ceos-rocks

Manage quarterly Rocks — the 3-7 most important priorities for the next 90 days. Each Rock has one owner, a measurable outcome, and a due date at quarter end.

When to Use

• •"Set rocks for this quarter" or "let's plan our quarterly priorities"
• •"Rock status" or "how are our rocks tracking?"
• •"Score rocks" or "end of quarter review"
• •"Create a rock" or "add a new rock for [person]"
• •"What rocks does [person] own?"
• •Any quarterly planning or review conversation

Context

Finding the CEOS Repository

Search upward from the current directory for the .ceos marker file. This file marks the root of the CEOS repository.

If .ceos is not found, stop and tell the user: "Not in a CEOS repository. Clone your CEOS repo and run setup.sh first."

Key Files

Rock File Format

Each Rock is a markdown file with YAML frontmatter:

id: rock-001
title: "Launch Beta Program"
owner: "brad"
quarter: "2026-Q1"
status: on_track       # on_track | off_track | complete | dropped
created: "2026-01-02"
due: "2026-03-31"

Status values:

• •on_track — progressing as expected
• •off_track — behind or at risk
• •complete — done (set during end-of-quarter scoring)
• •dropped — no longer a priority (set during end-of-quarter scoring)

File naming: rock-NNN-slug.md where NNN is a zero-padded ID and slug is the title slugified (lowercase, hyphens, no special chars).

Quarter Format

Quarters follow YYYY-QN format: 2026-Q1, 2026-Q2, 2026-Q3, 2026-Q4.

To determine the current quarter from today's date:

• •Jan-Mar = Q1, Apr-Jun = Q2, Jul-Sep = Q3, Oct-Dec = Q4

Process

Mode: Setting Rocks

Use when creating new Rocks at the start of a quarter.

Step 1: Determine the Quarter

Check if the user specified a quarter. If not, use the current quarter. If creating Rocks for a past quarter, warn: "That quarter has already started/ended. Continue anyway?"

Create the quarter directory if it doesn't exist: data/rocks/YYYY-QN/

Step 2: Review Context

Before creating Rocks, read and briefly summarize:

• •The 1-Year Plan from data/vision.md (what are we trying to achieve this year?)
• •Any existing Rocks for this quarter (avoid duplicates)

Step 3: Walk Through Each Rock

For each Rock, collect:

1. •Title — short, specific description (e.g., "Launch Beta Program")
2. •Owner — one person (Rocks are never shared)
3. •Measurable outcome — what does "done" look like?
4. •Milestones — 2-4 checkpoints toward completion

Step 4: Validate

• •3-7 Rocks per person. If someone has fewer than 3, ask if they should own more. If more than 7, flag: "Too many Rocks for [person]. EOS recommends 3-7. Which ones are the real priorities?"
• •Alignment check. Does each Rock connect to a 1-Year Plan goal? Flag any that don't.
• •Due date. Set to the last day of the quarter.

Step 5: Generate the ID

Read existing Rock files in the quarter directory. Find the highest rock-NNN ID and increment. If no files exist, start at rock-001.

Step 6: Write the File

Use templates/rock.md as the template. Substitute:

• •Frontmatter fields (id, title, owner, quarter, status=on_track, created=today, due=quarter-end)
• •Body sections (measurable outcome, milestones)

Write to data/rocks/YYYY-QN/rock-NNN-slug.md.

Show the user the complete file before writing. Ask: "Create this Rock?"

Step 7: Repeat or Finish

Ask: "Create another Rock, or are we done for now?"

When finished, display a summary table of all Rocks for the quarter:

Mode: Tracking Rocks

Use for weekly or ad-hoc status checks.

Step 1: Read All Rocks

Read all Rock files in data/rocks/[current-quarter]/. Parse the frontmatter for status.

Step 2: Display Status

Show a status table:

For each Rock, check milestones (how many are checked off?) and note the last entry in Notes.

Step 3: Update Status

If a Rock's status needs to change:

1. •Show the current status
2. •Ask what the new status should be (on_track or off_track)
3. •Show the diff in the frontmatter
4. •Ask for approval before writing
5. •Add a dated note to the Notes section

Mode: Scoring Rocks (End of Quarter)

Use at the end of a quarter for the completion review.

Step 1: Load All Rocks

Read all Rock files in data/rocks/[quarter]/.

Step 2: Score Each Rock

For each Rock, ask: "Complete or incomplete?"

• •EOS scoring is binary. No partial credit. The measurable outcome was either achieved or it wasn't.
• •Update status to complete or dropped (if the Rock was abandoned or deprioritized)
• •A Rock that was worked on but not finished gets dropped — it can become a new Rock next quarter

Step 3: Show the diff for each status change, ask for approval.

Step 4: Summary

Display the quarter scorecard:

Q1 2026 Rock Scorecard
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Complete: 4/6 (67%)
Target: 80%+

✓ Launch Beta Program (brad)
✓ Hire VP Sales (daniel)
✓ Implement CRM (daniel)
✗ Redesign Onboarding (brad) — dropped
✓ ISO Certification (sarah)
✗ Partner Program (brad) — dropped

If completion rate is below 80%, flag it: "Below the 80% target. Consider: Were Rocks too ambitious, or were there execution issues? This is a good topic for the next L10."

Output Format

Setting: Show each Rock file before writing. End with a summary table. Tracking: Status table with milestone progress. Scoring: Quarter scorecard with completion rate.

Guardrails

• •Always show diff before writing. Never modify a Rock file without showing the change and getting approval.
• •One owner per Rock. If the user tries to assign a Rock to multiple people, explain that EOS Rocks have one owner. Suggest splitting into separate Rocks.
• •3-7 per person. Warn (don't block) if someone is outside this range.
• •Binary scoring only. Don't allow "partial" or percentage-based scoring. Complete or dropped.
• •Respect quarter boundaries. Rocks in data/rocks/2026-Q1/ belong to Q1. Don't move them between quarters — create new Rocks in the next quarter instead.
• •Cross-reference V/TO. When setting Rocks, check alignment with the 1-Year Plan from data/vision.md. Use ceos-vto if deeper vision review is needed.
• •ID uniqueness. Always check existing files before assigning an ID to avoid collisions.