Record a parent's or grandparent's life while they can still tell it — the question arcs that unlock real stories instead of resume facts, the session logistics that keep it sustainable, the follow-up probes that get the texture, and the pipeline from recordings to a book the family keeps. Use when asked to interview my grandmother about her life, record dad's stories before it is too late, questions to ask an elderly parent, or make a family history book. Produces the session plan with question arcs, the interviewer technique guide, the consent and boundaries conversation, and the transcript-to-book pipeline. Warm, unhurried, and honest that later never comes on schedule.
▸Who — the storyteller, their relationship to the interviewer, and anything about their energy, hearing, memory, or mood that shapes session length and pacing
▸The state of things — how much time likely exists, honestly; the plan for a healthy 78-year-old and for a hospice week are different plans, and the kit adjusts rather than pretends
▸What the family most wants kept — the war years, the migration, the recipes, how they met — the arcs get ordered around what would hurt most to lose
▸The kit available — a phone is enough; the guide meets whatever exists
▸The sensitivities — the topics known to be painful or off-limits, and who in the family the record is for
✅ The bar it holds itself to
Every skill in this library self-verifies — these are this skill's own quality checks, straight from its definition.
✓The first session has a date before the plan has polish
✓Every question converts to a scene: place, senses, people, spoken words
✓The boundaries conversation happens before recording, in the plan explicitly
✓Technique includes the silence rule and the never-correct rule
✓The pipeline keeps their phrasing — edited transcripts still sound like them
✓A short-time version exists whenever the situation calls for one
⚠️ What it refuses to do
**Building the documentary.** Gear lists and forty-session outlines are how this becomes nothing; a phone and Thursday is how it becomes real.
**The chronology march.** Birth-to-now ordering produces a CV; arcs ordered by trust produce a life.
**Interrogating.** Two questions stacked, silence filled, a date corrected — each teaches them to give shorter answers.
**Recording without the boundaries talk.** One story they regret telling can end the whole project, and deserves to.
**Editing them into fluency.** The detours, repetitions, and dialect are not noise; they are the person.
Install
npx pm-claude-skills add --agent claude # or codex · cursor · gemini · hermes
# or one-line MCP (every skill, any client):
claude mcp add pm-skills -- npx -y pm-claude-skills-mcp