Em Context

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Setting up context about your team
• Management philosophy
• Current priorities
• Updating a direct report profile

Example prompts

• “set my team context,”
• “update my EM context,”
• “s my team setup,”
• “/em-context”

Workflow steps

7 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Read .agents/em-context.md first if it exists
2. 2If a specific person is involved, also read .agents/reports/[name].md
3. 3If .agents/em-context.md does not exist, collect the minimum manager profile and create it before giving detailed advice
4. 4If a specific person is involved and .agents/reports/[name].md does not exist, collect the minimum direct report profile and create it…
5. 5If the conversation reveals durable new context, update the relevant file automatically
6. 6Prefer additive updates over rewrites
7. 7Do not overwrite existing context unless the user clearly corrected it

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit c47ebc7. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are markdown).

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Em Context loads about 1.6k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 109 tokens; SKILL.md has 582 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~109

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.6k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from manager-dot-dev/manager-skills at commit c47ebc7, republished under its MIT licence (© manager-dot-dev). 582 words, ~1,602 tokens.

name

em-context

description

Foundation skill for engineering managers. Use when setting up context about your team, org structure, management philosophy, and current priorities. All other EM skills read this first. Also use when creating or updating a direct report profile. Trigger phrases: "set my team context," "update my EM context," "here's my team setup," "my team is," "my org is," "add a report," "update report profile," "create a profile for."

metadata

version: 1.3.0

.agents/
├── em-context.md          # Your team and org context
└── reports/
    ├── alice.md           # One file per direct report
    ├── bob.md
    └── carol.md

# EM Context

## About Me
- Role: (e.g., Engineering Manager, Senior EM, Director of Engineering)
- Years as EM:
- Company/team size:
- Industry:

## My Team
- Team size:
- Team mission/charter:
- Key areas of ownership:
- Current tech stack (brief):
- Team tenure mix: (e.g., mostly senior, mixed, mostly junior)
- Remote/hybrid/in-person:

## Org Structure
- Who I report to:
- Peer teams:
- Key stakeholders:
- How engineering relates to product/design:

## Current Priorities
- Top 3 team goals this quarter:
- Known challenges or risks:
- Recent wins:

## My Management Style
- How I like to run 1:1s:
- Feedback style (direct, coaching-oriented, etc.):
- Decision-making approach:
- Anything I'm actively working on as a manager:

## Norms and Preferences
- How we communicate (Slack, email, etc.):
- Meeting cadences:
- Performance review cycle:
- Anything unusual about this team/org I should know:

# [Name]

## Role & Background
- Title:
- Level: (e.g., L4, Senior, Staff)
- Tenure on team:
- Background / how they joined:

## Strengths
- [What they're genuinely good at — specific, not generic]

## Growth Areas
- [What they're actively working on or should be]

## Working Style
- How they prefer to receive feedback:
- Communication style:
- What motivates them:
- What drains them:
- How they handle ambiguity:

## Goals
- Short-term (this quarter):
- Long-term (career):

## Current Projects
- [Project name]: [their role and status]

## 1:1 Notes
- Cadence:
- What works well in our 1:1s:
- Recurring themes or topics:

## Feedback History
- [Date]: [Brief note on feedback given — topic, not full transcript]

## Flags / Things to Watch
- [Anything to be aware of — risk of attrition, stress, interpersonal friction, etc.]

© manager-dot-dev, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/em-context of manager-dot-dev/manager-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit c47ebc7