Gathering Architect

A coaching-first Claude skill for designing gatherings that actually connect people: workshops, meetups, hackathons, team sessions, and learning communities. It draws on facilitation science, community design frameworks, and social-learning research to go well beyond "make an agenda."

Distributed as a Claude Code / Cowork plugin marketplace containing one plugin (gathering-architect), which provides the skill.

What the skill does

Instead of immediately spitting out a schedule, it works like a good facilitator would:

• Diagnoses purpose first. It asks two or three sharp questions before recommending anything, because every other decision flows from why you're gathering. Even under time pressure, it promises the deliverable and still asks the questions that change the shape of the event.
• Recommends the non-obvious. Specific methods with reasoning (World Café, Three Things on a Card, Think Pair Room, Fishbowl, Open Space) rather than generic "do an icebreaker."
• Designs for introverts by default. Processing time, small-group options, write-before-speak patterns.
• Thinks in energy, not just time. Sequences activities along the Kaospilot Learning Arch (SET / HOLD / LAND), developed by the Kaospilot school.
• Names what can go wrong, and offers an honest gut-check, including whether a gathering should happen at all.
• Backs claims with defensible evidence (named, peer-reviewed sources), not blog statistics.

It bundles five reference libraries (facilitation methods, community frameworks, hackathon/build formats, social-learning evidence, facilitator pain points) and five ready-to-use templates (community quick-read, opening contract, run-of-show, community evidence audit, agenda-builder prompt).

Install

In Claude Code (or Cowork), add this marketplace and install the plugin:

/plugin marketplace add klarahermesz/gathering-architect
/plugin install gathering-architect@gathering-architect

Then just describe a gathering you're planning, or run the skill directly:

/gathering-architect:gathering-architect

What's inside

.claude-plugin/
  marketplace.json                       the marketplace catalog (one plugin, this repo's root)
  plugin.json                            the plugin manifest
skills/gathering-architect/
  SKILL.md                               the skill itself
  references/                            five on-demand reference libraries
  assets/                                five workshop templates
  CHANGELOG.md                           version history

The repo root is both the marketplace catalog and the plugin itself — the same layout used by other single-plugin marketplace repos (e.g. Vercel's). That's what makes both install paths above work: /plugin marketplace add reads marketplace.json, and a direct plugin reference to this repo reads plugin.json.

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See NOTICE for attribution.

Some sections describe long-established facilitation formats in the skill's own words, and a few methods adapt them; each carries its originator credit in NOTICE and in its own Source line. External frameworks the skill points readers to remain the property of their authors under their own licenses, and none of their structures, wording, worksheets, or facilitation sequences are restated or relicensed here. The Apache-2.0 grant covers only this skill's original writing, synthesis, and structure.

Credits

Created by Klara Hermesz, Co-founder & Chief Learning Architect at AI Enablement Academy.