Dunford positioning workshop + messaging pillars
                      # + value props per segment

By Friday you have a positioning canvas, a messaging framework with proof points, value props per segment, and a context doc every future skill will reference. No copy yet, on purpose.

2. Sprint-Driven Execution (Week 2+)

You have positioning. Now you execute against it for a 2-week sprint.

/cm-sprint                       # plan the 2-week sprint — goals, deliverables, schedule
/cm-copy for our homepage        # full copywriting pass + CRO review against positioning
/cm-email for trial users        # 5-email welcome + nurture sequence with deliverability check
/cm-social for the launch        # 30-day LinkedIn + Twitter calendar in your brand voice
/cm-standup                      # 5 min daily — what shipped, what's next, blockers
/cm-eod                          # 5–10 min — wrap the day, tee up tomorrow
/cm-retro                        # end of sprint — what worked, what didn't, actions

Because everything pulls from the same product-marketing-context.md and positioning canvas, your homepage copy, welcome emails, and social posts sound like one product — not three.

3. Post-Project Compound (Ongoing)

After every project, capture what you learned so the next project starts smarter than the last.

/cm-compound

Just finished the homepage redesign project.
What worked: social proof above fold (+23% clicks), outcome-focused
headlines beat feature-focused. What didn't: video hero killed mobile.
Surprising: enterprise visitors spent 3x longer on /pricing than SMB.

Output:

✓ Saved to .agents/learnings/cro.md
✓ Saved to .agents/learnings/copywriting.md

Next homepage project: those learnings are loaded into every relevant skill.

See commands/ for the full set of 16 workflow command playbooks.

What's Inside

61 marketing skills across 12 categories:

| Category | # | What you get | |----------|---|--------------| | Foundation | 5 | Context, positioning, messaging, value props, brand voice | | Research | 7 | ICP, customer interviews, JTBD synthesis, competitive analysis, market sizing | | Content & Copy | 8 | Copywriting, editing, content strategy, case studies, social, video, lead magnets | | SEO & Discovery | 6 | SEO audit, AI search (AEO/GEO), programmatic SEO, schema, site architecture | | CRO | 7 | Pages, signup, onboarding, forms, popups, paywalls, pricing | | Outreach & Email | 6 | ABM, cold email, sequences, deliverability, automation, testimonials | | Paid Acquisition | 3 | Paid ads strategy, LinkedIn ads, ad creative | | Measurement | 4 | Analytics, A/B test design, attribution, content scoring | | GTM & Launch | 5 | Launch planning, GTM motion, channels, Product Hunt, PR | | Growth & Retention | 6 | Referrals, free tools, churn, partnerships, community, newsletter | | Sales & RevOps | 3 | Sales enablement, revops, webinars | | Meta | 1 | 140+ SaaS marketing tactics (ICE-prioritized) |

16 workflow commands:

| Category | Commands | |----------|----------| | Install / Lifecycle | /cm-setup, /cm-uninstall | | Project workflows | /cm-research, /cm-position, /cm-copy, /cm-launch, /cm-compound, /cm-social, /cm-email | | Planning & Review | /cm-sprint, /cm-retro, /cm-audit | | Daily Operations | /cm-standup, /cm-daily, /cm-eod, /cm-weekly |

Every skill has a fixed structure: role prompt → step-by-step process → output template → quality bar → common mistakes → worked examples → related skills. A built-in validator (npm run validate) enforces it.

Full skill catalog: see CLAUDE.md (Claude Code) or AGENTS.md (every other tool). Every workflow command has a full playbook in commands/.

How to Use the Plugin

Three ways to invoke a skill or workflow:

1. Slash command (Claude Code, Cursor): /cm-research, /cm-position, /cm-copy, …
2. Natural language (any tool): "Run the cm-context skill," "Audit our SEO," "Write a case study about Acme."
3. Workflow chaining: a workflow command runs multiple skills in sequence (e.g. /cm-position runs positioning → messaging-framework → value-proposition).

Always start with cm-context. It creates .agents/product-marketing-context.md — the shared context every other skill reads first. Skip it and outputs will be generic.

MCP Integrations (Optional, Recommended)

Two pre-configured MCP servers supercharge research-heavy skills:

Perplexity — perplexity_search, perplexity_ask, perplexity_reason, perplexity_research. Real-time web research with cited sources.

Exa — company_research_exa, people_search_exa, web_search_exa, deep_researcher_start/check. Neural search, company intelligence, async research agent.

The wizard offers these during install and writes the correct config file for your tool (.mcp.json for Claude Code, .cursor/mcp.json for Cursor, .codex/config.toml for Codex). Skills like icp-research, competitive-analysis, market-sizing, and competitor-content-monitoring will detect them automatically and use them when available.

Setup details: see mcp/README.md.

Optional Tool Integrations

Skills can push tasks and pull data from external tools when configured:

| Category | Integrations | |----------|--------------| | Task tracking | Linear, Trello, Asana, ClickUp | | Analytics | Google Analytics 4, Search Console, Mixpanel, Meta Ads |

Setup details: see integrations/README.md.

Safety & Rollback

Every claim about safety is enforced by code, not docs:

• No silent overwrites. Every existing-file collision prompts for merge with markers / overwrite-with-.bak / skip. With --yes: instructions files and MCP config default to merge; everything else defaults to skip.
• No postinstall hooks. npm install compounding-marketing writes zero files outside node_modules/. The wizard runs only when you invoke it. (This was the v1.5 bug we removed.)
• Idempotent markers. CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md edits are wrapped in <!-- COMPOUNDING-MARKETING-START/END -->. Re-running the wizard produces a single marker pair, not duplicates.
• Full rollback. The install writes a manifest at .compounding-marketing-install.json (project) or ~/.claude/.compounding-marketing-install.json (global). --uninstall reverses it exactly: removes created files and symlinks, restores .bak backups byte-identical, strips marker blocks, removes MCP entries.

Preview anything before you commit to it:

npx compounding-marketing --dry-run

Repository Structure

skills/           # 61 SKILL.md files — each ~600 lines, gold-standard structure
commands/         # 16 cm-*.md workflow command playbooks
bin/setup.js      # The npx wizard (~1260 LOC, no runtime deps)
scripts/          # generate-claude-md.js, validate-skills.js
mcp/              # Perplexity + Exa MCP config and docs
integrations/     # Linear, GA4, Search Console, Mixpanel, Meta Ads guides
.claude-plugin/   # plugin.json + marketplace.json (Claude Code marketplace)
.agents/          # Created at runtime — context doc + learnings (gitignored)
CLAUDE.md         # Index for Claude Code
AGENTS.md         # Index for everything else (Cursor / Codex / Zed / ChatGPT)

Adding or Modifying Skills

1. Create skills/{name}/SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter (name, description, metadata.version).
2. Follow the 7-section structure in skills/_TEMPLATE.md.
3. Run npm run validate — the validator enforces ≥300 lines, role prompt, all required sections, ≥5 common mistakes, ≥2 worked examples, ≥3 related skills.
4. Run node scripts/generate-claude-md.js to refresh the skills index in CLAUDE.md.
5. Update skill counts in README.md, AGENTS.md, .claude-plugin/plugin.json, .claude-plugin/marketplace.json.

Contributions welcome — open a PR or an issue on GitHub.

Creator

Created by Chinmaya Shankar (@classicchins), founder of BigDeal Ventures — a portfolio of AI-native companies:

| Company | What it does | |---------|--------------| | AuthorityMax | SaaS personal branding platform for founders & operators | | MagicAssist | AI-powered productivity assistant | | SuperContent | AI-native design & video production for SaaS | | DesignCrew | AI-native apps & digital experiences |

This plugin was built to make world-class marketing frameworks accessible to every founder and marketer building with AI.

Acknowledgments

Frameworks built on the shoulders of:

• April Dunford — Obviously Awesome (positioning)
• Strategyzer — Value Proposition Canvas
• Anthony Ulwick / Clayton Christensen — Jobs-to-be-Done
• Direct-response marketing lineage (Schwartz, Kennedy, Halbert, Sugarman)
• Compounding Engineering — the dev-side analogue and methodological inspiration

License

MIT — use commercially, modify, distribute freely. See LICENSE.

Support

• Issues / discussions: github.com/classicchins/compounding-marketing
• Twitter: @classicchins

Make marketing compound. Start with /cm-context.