Hire an AI choose project options within cash limits

Everything it can hand back

Your task sets the actual outputs. The specialist picks the methods that cover them.

• Cash-timing baseline and scenario assumptions
• Feasible-option comparison, unresolved limits and decision tripwires

How it does the job well

• Start from the user problem and the evidence for it, then the solution.
• Write decisions down with the reason and the options you rejected.
• Keep scope small enough to ship and learn. Name what is out of scope.
• Define how success will be measured before building.

Mistakes it avoids

• Treating opinions or one loud request as proven demand.
• Specs that skip edge cases, error states or dependencies.
• Roadmaps with dates but no owners or confidence levels.

What a good result looks like

An example, not your task: Choosing projects when cash timing imposes a hard constraint

• Dated cash schedule. Money in and out by date, with gaps marked and no double-counting.
• Source and assumption register. Where each figure came from and each assumption the schedule rests on.
• Option and limit table. Each project choice against each hard limit, with units and any limit it breaks.
• Feasible shortlist. The choices that fit, with how delayed payments would change them.
• Decision record. Owner, next action, fallback and the evidence that would change the choice.
• Check table. PASS, FAIL or NOT RUN for each check, with the next person or input needed.

How the work is checked

• Every requirement can be tested.
• Assumptions and risks are listed with how each will be checked.
• Dependencies and owners are named.
• States which checks passed, failed or could not run, and names missing inputs.

These checks have not been run against a model yet. Your AI uses them to check its own work.

A second opinion

Before it hands back, your AI reviews the draft the way Stephen Covey and Chip Heath would. This is a way of reviewing the work. It does not mean they wrote or endorse it.

Capabilities

• Build the cash-timing baseline. Use ledger exports or CSV for dated inflows/outflows and explicit uncertainty. Avoid double-counting opening cash or commitments. Pass timing schedule and gaps to option formulation.
• Compare options against hard limits. Define project variables, units, objectives and hard/soft constraints. Validate candidate choices against cash schedule and other limits. Report feasible set or unresolved feasibility; optimality and infeasibility require proof.
• Record choice and change conditions. Use feasible choices, tradeoffs and uncertainty to challenge the preference, consider another option and set evidence-based review triggers. Return owner, next action and fallback. A proposed date is not a scheduled reminder.

How the role works

1. Checks your task, context and available tools.
2. Picks the methods needed and prepares a work plan.
3. Carries out supported tasks, with each method's limits and review gates.
4. Checks the real deliverables and corrects supported faults.
5. Hands back files, evidence and unresolved gaps.

Your specialist's working setup

Download the base specialist without a task form or account. README.md and SETUP.md explain how to use the folder. SOUL.md defines its scope. INTAKE.md asks missing questions inside your AI. PLAYBOOK.md, SKILLS.md, BEST_PRACTICES.md, CHECKS.md and HANDOFF.md guide the work and its checked deliverables.

Complete associated skills, supporting files and licences are included. Choose only the methods needed for the actual task. Keep context, working files and accepted feedback in your AI project.

Use this specialist through MCP or the API

Call prepare_specialist with role_id compare-project-options-against-cash-limits only. No task is required to load it. Your AI asks what job you need done, what you want back and which relevant context it can use.

For task-led hiring, call find_specialist, explain the suggested specialists and let the user accept or change the team.

Complete ZIP: Download base specialist. API: GET /api/v1/specialists/compare-project-options-against-cash-limits/pack. The host AI supplies its own model, tools and execution; a pack does not connect accounts or run a task.

Inputs and helpful context

The specialist starts from the task brief. Only active methods require their inputs.

For the primary method, when used

• DECISION: give owner, deadline, projects, controllable choices and acceptable tradeoffs.
• CASH_RECORDS: attach available starting balance, receivable/payable dates, fixed commitments and source dates.
• LIMITS: give minimum reserve, staffing/time bounds, mandatory commitments and permitted scenario changes.
• UNCERTAINTY: identify uncertain timing, prior forecast errors and available evidence.

Tools and access

• Any good chat AI: Generating options and counterarguments is text work any strong chat AI does well with this skill.
• A calendar: A tripwire date only works if it shows up where you will see it.

Functions and deliverables

• Choose project options within cash limits: Attach cash timing and project choices. Get a feasibility comparison, assumptions and a stop-or-review decision record.
  • Cash-timing baseline and scenario assumptions
  • Feasible-option comparison, unresolved limits and decision tripwires
• Cash forecast builder: Build a 30, 60 and 90 day cash forecast from your invoices, bills and fixed costs. See if you can make payroll, with risks named.
  • A 30, 60 and 90 day cash forecast with a low and high range for each
  • Up to five named risks, biggest dollar impact first
  • An Excel workbook with summary, detail and risk sheets
  • A short chat summary with the forecast table
  • A forecast page in the format you prefer
  Source: Anthropic.
• Decision options and limits checker: Bring options, rules and evidence. Get a check of which choices meet the rules and what remains unknown.
  • A written problem with units, limits and tolerances.
  • A feasibility check of each candidate, done again from scratch.
  • The worst limit violation for each candidate.
  • A clear note on whether the result is proven best, or only the best found.
  • A chosen solution or tradeoff set, with an owner and a recheck trigger.
  Source: magnus919.
• Decision backup planner: Share a decision. Get alternative options, a test of your assumptions and a clear point to reconsider.
  • At least three options, two of them beyond yes or no
  • The case against your favourite, written out
  • A short view across ten minutes, ten months and ten years
  • A tripwire and a fallback with a named person to ask
• Product context file writer: Share product facts, audience and positioning. Get a reviewed context file that other marketing skills can reference.
  • A product marketing context file
  • A summary of what the file already holds
  • A change log of updates
  • Gaps you still need to fill
  Source: Corey Haines.
• Stephen Covey: Plan priorities, handoffs or a hard talk using Stephen Covey’s recorded approach. State the goal, listen first and agree a next step.
  • Your problem worked on the way Stephen Covey would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in Stephen Covey's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step
• Chip Heath: Clarify a message, change plan or difficult choice using Chip Heath’s public methods. Find the core, make it concrete and widen the options.
  • Your problem worked on the way Chip Heath would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in Chip Heath's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step

Tasks you can use it for

• Choosing projects when cash timing imposes a hard constraint

Limits to check before starting

• You only want a 30, 60 and 90 day cash forecast. Use the Cash forecast builder.
• You have one plan and want to see where a bad year breaks it. Use the Budget stress tester.
• You have no cash records yet. This workflow will not recommend funded projects without a starting balance, fixed commitments and a reserve rule.

Best way to use this role

Give it one clear outcome, the actual files and a definition of done. Keep the work in one AI project so it can reuse checked context and earlier files.

• Download the complete workflow or agent pack and unzip it.
• Give the complete folder to your AI. Start with START_HERE.txt, then provide the named inputs in the coordinator skill.
• Follow its checkpoints and check the evidence before using any output. Agent packs run one requested cycle; they do not create a schedule.

Read it as data

Read the complete role setup as JSON. Connect your AI to the AI Blocks MCP library and read aiblocks://roles/compare-project-options-against-cash-limits for its role instructions and pinned sources.

This is a prepared AI role. No task has run. Your AI carries out authorized work using its available tools and reports the actual deliverables and checks.