What do I need to use Shutdown Ritual?

The leak pattern; The systems; The hard stop's reality; The after-hours pressure.

Is Shutdown Ritual 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.

Shutdown Ritual

Q: How do I know the Shutdown Ritual output is good?

The skill verifies itself against its own quality checks: The sweep empties the head into real systems, in writing; Tomorrow's first task is named at do-this grain and staged; The calendar glance happened — no morning ambushes; The phrase is chosen and used every time, earned by the sweep.

🔵 Stable🕐 updated 2026-07-19 🔷 SkillSpec L3 pm-cowork

End the workday on purpose — the ten-minute shutdown that closes open loops, stages tomorrow's start, and gives the brain permission to actually stop (the incomplete-task hum has an off switch, and it's written). Use when asked I can't stop thinking about work at night, build an end-of-day routine, my evenings are ruined by open loops, or how do I stop checking one more time. Produces the shutdown checklist, the tomorrow-staging step, the closing phrase, and the after-hours boundary rules.

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

What to give it

▸The leak pattern — what actually intrudes at 9pm: unfinished tasks? Unsent messages? Tomorrow-anxiety? Rumination on the day's friction? The checklist weights toward the real leak

▸The systems — where tasks and notes live; the sweep needs destinations ([task-triage-matrix](../task-triage-matrix/SKILL.md) intake), and head-only carriers need the capture habit installed first

▸The hard stop's reality — a fixed end time, or variable? Rituals attach best to consistent triggers (the calendar block, the commute, the laptop-close)

▸The after-hours pressure — does the job genuinely require evening reachability? The boundary rules negotiate reality, not fantasy ([working-agreements](../working-agreements/SKILL.md) material when it's a team norm problem)

✅ 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 sweep empties the head into real systems, in writing

✓Tomorrow's first task is named at do-this grain and staged

✓The calendar glance happened — no morning ambushes

✓The phrase is chosen and used every time, earned by the sweep

✓The reopen-contract is narrow, written, and the phone mechanics enforce it

⚠️ What it refuses to do

Do not shut down by walking away — unswept loops hum all evening; the ritual is the off switch

Do not stage vaguely — "continue working on X" restarts tomorrow with the choosing tax

Do not leave the emergency channel undefined — undefined defaults to everything, nightly

Do not run the ritual sometimes — inconsistent rituals don't change state; the streak is the mechanism

Do not do one more check after the phrase — it's not a check, it's a reopening, and the brain knows

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="shutdown-ritual"></div>
<script src="https://mohitagw15856.github.io/pm-claude-skills/embed.js" async></script>

💬 Discussion

Shutdown Ritual is one of 750 open-source professional AI agent skills — all SkillSpec L3. Try them all in the browser · ⭐ Star on GitHub · Browse the full catalog