---
name: playbook-client-onboard
type: playbook
status: proposed
description: >-
  The prescribed sequence for opening a new A1 client engagement — create the
  client project under the A1 team, frame the engagement (advisory-led by
  default), scaffold the per-client decision log, set up the phase/milestone
  structure, and file the first validation ticket. Read and follow this whenever
  an A1 engagement starts, so the scaffold is repeatable instead of re-derived by
  hand each time (a1.Muse, a1.Heroes, a1.MeirionPritchard, a1.firmup were each
  done ad hoc). Composes convention-linear, convention-decision-log and
  convention-ticket; sits on the a1.OS shelf beside playbook.website-build and
  standard.proposal. Proposed first draft — confirm shape before adoption.
---

# Client onboarding (A1)

The repeatable scaffold for standing up a new A1 client engagement. Standing one up — project, decision log, phase structure, first ticket — has been done operator-directed, step by step, for every client so far; this playbook fixes the sequence so the next one is followed, not re-derived. It is **read and followed, not run**: it composes existing conventions and is mostly operator-directed, automating only the parts that already have a workflow. Owned on the a1.OS shelf, beside `playbook.website-build` and `standard.proposal`.

## When to use

A new A1 client engagement is starting — a signed or committed piece of consultancy work that needs its own home, log, and plan. Not for a lead or a pitch (those live as opportunities in Pipeline / Pitches and graduate here only once the engagement is real).

## The sequence

Follow in order; each step names the convention that governs it.

### 1. Create the client project (A1 team)

Per `convention-linear`: one **project per client engagement** under the **A1 team**, named `a1.<Client>` (e.g. `a1.firmup`). Link it to the **A1 initiative**, set the lead to **Aled**. A1 standards and playbooks stay in `a1.OS`; only the engagement's delivery work goes in the client project.

### 2. Frame the engagement

State the engagement's shape in the project description: the mode (**advisory-led by default**, unless the work is a defined build or a fixed deliverable), the objective, and the success measure. Keep it to a few lines — the detail lives in tickets and the decision log. Where the commercial frame matters, point to `standard.proposal`.

### 3. Scaffold the decision log

Per `convention-decision-log`: create the per-client log `a1-<client>.log-decisions` (hyphenated `a1-` prefix, then the project name), with the index doc and the first weekly child doc `a1-<client>.log-decisions.YYYY-Www`. Log the engagement's framing decision (mode, objective) as the first entry, so the basis is recorded from day one.

### 4. Set up the phase/milestone structure

Per `convention-ticket` (*Structure*): model the engagement's **sequential, gated delivery phases as project milestones, not epics** — milestones carry the time order; `type:epic` is reserved for a genuine body of work *within* a phase. Lay the phases out as milestones up front so promotion-to-ready has a spine to hang on, and avoid the create-then-convert churn of modelling phases as epics first.

### 5. File the first validation ticket

Open the first **leaf ticket** in the client project, in the standard ticket shape (`convention-ticket`): a small, concrete first step that validates the engagement is moving — typically a discovery or framing-confirmation task. Capture it (Backlog), not ready; Aled promotes it. This gives the engagement an actionable starting point rather than an empty board.

## Guardrails

- **Real engagement only.** Scaffold when the work is committed; a lead or pitch stays in Pipeline until it graduates.
- **Capture, don't promote.** The first ticket lands captured (Backlog); Aled moves it to ready. Never advance on his behalf (`convention-ticket`).
- **Compose, don't duplicate.** This playbook points at `convention-linear`, `convention-decision-log` and `convention-ticket` for the mechanics; it does not restate their rules. If one of them changes, this still holds.
- **Advisory-led is the default frame, not the only one.** Name the mode explicitly when it differs, and log the choice.
- **Proposed.** This is a first draft assembled from the way the last four engagements were stood up; confirm the sequence and the a1.OS placement before treating it as adopted.

## Tone

Calm, precise, sentence case, British spelling, no exclamation marks, outcome before adjective. (cos.tov.)