What do I need to use Retention Loop Design?

The retention curve; The core value & natural frequency; Activation definition; Current loops.

Is Retention Loop Design free to use?

Yes — run it free in the browser playground (no API key needed for the sponsored trial, or bring any provider key), or install it into Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT and more via npx pm-claude-skills. MIT-licensed and open source.

Retention Loop Design

Q: How do I know the Retention Loop Design output is good?

The skill verifies itself against its own quality checks: The retention curve is diagnosed as flattening vs. decaying — that determines whether to fix retention or fix fit first; Activation/habit milestone is defined and tied to long-term retention; The loop names a trigger, action, reward, AND investment (the investment is what compounds); Loop cadence matches the product's natural frequency — no manufactured engagement.

🔵 Stable🕐 updated 2026-06-24 🔷 SkillSpec L3 pm-growth

Design retention and engagement loops that bring users back. Use when asked to improve retention, design an engagement/habit loop, fix a leaky retention curve, or build a re-engagement system. Produces a retention design — the retention curve diagnosis, the core habit loop (trigger→action→reward→investment), the activation→habit path, re-engagement triggers, and the metrics to watch.

📚 Based on The Hook Model (Nir Eyal) + cohort-retention analysis

▶ Run it free — no key needed 📝 Grade your existing draft View SKILL.md ↗

What to give it

▸The retention curve — how usage decays over time (D1/D7/D30, or weekly cohorts); does it flatten or go to zero?

▸The core value & natural frequency — what users come for, and how often they'd genuinely need it.

▸Activation definition — the early action that correlates with sticking (or note it's unknown).

▸Current loops — any notifications, streaks, or re-engagement already in place.

✅ 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 retention curve is diagnosed as flattening vs. decaying — that determines whether to fix retention or fix fit first

✓Activation/habit milestone is defined and tied to long-term retention

✓The loop names a trigger, action, reward, AND investment (the investment is what compounds)

✓Loop cadence matches the product's natural frequency — no manufactured engagement

✓A leading indicator (not just lagging retention) is identified to act on early

⚠️ What it refuses to do

Do not optimise retention before the curve flattens for some segment — if it decays to zero there's no PMF to retain, fix that first

Do not bolt on streaks/badges without a real reward — gamification on a product with no core value just annoys

Do not spam notifications to force engagement — manufactured frequency drives uninstalls and erodes trust

Do not ignore the investment phase — without stored value/data, there's nothing raising the cost of leaving

Do not report only average retention — cohorts and the best-retaining segment tell you where to aim

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

Related skills

🔌 Embed this skill

Drop this on your blog, docs, or site — it renders a "Run this skill" card:

<div data-pm-skill="retention-loop-design"></div>
<script src="https://mohitagw15856.github.io/pm-claude-skills/embed.js" async></script>

💬 Discussion

Retention Loop Design is one of 625 open-source professional AI agent skills — all SkillSpec L3. Try them all in the browser · ⭐ Star on GitHub · Browse the full catalog