Generate Approval Letter

Skill: generate-approval-letter

Generates a project plan approval request for Phase 2 — Planning. Reads the project plan, budget, and resource plan; extracts Approver-level stakeholders from the stakeholder map; and produces two artifacts: the approval letter email body (approval-letter.md) and the send-email template (email-tpl-approval.md). Mode B: agent prepares draft, PM reviews and confirms before sending (level 3).

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Triggers

Russian: «отправь план на согласование», «письмо на согласование плана», «согласуй план с заказчиком», «запроси утверждение плана», «составь письмо на согласование», «нужно согласовать план» English: "send plan for approval", "approval letter for project plan", "request plan approval", "generate approval letter", "plan sign-off email", "get plan approved"

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Language Detection

• Request in Russian → templates with -ru suffix, responses in Russian
• Otherwise → templates with -en suffix, responses in English

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Input

| Data | Required | Source | |------|:--------:|--------| | Stakeholder map | yes | 01-initiation/stakeholder-map.md | | Project plan | yes | 02-planning/project-plan.md | | Project budget | no | 02-planning/project-budget.xlsx | | Resource plan | no | 02-planning/resource-plan.md | | Project charter | no | 01-initiation/project-charter.md — name, PM, sponsor |

Output

| File | Project path | Format | Description | |------|-------------|--------|-------------| | approval-letter.md | 02-planning/ | .md | Email body — formal approval request | | email-tpl-approval.md | 02-planning/ | .md | send-email template: To, Subject, Body, Attachments |

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Instructions

Step 1 — Check Dependencies

Guard-rail — check request type. If the request is about updating the plan, replanning, or modifying artifacts → respond: "generate-approval-letter composes an approval request for the ready plan, not the plan itself. Use generate-project-plan to update the plan first, then run generate-approval-letter again." Do not start workflow.

Check for required files:

1. 01-initiation/stakeholder-map.md
2. 02-planning/project-plan.md

If stakeholder-map.md not found: Stop. Report: "To identify recipients, the stakeholder map is required. Run generate-stakeholder-map (task #3) first, then run generate-approval-letter."

If project-plan.md not found: Stop. Report: "To compose the letter, the project plan is required. Run generate-project-plan (task #7) first, then run generate-approval-letter."

If both files found: proceed to Step 2.

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Step 2 — Extract Data from Input Files

From stakeholder-map.md:

• All stakeholders with status Approver (or equivalent: Утверждающий, Sign-off authority, Decision maker)
• For each: name, role/title, email (if available)
• If no Approver found: ask PM — "No Approvers found in stakeholder map. Please specify

who should receive the letter." Record PM's answer as the recipient list. In Steps 3–4, use this data instead of stakeholder-map.md.

From project-plan.md:

• Project name, PM
• Number of phases, overall duration (start date → end date)
• 3–5 key milestones with dates
• Current phase and status

From project-charter.md (if available):

• Project name (if not found in project-plan.md)
• Project sponsor — add to CC

From project-budget.xlsx (if available):

• Total budget amount
• Risk reserve (if present)

From resource-plan.md (if available):

• Total person-months or FTE summary — one line

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Step 3 — Compose Email Body (approval-letter.md)

Follow the schema from templates/approval-letter-{lang}.md.

Letter structure:

1. Greeting — to addressees (by name if single recipient; formal greeting if multiple)
2. Context — 2–3 sentences: project name, Phase 2 complete, package ready for review
3. Document package — list with brief description of each document
4. Key project parameters — compact summary: start, end, milestones, budget (if available)
5. Call to action — clear request: what to do, response deadline (default: 3 business days)

Response options: "Approved" / "Requires revision" (with comments)

1. Signature — PM name, title, contact

Tone: formal, concise. Length: 200–350 words.

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Step 4 — Compose send-email Template (email-tpl-approval.md)

Follow the schema from templates/email-tpl-approval-{lang}.md.

email-tpl-approval.md structure:

To: [Approver list from stakeholder-map]
CC: [Sponsor if found]
Subject: [Project Name] — Request for Plan Approval
Attachments:
  - project-plan.docx (convert from project-plan.md)
  - project-budget.xlsx (if available)
  - resource-plan.docx (convert from resource-plan.md, if available)
Body: [content of the letter composed in Step 3]
Autonomy level: 3 — send only after PM confirmation

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Step 5 — Show Draft and Save

1. Create approval-letter.md in {project}/02-planning/.
2. Create email-tpl-approval.md in {project}/02-planning/.
3. Show in chat:

• Confirmation: "Files saved to 02-planning/."
• Full content of approval-letter.md for PM review.
• Recipient list (To) and attachments for review.
• Question: "Letter ready. Confirm to send via Gmail, or provide edits."

1. Do not trigger send-email without explicit PM confirmation — autonomy level 3.
2. On PM confirmation: hand off to send-email skill with 02-planning/email-tpl-approval.md.

On Gmail unavailable: save draft, notify PM with manual send instructions.

1. Write to logs/log.md: date, skill, files created, recipients, status.
2. Update project-state.md: approval-letter.md → "pending approval".

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Templates

| File | Purpose | |------|---------| | templates/approval-letter-ru.md | Email body schema (RU) | | templates/approval-letter-en.md | Email body schema (EN) | | templates/email-tpl-approval-ru.md | send-email template schema (RU) | | templates/email-tpl-approval-en.md | send-email template schema (EN) |

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Dependencies

Reads:

• 01-initiation/stakeholder-map.md — Approver stakeholders (required)
• 02-planning/project-plan.md — phases, milestones, timeline (required)
• 01-initiation/project-charter.md — project name, PM, sponsor (optional)
• 02-planning/project-budget.xlsx — total budget (optional)
• 02-planning/resource-plan.md — FTE summary (optional)

Passes data to:

• send-email — email-tpl-approval.md → Gmail (level 3)

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Constraints

• Mode B: letter is a draft for PM review; sending requires PM confirmation (level 3)
• Does not modify project-plan.md or any other source files
• If no Approver in stakeholder-map: asks PM for clarification, does not stop
• Default response deadline: 3 business days; PM may adjust before confirmation
• Without project-budget.xlsx and resource-plan.md: letter is generated without those data points
• Gmail MCP unavailable fallback: save to file, PM sends manually
• Single project per invocation

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: KirKruglov
• Source: KirKruglov/claude-project-manager
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.