The setup interview

Your first session is a short setup interview. The coach asks about 10 to 15 quick questions, saves your answers, picks your starting phase, and tells you what to do next.

Start it

After installing, open your assistant in your study folder and say the pack's first line, for example "Set me up for Step 1". The coach frames it in one line: a few quick questions, about five minutes, and you can skip anything.

What it asks

The questions come in two or three batches, so you answer several at once. For the Step 1 System they are:

1. Where you are: MD, DO, or international school, your year and block, whether your school sets a dedicated period or a Step 1 deadline, any booked exam date (and COMLEX Level 1 for DO students), and whether you have testing accommodations (yes, no, or pending only, never a diagnosis).
2. How you study: the resources you already use (qbanks, videos, Anki, books), what is working, realistic hours per week and your best times of day, and any big constraints you want to share.
3. Data and goals: any scores so far, specialty interests (fine to say none), what success looks like beyond passing, how you want to be nudged, and which day you want your weekly review.

Step 2 CK, Away Rotations, and the Weekly Planner ask the same kind of questions for their stage. If you used the Step 1 System first, the Step 2 CK System reads what you already shared and asks only what is new.

What happens next

1. Summary. The coach reflects back a short summary and asks you to correct anything.
2. Permission. It asks before saving to your shared profile.
3. Starting phase. It picks your phase (for example "preclinical foundation" or "dedicated planning") and tells you why in one sentence.
4. Your files. It creates skillplug-state/ with your profile, deadlines, timeline, scores, and state. See State files.
5. A daily minimum. You agree on the smallest study day that still counts, such as "Anki reviews plus 10 questions". It is used for streaks and low-energy days.
6. Sync offer. The coach mentions the optional private dashboard once, in two lines. Saying no is fine, and nothing leaves your computer unless you turn it on.
7. Next step. You leave with a dated next action, usually building your long-range roadmap.

After the first session

Every session after that starts the same way: the coach reads your state, orients you in three lines or fewer, and asks one check-in question. Then just talk to it:

• "Check in." or "Plan my day." See Daily check-in.
• "Log today."
• "I got 64% on my CBSSA, here's the report."
• "Why do I keep missing renal questions?"
• "Am I ready, or should I push my exam?"
• "Weekly review." See Weekly review.
• "Print my miss log." See Printable PDFs.

Coming back after a break

If you are away for 14 days or more, the coach notices and runs a re-entry instead of picking up as if nothing happened:

It then builds a short one to two week plan at 60 to 75% of your old volume, with a quick win in the first 48 hours.