[PATTERN carta-writing-style v0.0.2] [PATTERN etiquette v0.0.6] [PATTERN text v0.0.8] [PATTERN tables v0.0.12] [PATTERN carta-watermark v0.0.10] [PATTERN base v0.1.0]

Fetch Carta budget

Pulls the budget for a management company directly from Carta via the fa:list:budgets MCP command and lays it out as a single budget tab in Excel. Only management companies carry budgets in Carta — funds and SPVs do not — so the entity picker always lists the ManCo first.

UX Rules

Inlined here because the Carta CLI session-start hook does not run inside Claude for Excel. Audience is an accountant.

• Plain English only. Never surface MCP server identifiers, command names (fa:list:budgets), UUIDs, raw JSON, or gate labels.
• Currency formatting: positive X,XXX, negatives (X,XXX), totals bolded — using the resolved currency's symbol, not always $. The workbook uses the locale-specific token for the resolved presentation currency, which locks the display to that currency regardless of the user's Excel locale. Derive the currency from the data — never default to USD (see Hard rules).
• Closing summary link is a workbook citation (<citation:Sheet!Range>) in Claude for Excel mode, and a file:// path in Claude Code / Cowork mode. Never both.
• Every numbered choice in this skill — including the closing next-step menu — MUST be presented via AskUserQuestion. Never render the options as a bare code-fenced markdown list. The AskUserQuestion tool is in allowed-tools; use it.

When to use

Trigger this skill when the user asks for any of the following:

• "Pull <ManCo>'s <year> budget from Carta"
• "Fetch the budget for <ManCo> from Carta MCP"
• "Import our 2026 budget"
• "Sync the ManCo budget"
• "Bring Carta's budget into this sheet"
• Any request to get the Carta-stored budget into a workbook

DO NOT use this skill for

• Building a new budget from prior-year actuals — use carta-create-budget.
• Refreshing actuals against an existing budget — use carta-fetch-actuals.
• Pacing / variance / "are we on track" — use carta-budget-analysis.
• What-if scenarios — use carta-budget-scenarios.
• P&L / income statement — use carta-consolidating-pnl. (If the user is building a P&L and wants the Budget columns filled with Carta data, carta-consolidating-pnl already integrates this skill's fetch logic in its Gate 9 — do not duplicate the workflow.)

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Execution discipline

Execute all gates silently. Do not narrate tool calls, intermediate results, or status updates. Only speak at explicit decision points: Gate 0.5 (if runtime is ambiguous), Gate 1 (destination chooser), Gate 2 (entity picker — if entity not already in context), Gate 3 (period picker), Gate 5 (approval), and Gate 7 (next-step menu).

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Entry mode — fresh session vs. chained skill

Mandatory telemetry beacon — run this before any skip-gate check: If <SERVER> and <ENTITY_UUID> are already in context, call mcp__<SERVER>__set_context(firm_id=<ENTITY_UUID>, _instrumentation={"plugin": "carta-investors", "skills": ["carta-fetch-budget"]}) as your very first action. Do not skip this even when all data is already available — it records this skill invocation. If either is unknown, it fires in Gate 0 below.

Before Gate 0, check whether these context variables are already set from an earlier budgeting skill call in the same session:

• <SERVER> — connected Carta MCP server prefix
• <ENTITY_NAME> and <ENTITY_UUID> — the resolved ManCo entity
• <RUNTIME> — excel-addin or local-file

If all four are in context: skip Gates 0 and 0.5 entirely, and skip Gate 2 (<ENTITY_UUID> is already locked). Then run the remaining gates in full — do not stop after the period picker: Gate 1 (destination) → Gate 3 (period picker) → Gate 4 (fetch budget from Carta) → Gate 5 (pre-build review) → Gate 6 (write and brand) → Gate 7 (summary). Skipping Gates 4–7 would write empty or stale data without re-fetching.

If any is missing (fresh session or cold invocation): run Gates 0, 0.5, and 2 in order, then continue from Gate 1.

Do not ask "which firm?" when the entity is already established from the skill the user just ran.

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Gate 0 — Carta MCP environment + resolve firm

1. Call refresh_mcp_connectors. Filter servers[] to name matching Carta / Carta (…) / carta with status: "connected". Drop failed.
2. For each connected, probe both prefix forms in parallel: mcp__claude_ai_Carta__welcome(_instrumentation={"plugin": "carta-investors", "skills": ["carta-fetch-budget"]}) and mcp__carta__welcome(_instrumentation={"plugin": "carta-investors", "skills": ["carta-fetch-budget"]}). First success = <SERVER>.
3. Don't call any other mcp__<SERVER>__* tool before welcome — every command is gated.

If none connected, list failed connectors and stop. If multiple, default to Carta (production).

Resolve firm: if user named one → mcp__<SERVER>__list_contexts(firm_name="<firm>", _instrumentation={"plugin": "carta-investors", "skills": ["carta-fetch-budget"]}) → disambiguate via AskUserQuestion if multiple → mcp__<SERVER>__set_context(firm_id=<FIRM_UUID>, _instrumentation={"plugin": "carta-investors", "skills": ["carta-fetch-budget"]}). Do not use call_tool for list_contexts or set_context — call the granular tools directly with _instrumentation as shown.

DWH param-name traps: dwh:execute:query takes sql: not query:. dwh:get:table_schema takes table_name: not table:. format accepts "ndjson" / "markdown", not "csv".

If no firm was named, defer to Gate 2.

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Gate 0.5 — Detect runtime

This skill runs in two runtimes. Detect which one applies before asking where to write:

1. Claude for Excel — the user is working inside the Excel add-in. Cell reads and writes happen through the add-in's runtime-injected workbook tools.
2. Claude Code / Cowork (local file) — the user is working at the command line or in Cowork against .xlsx files on disk.

See carta-create-budget/SKILL.md Gate 0.5 for the heuristic. If unclear, ask via AskUserQuestion. Store <RUNTIME> (excel-addin or local-file).

---

Gate 1 — Where to write

Branches by <RUNTIME>. Before showing any chooser, scan the destination for an existing budget tab — if one is found, lead with "update in place" instead of defaulting to a new tab.

Budget-tab detection heuristic

A sheet counts as an "existing budget tab" when either is true:

1. The sheet name contains Budget (case-insensitive), e.g. Budget FY2026, 2026 Budget, MgmtCo Budget.
2. The sheet's header block contains the word Account in a label column AND at least 6 month-like headers (Jan, Jan 2026, 2026-01, etc.) in the same row.

Stop at the first match — the user can always pick another tab via the "choose a different tab" branch.

If <RUNTIME> is excel-addin:

1. Use the add-in's workbook-introspection tool to list sheet names + the first ~10 rows of each.
2. Apply the heuristic. Store any matches as <EXISTING_BUDGET_TABS>.
3. For each matched tab, read its full content now (all rows, not just the first 10) and store it as <EXISTING_TAB_DATA[tab_name]>. Gate 5's update-in-place matching uses this cached read — no second workbook read is needed later.

If <RUNTIME> is local-file:

Only scan if the user already supplied a workbook path in their prompt (otherwise there's nothing to scan yet — defer detection to the file they pick next).

uv run "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/read_workbook.py" \
  "<PATH>"

Apply the same heuristic to the JSON output. For each matched tab, store its full content (all rows) from the read_workbook.py output as <EXISTING_TAB_DATA[tab_name]> — Gate 5's update-in-place matching reuses this cached read exactly as in the add-in path; no second read is needed.

Chooser

If <EXISTING_BUDGET_TABS> is non-empty (excel-addin or local-file with a path):

Use AskUserQuestion:

I see a budget tab already in your workbook (<existing tab name>). Want me to update it with Carta's data, or write the budget somewhere else?

#	Option	What happens
1	Update <existing tab name> in place ← recommended	Refreshes the budget values on the existing tab — same accounts, same row positions; no new tab is created.
2	Add a new tab	Creates Budget FY<year> alongside the existing tab.
3	Pick a different existing tab to update	Lists all sheets in the workbook and asks which one.
4	Cancel	Stops the skill.

If multiple existing budget tabs are found, list up to 3 of them as option 1a / 1b / 1c (inside the same AskUserQuestion call) — never silently pick one.

Update-in-place semantics (option 1):

• Use <EXISTING_TAB_DATA[tab_name]> already read at Gate 1 — do not re-read the workbook. Identify the label column (the column that holds account names) and the month columns from that cached data. Treat any cell where is_formula: true as load-bearing — subtotal / Net Operating Income / FY-total rows stay formula-driven and are never overwritten.
• For each matched (gl_code or account_name) row already in the sheet, write the new monthly budget values into the existing month cells. The tab's row positions, section headers, formulas, and formatting all stay put.
• For Carta budget rows that don't match any existing row in the sheet, surface them in the pre-build review (Gate 5) — let the user decide whether to insert new rows or skip. Never silently insert into an existing budget tab without confirmation.
• Refresh the source note in A3 (italic) to Source: Carta Fund Admin (refreshed <ISO date>) so the user can see when the values were last pulled.

If <EXISTING_BUDGET_TABS> is empty:

Excel add-in runtime — empty-workbook shortcut: if the active workbook has one sheet, maxRows == 0, no other tabs (typically a fresh Book1.xlsx/Sheet1), skip the chooser. Announce the rename in one sentence — "I'll use the empty workbook you have open and rename Sheet1 to Budget FY<year>." — then proceed. The chooser only exists to protect non-empty state.

Otherwise, use AskUserQuestion with the default options:

Excel add-in runtime:

Where should I put the Carta budget?

• "Add a new tab to the open workbook (recommended)" — Claude creates a tab named Budget FY<year>.
• "Overwrite an existing tab in the open workbook" — Claude asks which tab and confirms before overwriting. (Used when the user knows there's a budget tab but the heuristic missed it.)
• "Create a brand new workbook" — Claude writes to a fresh file.

Local-file runtime:

Where should I write the budget file?

• "Create a new .xlsx (recommended)" — ask for the destination path.
• "Add a new sheet to an existing .xlsx" — ask for the file path; the sheet name defaults to Budget FY<year>. After loading, re-run the budget-tab detection — if the loaded file has an existing budget tab, jump back to the "update in place" chooser above.

If the user gave a path in the original prompt, skip the choice and use that path (but still run the detection on it).

Store <DESTINATION> for Gates 5–7.

---

Gate 2 — Pick the entity (ManCo first)

Critical: in Carta, only management companies carry budgets. Funds and SPVs return empty from fa:list:budgets.

Call read_skill(file_path="references/entity-picker.md") before proceeding. Do not reconstruct the picker logic from memory. Summary of the rule:

1. Call call_tool({"name": "fa__list__entities", "arguments": {}, "_instrumentation": {"plugin": "carta-investors", "skills": ["carta-fetch-budget"]}}) against the active firm.
2. Identify the ManCo(s) by name suffix / type field — anything matching (LLC|Management|Mgmt|ManCo|Capital, LLC) AND with no Fund / Partners / SPV qualifier.
3. Build the picker so the ManCo is the first option (with ← recommended), then other entities below it, then a final option "None of these — let me type the name".
4. Confirm with AskUserQuestion.

If the user already named the entity in their prompt and it resolves to exactly one ManCo, skip the picker. Otherwise always ask.

If a non-ManCo is picked, warn before fetching:

"Heads up — only management companies carry a budget in Carta. If I pull <entity>, the result will likely be empty. Want me to pick the ManCo instead?"

Done when: <ENTITY_NAME> and <ENTITY_UUID> are locked.

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Gate 3 — Period picker

In one AskUserQuestion call, ask for the period the prompt didn't already specify. Offer smart defaults based on today's date — compute year, half, and quarter labels dynamically, never copy the example values below.

What period should I pull the budget for?

Example shape — rendered with today's date = May 2026. Substitute <CURRENT_YEAR> and <CURRENT_QUARTER> at runtime.

#	Label	Date range
1 ← recommended	Full year <CURRENT_YEAR>	Jan 1 – Dec 31, <CURRENT_YEAR>
2	H1 <CURRENT_YEAR> (Jan – Jun)	Jan 1 – Jun 30, <CURRENT_YEAR>
3	H2 <CURRENT_YEAR> (Jul – Dec)	Jul 1 – Dec 31, <CURRENT_YEAR>
4	<CURRENT_QUARTER> <CURRENT_YEAR>	(computed from today's date)
5	Custom range — I'll specify start / end month	—

Always compute the current quarter label and year dynamically from today's date — never hardcode Q2 / 2026 / etc. Drop the H1 row once the current month is past June (H1 is fully in the past then — fold it into "Custom range"). Show the prior year as an option only if the user mentioned it in their prompt.

If the prompt already specified a year or range (e.g. "2026 budget", "H1"), store it directly and skip the question.

Store <BUDGET_YEAR>, <START_DATE> (<YEAR>-<MM>-01), <END_DATE> (last day of <end_month>).

No tag breakdown available. The budget data from Carta (fa:list:budgets) contains no reporting dimension — it returns one amount per account per month. If the user asks for budget broken down by department, project code, or any other tag, tell them in one sentence — "Carta's stored budget isn't broken down by tag, so I can only return flat monthly totals." — and offer to route them to a different skill via AskUserQuestion (never a bare numbered list — see the UX Rules at the top of this skill).

Call AskUserQuestion with these exact parameters:

• question: "Carta's stored budget has no tag dimension. How should I continue?"
• header: "Tag breakdown"
• multiSelect: false
• options:
  • label: "Continue with the flat budget pull" — description: "No tag dimension; returns one amount per account per month."
  • label: "Build a new tag-sliced budget from journal actuals instead" — description: "← recommended for tag breakdowns. Hands off to carta-create-budget's slice-by-tag mode; uses last year's actuals as the seed."

If the user picks option 2, hand off via Skill('carta-investors:carta-create-budget') with the slice-by-tag routing — that skill's slice-by-tag mode is the canonical way to produce a budget broken down by reporting tag.

The ← recommended marker goes inside the description field of option 2, not as a suffix on the label. Bare-text numbered lists break the chooser UI in Claude for Excel and force the user to type the number — same rule as every other choice in this skill.

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Gate 4 — Fetch budget from Carta

Call read_skill(file_path="references/fetch-budget-data.md") before issuing any MCP calls. Do not reconstruct the fetch contract from memory. Summary of the contract:

• Issue one call_tool({"name": "fa__list__budgets", ...}) call per month for every month in the requested window. For a full-year pull this is exactly twelve calls (Jan 1–31, Feb 1–28/29, …, Dec 1–31). Issue all twelve in one parallel batch and merge the row lists. If your runtime limits concurrent tool calls, batch into two groups of six — but never serialize further. Do not try a single annual or quarterly window first — the MCP response truncates past ~40 KB and every wider window the user has been observed needing has hit that cap.

Verbatim call template — do not omit fund_uuid. The MCP rejects the call with "missing required params: ['fund_uuid']" if the param isn't passed. <ENTITY_UUID> is the UUID locked at the end of Gate 2.

call_tool({"name": "fa__list__budgets", "arguments": {
  "fund_uuid":  "<ENTITY_UUID>",
  "start_date": "<YYYY-MM-01>",
  "end_date":   "<YYYY-MM-{28|29|30|31}>"
}, "_instrumentation": {"plugin": "carta-investors", "skills": ["carta-fetch-budget"]}})

The param is named fund_uuid for historical reasons but it accepts any entity UUID returned by fa:list:entities. Pass the ManCo UUID Gate 2 resolved — never an empty value, never a name, never skip the param.

• Pivot the row list {account_id, account_name, account_type, amount, start_date} into a {account_type → account_name → {month: amount}} map. Sum if multiple postings hit the same month + account.
• Sort accounts by account_type ascending.

Section mapping (by leading digit of account_type, same convention as the other budgeting skills):

Prefix	Section
4xxx	Income
5xxx / 6xxx / 7xxx / 8xxx	Expenses
1xxx	Investments / Other
anything else	Other

If the fetched dataset is empty (no rows): stop and tell the user plainly — "I didn't find any budget rows in Carta for <ENTITY> for <BUDGET_YEAR>. Common causes: the entity isn't a ManCo, or no budget has been loaded into Carta yet for that year." Offer to retry against a different entity or year.

Done when: the budget dataset is loaded into the account_type → account_name → {month: amount} map and tagged by section.

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Gate 5 — Pre-build review (approval gate)

Branches by the Gate 1 write mode (new-tab, overwrite-tab, new-workbook, or update-in-place).

Mode A — fresh write (new-tab, overwrite-tab, new-workbook)

Present a plain-English preview before any write:

Ready to write Carta's 2026 budget for Example Capital, LLC — please review.

• Source: Carta Fund Admin (live)
• Entity: Example Capital, LLC (ManCo)
• Period: Jan 2026 – Dec 2026
• Income accounts: 1
• Expense accounts: 47
• Sheet to write: Budget FY2026 in <DESTINATION>
• Projected FY totals: Income <CCY>13,788,809 · Expenses <CCY>8,530,121 · Net Operating Income <CCY>5,258,689

Mode B — update existing tab in place (update-in-place)

Run the match step first (see Gate 1's "Update-in-place semantics") and classify every row:

• Matched rows — line items where the existing tab's account (label-column value or column-A GL code) matches a Carta budget row. These will be refreshed in place.
• Carta rows missing from the sheet — present in Carta but no matching row in the existing tab. Insert decision deferred to the user.
• Sheet rows missing from Carta — present in the existing tab but not in Carta's response. The skill does not touch these; surface them so the user knows what's untouched.

Preview shape:

Ready to refresh Budget FY2026 in your open workbook with Carta's 2026 budget for Example Capital, LLC.

• Source: Carta Fund Admin (refreshed live)
• Existing tab: Budget FY2026
• Existing rows to refresh: 41 line items
• Cells to update: ~492 monthly amounts (excluding formula subtotals)
• Carta rows missing from your sheet: 6 line items (would be inserted if you approve)
• Sheet rows missing from Carta: 2 line items (will be left untouched)

Line item	Old monthly avg	New monthly avg	Source
Software (7005)	$23,000	$25,000	Carta refresh
…	…	…	…

Account in Carta but missing from your sheet	Section	Projected FY
Leased employee — guaranteed payments (7051)	Operating Expenses	$2,675,004
Investor relations — events (7203)	Operating Expenses	$12,504

If there are Carta rows missing from the sheet, ask via AskUserQuestion whether to insert them (above the right section subtotal, per the same logic as references/fill-budget-columns.md step 4) or skip them this run.

Approval menu (both modes)

Output the preview above as a normal conversation message. Then call AskUserQuestion immediately after — the question field must be a single short sentence; never include preview content inside it.

• question: "Approve writing this budget?" (Mode A) / "Approve refreshing in place?" (Mode B)
• header: "Approval"
• multiSelect: false
• options:
  1. Approve and write the budget ← recommended (Mode A) / Approve and refresh in place ← recommended (Mode B)
  2. Edit — change the entity, year, or destination
  3. Cancel

If Edit, return to the right gate. Wait for explicit OK before writing.

Hard rule: no workbook-write tool (Excel-add-in cell write, execute_office_js that mutates state, write_workbook.py, or any equivalent) runs before this gate's AskUserQuestion returns the user's explicit "Approve and write" choice. If you catch yourself about to call a workbook-write tool without that approval recorded, stop and run this gate first.

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Gate 6 — Write and brand the workbook

Approval-recorded check (run FIRST, before any write tool)

Before calling execute_office_js with state-mutating code, setValues, write_workbook.py, or any other workbook-write tool, look back at your tool history. Find the most recent AskUserQuestion you sent. Does its answer literally include "Approve and write" or "Approve and refresh"? If NO, Gate 5 did not pass — send the Gate 5 approval menu now and wait for the explicit answer.

Do not interpret upstream answers as approval. A Gate 2 entity-pick response, a Gate 3 year-range answer, or any prior AskUserQuestion whose answer is not literally "Approve and write" / "Approve and refresh" does NOT clear this gate. Approval is the answer to the specific Gate 5 question — nothing else counts.

Gate 6 requires AT LEAST three separate execute_office_js calls (excel-addin runtime)

The most common failure mode is bundling cell writes + formatting + logo into one writeSheet(...) function — the model writes the cells, returns, and forgets the logo. Do not combine the cell-write call with the brand block in a single office.js block.

• Call 1: cell values, formulas, formatting, column widths, cell comments. One execute_office_js. Return.
• Call 2: logo on the tab via the verbatim brand block (sheet.shapes.addImage(...)).
• Call 3 (verification): load shape names, confirm CartaLogo exists.

Returning from Call 1 does NOT finish Gate 6. The verification call must come last and must appear in your tool history.

Branches by the Gate 1 write mode. Before any write, call read_skill(file_path="references/branding-and-header.md"). Do not reconstruct the brand block or header band from memory — the file must be in your context before you generate any execute_office_js or write_workbook.py code. It defines the reserved 4-row metadata band (A1 entity / A2 descriptive title like "2026 Budget (from Carta Fund Admin)" / A3 source / A4 other context), Carta logo placement (column E, rows 1–3 height), the blobs.getText("assets/...") asset-loading pattern for Excel add-in (NOT Read), and the cell-comment pattern for any flagged rows. The tab is not "written" until it carries a CartaLogo shape.

Mode B — update existing tab in place

This is the no-new-tab path. Apply the matched changes from Gate 5 directly to the existing tab:

1. Refresh matched cells: write_cell (or the add-in equivalent) for every (existing row × month) pair where Carta returned a value. Hardcoded numbers, never formulas. Preserve every other cell on the tab — labels, GL codes, section headers, formula subtotals, FY total formulas, formatting.
2. Skip every formula cell flagged in the read step (is_formula: true). The tab's =SUM(...) subtotals, Total Income, Total Expenses, and Net Operating Income re-evaluate automatically.
3. Insert any approved missing-from-sheet rows above the right section subtotal, per references/fill-budget-columns.md step 4. After insertion, rewrite the affected section subtotal =SUM(...) formulas so the new rows are included. Match the formatting of neighboring rows (currency format, font, no fill).
4. Refresh the source note in A3 (italic, size 10): Source: Carta Fund Admin (refreshed <ISO date>).
5. Never create a new tab. If the chosen tab can't be updated for any reason (locked sheet, wrong layout, etc.), surface the error and stop — do not silently fall back to creating Budget FY<year>.

Skip the layout section below — the tab already has its layout. Jump to Gate 7.

Mode A — fresh write (new-tab, overwrite-tab, new-workbook)

Layout (4-row metadata band per branding-and-header.md):

Row	Content
A1	<ENTITY_NAME> — bold, size 10
A2	<BUDGET_YEAR> Budget (from Carta Fund Admin) — bold, size 10
A3	Source: Carta Fund Admin · fa:list:budgets — italic, size 10
A4	Amounts in <resolved_currency> — italic, size 10 (derive the currency from the data, never default to USD)
Row 5	blank — breathing room between header band and column headers
Row 6	Column headers starting in column A: Account | Jan <year> | Feb <year> | … | Dec <year> | FY <year> Total — bold, white-on-black, centered. No GL-code / "Account #" column.

Body — for each section (Income → Expenses → Other), in this order:

1. Bold + underlined section header row in column A (e.g. Income, Operating Expenses, Other). No cell borders.
2. One row per GL account in the section, sorted by account_type. Column A = account_name, columns B..M = monthly amounts (hardcoded numbers). The GL code (account_type) is used only to sort and section the rows — it is not written as a column.
3. Subtotal row at end of section — bold, top thin border, =SUM(<section_range>) per monthly column and for column N.

After the last section:

• Total Income — bold, top thin border, sums all Income subtotals.
• Blank row.
• Total Expenses — bold, top thin + bottom medium border, sums all Expense subtotals.
• Blank row.
• Net Operating Income — bold, top thin + bottom medium border, =<Total Income> - <Total Expenses> per monthly column and for column N. Set numFmt="@" on the column-A label if it contains a slash.

Column N = =SUM(B<row>:M<row>) for every account, subtotal, and total row.

Currency format (every numeric cell) — use the locale-specific token for the resolved currency, never a bare $ or "$" (renders in system locale on non-US installs):

• USD: [$$-en-US]#,##0.00_);([$$-en-US]#,##0.00);"-"
• EUR: [$€-x-euro2]#,##0.00_);([$€-x-euro2]#,##0.00);"-"
• GBP: [$£-en-GB]#,##0.00_);([$£-en-GB]#,##0.00);"-"
• CAD: [$CA$-en-CA]#,##0.00_);([$CA$-en-CA]#,##0.00);"-"

Recalc + column widths (excel-addin): the last statements in the cell-write execute_office_js block, in this order — never a separate call:

context.application.calculationMode = Excel.CalculationMode.automatic;
context.workbook.application.calculate(Excel.CalculationType.full);  // else =SUM cells stay 0 → render as "-" until edit+Enter
sheet.getRange("A:A").format.columnWidth = 180;                      // account-name column — fixed; prevents long names driving it too wide
sheet.getRange("B:N").format.autofitColumns();                       // size amounts (B:M) + FY total (N) to REAL values (after recalc → no ####)
await context.sync();

Force the recalc before the autofit: without it the =SUM(...) subtotals / Total / NOI cells sit at 0 and the accounting format shows - (the user then has to edit+Enter each one); and autofitting before the recalc sizes the amount columns to the dash, so the real figures overflow as ####. In local-file mode, add a set_column_width op on column A (width 160), then an autofit_columns op over B:N. Do not call freeze_panes.

Column-width anti-pattern: Do NOT call autofitColumns() on a header-only range like B1:N1 — header rows are often empty at write time, leaving the amount columns too narrow for 5+ digit currency (####). Always autofit the full amount span (B:N) after the data is written. Full recipe: carta-create-budget/references/from-prior-actuals.md §6.

If <RUNTIME> is excel-addin: write via the Excel add-in's runtime cell-write tools, applying the same number format.

If <RUNTIME> is local-file: build a JSON operations payload and apply it:

uv run "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/write_workbook.py" --stdin <<'JSON'
{
  "workbook_path": "<DESTINATION>",
  "create_if_missing": true,
  "operations": [ ... ]
}
JSON

Branding verification (REQUIRED, observable, excel-addin only)

After running the brand block from branding-and-header.md, run this verification as a separate execute_office_js call before proceeding to Gate 7:

const tabs = ["<TAB_NAME_WRITTEN_THIS_RUN>"];  // substitute the actual tab name(s)
const result = {};
for (const tabName of tabs) {
  const sheet = context.workbook.worksheets.getItem(tabName);
  sheet.shapes.load("items/name");
  await context.sync();
  result[tabName] = sheet.shapes.items.map(s => s.name);
}
return result;

The result must show CartaLogo in every tab's shape list. If any tab returns [] or its shape list lacks CartaLogo, you have skipped the brand block for that tab — re-run it and re-verify. Do not start Gate 7 summary text until this verification returns CartaLogo on every tab. The verification call is observable evidence; without it in your tool history, Gate 6 is not complete.

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Gate 7 — Summary + next steps

Gate 7 precondition (DO NOT SKIP). Before sending the summary text below, scan your tool history. Three anchors MUST be present in that order:

1. An AskUserQuestion whose answer included "Approve and write" or "Approve and refresh" — Gate 5 approval.
2. A sheet.shapes.addImage(base64) call for the tab the skill wrote/modified — Gate 6 branding.
3. The branding-verification execute_office_js whose result showed CartaLogo on the tab — Gate 6 verification.

If any anchor is missing, you have skipped a gate. Do NOT write "Carta logo placed at..." in the summary when no shapes.addImage call appears in your tool history — that's hallucinating completion. STOP, go back, run the missing gate, then return here.

One or two sentences confirming what got written. Wording branches on the Gate 1 write mode.

Mode A — fresh write

If <RUNTIME> is excel-addin:

Wrote Budget FY2026 for Example Capital, LLC — 1 income account, 47 expense accounts, source Carta Fund Admin (live). FY total: Income <CCY>13,788,809 · Expenses <CCY>8,530,121 · Net Operating Income <CCY>5,258,689.

If <RUNTIME> is local-file:

Wrote Budget FY2026 for Example Capital, LLC to file:///path/to/budget.xlsx — 1 income account, 47 expense accounts, source Carta Fund Admin (live). FY total: Income <CCY>13,788,809 · Expenses <CCY>8,530,121 · Net Operating Income <CCY>5,258,689.

Mode B — update existing tab in place

If <RUNTIME> is excel-addin:

Refreshed Budget FY2026 in place with Carta's 2026 budget for Example Capital, LLC — 492 cells updated across 41 line items, 6 new rows inserted (Operating Expenses), 2 sheet rows left untouched (no Carta budget for those accounts). Refreshed FY total: Income <CCY>13,788,809 · Expenses <CCY>8,530,121 · Net Operating Income <CCY>5,258,689.

If <RUNTIME> is local-file:

Refreshed Budget FY2026 in file:///path/to/budget.xlsx with Carta's 2026 budget for Example Capital, LLC — 492 cells updated, 6 new rows inserted, 2 sheet rows left untouched. Refreshed FY total: Income <CCY>13,788,809 · Expenses <CCY>8,530,121 · Net Operating Income <CCY>5,258,689.

The next-step menu MUST be a single AskUserQuestion call with the options below as options entries. Never render them as a numbered markdown list, a bulleted list, or inline prose — bare-text menus break the chooser UI in Claude for Excel and force the user to type the number. The ← recommended marker goes inside the description field of one option, not as a suffix on the label.

1. Build the P&L with this budget pre-filled (carta-consolidating-pnl) ← recommended
2. Refresh actuals against this budget (carta-fetch-actuals)
3. Run a pacing analysis (carta-budget-analysis)
4. I'm done

Call AskUserQuestion with these exact parameters:

• question: "What would you like to do next?"
• header: "Next step"
• multiSelect: false
• options: the four label + description pairs above (place ← recommended in the description field of the recommended option, NOT in the label)

DO NOT render the menu as inline markdown text, a numbered list, a bulleted list, or closing prose. If your response is about to contain 1. ..., 2. ..., 3. ..., 4. ... as a list at the end of the summary instead of an AskUserQuestion tool call, you have failed this gate — back up and invoke the tool.

When the user selects an option, immediately invoke the corresponding skill via Skill('<skill-name>') BEFORE doing any work. Do not freelance the output — load the downstream skill's SKILL.md so its gates, layout spec, branding rules, and approval flow apply. Routing:

Option	Skill to invoke
1 — Build the P&L with this budget pre-filled	Skill('carta-investors:carta-consolidating-pnl')
2 — Refresh actuals against this budget	Skill('carta-investors:carta-fetch-actuals')
3 — Run a pacing analysis	Skill('carta-investors:carta-budget-analysis')
4 — I'm done	No invocation; close cleanly

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Hard rules

• Never call fa:list:budgets without fund_uuid — MCP rejects with "missing required params: ['fund_uuid']". Pass <ENTITY_UUID> (locked at end of Gate 2) as params["fund_uuid"].
• Never invent budget rows or extrapolate beyond what fa:list:budgets returned.
• Never apply a buffer percentage — Carta budget is source of truth. (Buffered budgets are carta-create-budget.)
• Currency — derive from the data, never default to USD. Resolve the workbook's presentation currency before writing (entity properties via welcome, or the currency on the budget data); if it can't be resolved, ask the user. The A4 band reads Amounts in <resolved_currency>. Use the locale-specific format token — never a bare $ (renders as system symbol on non-US locales): USD [$$-en-US], EUR [$€-x-euro2], GBP [$£-en-GB], CAD [$CA$-en-CA].
• Set Worksheet.position in a separate context.sync(), never in the same statement as worksheets.add(). Create and activate first: const sh = sheets.add(name); sh.activate(); await context.sync();.
• Do not freeze panes. Do not write a Provenance tab — A3 source note is the audit trail.
• In local-file mode, never silently overwrite — helper returns "sheet exists" status; surface it.
• Two-row header for month-bucketed tables. Row N = merged month label. Row N+1 = sub-headers. Never write both into same row — subsequent merges destroy sub-headers.
• range.merge(true) discards trailing cells. Insert a new row first.
• Month-label date-serial trap: prefix with ' or use numberFormat: "mmm yyyy" on a real date.
• Border syntax (Office.js): style = "Continuous" then weight = "Thin". Never style: "Thin".
• Branding standards — follow references/branding-and-header.md for every tab. Rows 1–4 reserved, logo at column E, blobs.getText("assets/...") for asset access.

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Error handling

Never auto-retry. Always surface the failure and let the user decide.

• No Carta MCP connected → "Open Settings → Connectors, enable Carta, retry."
• contexts:list returns no firm → echo name, ask for spelling. Don't silently near-match.
• fa:list:entities returns no ManCo → surface full entity list, let user pick. Flag that picked entity may not have a budget.
• fa:list:budgets returns empty → "No budget rows in Carta for <entity> <year>. Likely the entity isn't a ManCo, or no budget loaded yet." Offer retry.
• Monthly response truncates mid-stream → surface to user. Monthly windows are smallest sensible slice. Don't auto-fall-back to per-account.
• Workbook already has a budget tab (Gate 1) → lead with "Update in place"; never silently create a second tab.
• Update-in-place: unparseable layout → ask user to confirm label column + month mappings. If they decline, fall back to "Add new tab" — never silently overwrite an unknown layout.
• Update-in-place: hardcoded subtotals (not =SUM) → refresh lines, ask whether to recompute subtotals. Default to leaving alone if no reply.
• Local-file: unreadable path / openpyxl error → echo path, ask for a valid .xlsx.
• Auth error → ask user to reconnect Carta. Do not auto-retry.
• Connector connected, tool calls fail (McpAuthError) → prefix mismatch, NOT auth. Re-run refresh_mcp_connectors, probe matching prefix's welcome. Never tell user to re-auth without verifying.