@crossplatformai/skills/skills/move-them-lose-them/SKILL.md

Reusable Agent Skills for CrossPlatform.ai projects.

---
name: move-them-lose-them
description: Keep users in their current task context when they need to satisfy a prerequisite or create missing data instead of sending them to Settings or another area. Use when designing, implementing, or reviewing application flows, empty states, selectors, signup, onboarding, forms, task completion, contextual creation, or any recommendation that moves users away from what they are trying to finish.
---

# Move Them, Lose Them

## The Origin

At a fundraiser, an auctioneer taught the team an absolute rule for protecting the next bid:
**“You move them, you lose them.”** Every extra trip creates a chance for attention, momentum, or
intent to disappear.

Apply the same rule to application flows.

## The Principle

Treat **“You move them, you lose them”** as the operating maxim. Do not send users away from the task
they are trying to finish when the current flow can satisfy the need.

A **move** is an unnecessary break in task context: leaving a signup, form, selection, or workflow
for Settings, another page, another application, or a disconnected process. Normal forward progress
inside a coherent task is not a move.

## Complete the Need in Context

When missing data can be created during the current task:

- Offer focused creation inline, in a quick-add dialog, or in a drawer.
- Collect only the fields required to satisfy the immediate prerequisite.
- Preserve every draft value, selection, and relevant position in the original task.
- Create the missing item, automatically select it, and resume the interrupted step.
- Keep advanced administration available elsewhere without making it the completion path.

Do not reproduce an entire Settings surface inside the task. Bring in the smallest complete action
that keeps momentum intact.

## Empty Selector Example

**Wrong:** A required selector is empty and offers only “Go to Settings to create one.” The user
leaves the form, risks losing the draft, creates the item elsewhere, and must find the way back.

**Correct:** The selector offers “Create one.” A focused affordance collects the minimum data, saves
the item, automatically selects it, restores focus to the original form, and continues the task.

## When Movement Is Required

Do not bypass security, permissions, required disclosures, data-integrity rules, accessibility needs,
or genuinely complex work to keep the user on one screen. When one of these constraints requires a
separate context:

- Preserve the user's work before the move.
- Explain the required step and where it leads.
- Provide a reliable return path.
- Restore the prior context and resume automatically when the requirement is complete.

Treat required movement as an abandonment risk to bridge, not as permission to discard the maxim.

## Outcome

Protect signup completion, task completion, item selection, and forward movement by removing
avoidable exits and making unavoidable ones resumable. You keep them and you get the bids.