devrel-budget-allocation skill (samber): split a DevRel budget into line items

Splits a DevRel budget into line items with a cost in cash and hours, a return threshold, a review date and a cut list.

Installs: 12.8K; on skills.sh
Stars: 7; on GitHub
Files: 5; besides SKILL.md
Updated: Nov 2026; last repo commit

devrel-budget-allocation turns an existing DevRel strategy into money and hours. After an interview of up to fourteen questions, Claude prices each candidate line in cash and hours, sets a return threshold before funding it, and holds 10 to 20 percent of discretionary spend unallocated as a starting point it calls self-set. The output is one allocation table with review clocks, reallocation triggers, an unfunded list, a ruled-out list and a ranked cut list for 20 and 40 percent reductions. SKILL.md says to stop and route you to devrel-strategy first if there is no funded driver and goal.

Good for

DevRel leads planning next period's budget
Founders with a small DevRel budget and a long wish list
Managers who must defend a budget at a funding review

Install devrel-budget-allocation

Claude Code

Copy this prompt.

Install the devrel-budget-allocation skill in Claude Code. Run this command:

/plugin marketplace add samber/developer-relations-skills
/plugin install developer-relations-skills@developer-relations-skills

Then check that it loaded and tell me how to use it.

2
Paste it into Claude Code. It shows the change and asks before running it.

Install the whole set, not one skill: the README says the skills reference each other, so picking one leaves those pointers going nowhere. The repo tree holds 93 skill folders (the kickoff skill's text says 65). Fourteen of them bundle .py or .sh files; devrel-budget-allocation bundles none. The tree holds no hooks, agents or MCP config files.

From the project README. Source.

What's in the skill

When it loads

Splits a developer relations budget across pillars - events, content, community, tooling, education, OSS sponsorship - into line items that each carry a cash cost, an hours cost, a pre-set return threshold, a review date and a reallocation rule, plus a ranked cut list. Use whenever someone asks how to plan or split a devrel budget, how much to spend on events versus content versus community, whether a line item is worth its money, or what to cut first when the budget shrinks - even if they only say "we spend too much on conferences". Not the metrics framework (samber/developer-relations-skills@devrel-metrics), one event's ROI (samber/developer-relations-skills@developer-event-sponsorship), or the exec defense case (samber/developer-relations-skills@devrel-exec-reporting).

Sections in SKILL.md

How to label every number
Route elsewhere first
Interview
Step 1 - Establish the real envelope
Step 2 - Price each candidate line in cash and hours
Step 3 - Brainstorm allocation shapes before choosing one
Step 4 - Set a return threshold per line, before funding it
Step 5 - Reserve, horizons and the unfunded list
Step 6 - Write the allocation
Step 7 - Set the clocks, the triggers and the cut list
Invocation examples
Quality gate
Common failure modes
References

Key facts

Author: Samuel Berthe (named in SKILL.md metadata and the plugin manifest)
License: MIT (LICENSE file, SKILL.md and plugin.json agree)
Installs on skills.sh: 12,830 (Nov 2, 2026)
GitHub stars: 8 for the whole samber/developer-relations-skills repo (Nov 2, 2026)
Last repo commit: Nov 1, 2026
Audits on skills.sh: Gen Agent Trust Hub: pass, Socket: pass, Snyk: pass
What it includes: 6 files in the git tree: SKILL.md, 4 reference files and evals/evals.json. No scripts.
Part of: The developer-relations-skills plugin: 93 skill folders in the git tree
Works in: Claude Code and Claude.ai plugin marketplaces, Codex, Cursor and Gemini CLI, as the README documents

What it includes

Tags every figure as Sourced, Program baseline or Self-set
The tag goes in the same sentence as the number, so a self-set number never passes as an industry figure.
Read · Number labels
Up to 14 questions; answers 8, 9, 11 and 13 reorder steps 3 and 4
Covers the envelope, salaries, sign-off, commitments, funding driver, deadline, win or asset, named people and hours, ceiling, last period and off-limits.
Read · Interview
Splits money into committed, discretionary, borrowed and in-kind
Only the discretionary part is split in the later steps.
Read · Step 1: the real envelope
Costs each line in cash and hours with setup, latency and decay
Also covers recurring maintenance and exit cost.
Write · Step 2: price each line
Brainstorms five shapes, then zero-base or incremental budgeting
Community-led, content-compounding, enablement-first, field-and-events, and ecosystem-and-sponsorship.
Write · Step 3: allocation shapes
Sets a pass threshold per line before it is funded
Thresholds start from the program's own prior-period baseline.
Write · Step 4: return thresholds
Holds a reserve and keeps unfunded and ruled-out lists
The ruled-out list names the constraint that removed each line.
Write · Step 5: reserve and unfunded list
Nine columns per line, plus totals, horizons and a funder narrative
Line, pillar, cash, hours, owner, buys, threshold, review and what happens if it misses.
Write · Step 6: the allocation table
Monthly, quarterly and annual clocks and a 20 and 40 percent cut list
Reallocation triggers are written before the period starts.
Write · Step 7: clocks, triggers, cut list

From the official docs

Permissions

Low risk

devrel-budget-allocation is interview and planning instructions with no scripts, and it may save notes to devrel-context.md. Our advice: check that file before you commit it.

What it can do

Read your data
Create and change things
Delete things
Read-only mode

Watch out for

It may save notes to devrel-context.md
SKILL.md tells Claude to keep task and project context in devrel-context.md when memory lives in a file, or in the memory system your tool already uses. Check the file before you commit it. github.com
The whole-set install adds 93 skills, 14 with scripts
The README says to install every skill. The git tree has 93 skill folders, and 14 of them hold .py or .sh files. This skill bundles no scripts and the tree holds no hooks, agents or MCP config files. github.com

Technical details

Turning on read-only	SKILL.md describes no read-only mode.
Sign-in and keys	SKILL.md names no account, key or token.
Scopes	Claude writes an allocation table and cut list in the conversation Budget, salary and spend figures you paste go into the conversation Writes devrel-context.md when memory lives in a file

Questions

What does devrel-budget-allocation do?

It splits a developer relations budget into line items. Each line carries a cash cost, an hours cost, a return threshold set before funding, a review date and what happens if it misses, plus a ranked cut list.

How do I install it?

Use the install box at the top. The README says to install every skill in the repo, because the skills point to each other. The box shows the whole-set routes the README documents.

Does it give industry benchmarks for DevRel spend?

Not as targets. SKILL.md says to derive spend shares, cost per developer reached and similar ratios only from the program's own data. It cites one 2024 survey as a picture of where the field's money went, not where yours should.

How is it different from devrel-strategy?

devrel-strategy decides what the program is for and which pillars it runs. devrel-budget-allocation puts money and hours against that strategy, and stops if no funded driver and goal exist.

Does it need an API key?

SKILL.md names no API key, account or script. The skill folder holds Markdown and one evals file, with no scripts.

Is it safe to install?

The skill bundles no scripts. Budget figures you paste go into your conversation. The whole-set install adds 93 skills, some of which bundle scripts; the permissions section has the count.

Information

updated Nov 2, 2026

Repository: samber/developer-relations-skills
Folder: skills/devrel-budget-allocation

samber/developer-relations-skills skills.sh

Sources

Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from.

Show all 4

devrel-budget-allocation SKILL.md · github.com
README · github.com
LICENSE · github.com
devrel-strategy file · github.com