PlugWiki

devrel-team-structure skill (samber): design the developer relations org

Designs the DevRel org: reporting line, team shape, coverage, hand-offs with other teams and the triggers for the next re-org.

Installs
12.5K
on skills.sh
Stars
7
on GitHub
Files
5
besides SKILL.md
Updated
Nov 2026
last repo commit

devrel-team-structure makes your agent inventory every DevRel surface and its real owner before drawing any chart. It then chooses the reporting line, the team shape and a coverage map of six functions, sets how DevRel works with adjacent teams, and writes an org design brief.

It triggers on where DevRel should sit, who it reports to, how to restructure the team, whether to embed advocates in product teams, or how DevRel and docs divide ownership. It produces the structure, not job postings or an interview loop. The folder holds SKILL.md and four reference files and bundles no scripts.

Good for

  • Leaders asked whether DevRel should report to marketing or product
  • Teams growing from a handful of people who need a shape
  • DevRel and docs owners who keep fighting over ownership

Install devrel-team-structure

Claude Code

  1. 1

    Copy this prompt.

    Install the devrel-team-structure 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. 2

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

The README recommends installing the whole collection because its skills reference each other, and devrel-team-structure names other skills in the collection to hand work to. The whole-collection routes add all 93 skills in the repo (counted from the git tree); the repo holds no hooks, agents, commands or MCP server files, and 14 of its skills bundle a script. Pick one route per agent.

From the project README. Source.

What's in the skill

When it loads

Designs the developer relations org - which function DevRel reports to (marketing, product, engineering, CEO, sales) and what that line starves, the shape (centralized, split, embedded, hub-and-spoke), the coverage map across advocacy, community, docs and education, the interlocks with product, docs, support and sales, and the trigger for the next re-org. Use whenever someone asks where DevRel should sit, who DevRel should report to, how to structure or restructure a devrel team, which devrel roles to staff at this size, whether to embed advocates in product teams, why devrel keeps getting pulled into other teams' work, or how devrel and docs divide ownership - even if they only say the team feels wrong. Not the budget split - use samber/developer-relations-skills@devrel-budget-allocation.

Sections in SKILL.md

  1. Interview
  2. Invocation examples
  3. Label every number
  4. Step 1 - Inventory the work before drawing any chart
  5. Step 2 - Choose the reporting line
  6. Step 3 - Choose the team shape
  7. Step 4 - Set coverage first, headcount second
  8. Step 5 - Define the interlocks
  9. Step 6 - Name the ladder and the budget owners
  10. Step 7 - Write the brief, validated section by section
  11. Situation what triggered this, and the funded driver
  12. Work inventory surfaces × owner today × hours × what breaks if it stops
  13. Reporting line the line, why, what it starves, who covers that, review date
  14. Shape centralized / split / embedded / hub-and-spoke, and the coordination it buys
  15. Coverage six functions × owned / other team / shared / unowned / refused
  16. Roles per person: surfaces owned, backup, capacity assumption

Key facts

Author
Samuel Berthe (samber)
License
MIT (LICENSE file, SKILL.md, plugin.json and README all say MIT)
Installs on skills.sh
12,516 (as of Nov 2, 2026)
GitHub stars
8 for the whole collection repo (Nov 2, 2026)
Last commit
Nov 1, 2026 (whole repo)
skills.sh audits
Gen Agent Trust Hub pass, Socket pass, Snyk pass
What is inside
6 files including SKILL.md: 4 reference files and evals/evals.json
Version in SKILL.md
1.0.1
Needs
SKILL.md lists nothing to install
Works in
Claude Code, Claude.ai (plugin marketplace), Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and other Agent Skills-compatible tools
Part of
The developer-relations-skills plugin (one plugin in marketplace.json)
Collection size
93 skills in the repo (counted from the git tree)

What it includes

  • Asks thirteen questions one at a time until it can name driver, headcount and owners.

    Answers 11 to 13 (date, one-off or compounding, effort ceiling) re-rank the team shapes; refusing to spend political capital deletes the embedded shape.

    Interview

  • Lists each DevRel surface with owner, manager, weekly hours and what breaks if it stops.

    It refuses to propose a structure until this table exists.

    Step 1 - Inventory the work

  • Picks the line whose leader owns the funded driver and states what the line will starve.

    The required sentence has four parts: function, driver and leader, what is starved, and who covers the gap with a review date.

    Step 2 - Choose the reporting line

  • Ranks four shapes and builds two or three whole candidate structures.

    Centralized, hub-and-spoke, split by focus and embedded. Under roughly ten full-time people SKILL.md deletes everything except centralized, and calls the ten-person line its own baseline.

    Step 3 - Choose the team shape

  • Marks six functions as owned, other team, shared, unowned or deliberately refused.

    Advocacy, community management, technical writing, developer marketing, developer education and developer-experience engineering. It refuses to quote a headcount ratio.

    Step 4 - Coverage first, headcount second

  • Gives each adjacent team exactly one interaction mode and a named arbiter.

    Collaboration, X-as-a-service or facilitation, borrowed from Team Topologies.

    Step 5 - Define the interlocks

  • Names the career ladder, checks titles and separates headcount from program budget.

    In 60% of surveyed programs, SKILL.md says, staff salaries sit outside the DevRel program budget.

    Step 6 - Ladder and budget owners

  • Writes an eleven-section brief, agreed one section at a time, with re-org triggers.

    Situation, Work inventory, Reporting line, Shape, Coverage, Roles, Interlocks, Ladder and titles, Budget, Re-org triggers and Transition.

    Try: “Should DevRel report to marketing or product?”

    Step 7 - Org design brief

From the official docs

Permissions

Low risk

The agent can save notes about your company or project to a file called devrel-context.md, so check that file before you commit or share the folder.

What it can do

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

Watch out for

  • The notes file can name real people

    The inventory records owners by person and manager, and SKILL.md says to store the owners map. Our advice: review devrel-context.md before you commit or share the folder. github.com

  • The plugin route installs the whole collection

    The README's plugin and extension routes add every skill in the repo; its git tree holds 93. The repo has no hooks, agents, commands or MCP server files, and 14 of its skills bundle a script. Our advice: use the skills CLI command for this skill if you want only it. github.com

Security advisories

No published security advisories as of Nov 2, 2026.

Technical details
Turning on read-onlySKILL.md describes no read-only mode.
Scopes

  • May store the funded driver, owners map and reporting line in devrel-context.md when its memory lives in a file

Questions

How do I install devrel-team-structure?

The README says to install every skill in the collection, because its skills reference each other. In Claude Code that is the plugin route in the install box above, which adds all 93 skills in the repo. The skills CLI can add just this one. Our advice: pick one route per agent.

What do I get at the end?

A DevRel org design brief of eleven sections that a VP can approve and a new hire can read to learn who owns what. SKILL.md holds it to a ten-point quality gate, including that no headcount ratio or compensation band appears.

Will it tell me how many advocates I need?

It will not quote a ratio. SKILL.md refuses headcount ratios and compensation bands as single-company anecdotes and derives the number from your surface table instead.

devrel-team-structure vs devrel-hiring?

This skill decides which seats exist, and devrel-hiring plans the postings and interviews for them. SKILL.md says it produces the structure, never the job postings or interview loop, and the README describes devrel-hiring as DevRel hiring from the employer side.

Which numbers does it quote?

It labels each as sourced, self-set or refused. Its sourced figures come from the 2024 State of Developer Relations survey (310 respondents), for example that marketing holds 33.1% of reporting lines, and SKILL.md says to check for a newer edition before quoting.

Does devrel-team-structure need an API key, and where does it work?

SKILL.md names no API key, account or environment variable. The README documents installs for Claude Code, Claude.ai (add the repo as a plugin marketplace), Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and any Agent Skills-compatible tool through the skills CLI. The install box has the steps for each.

Is devrel-team-structure safe to install?

It is instructions plus four reference files, and the folder bundles no scripts. SKILL.md tells the agent to keep your funded driver, owners map and reporting line in memory, with devrel-context.md as the file when memory is a file. Our advice: this file names people and managers, so keep it out of a public repo.

Information

updated Nov 2, 2026

Repository
samber/developer-relations-skills
Folder
skills/devrel-team-structure

samber/developer-relations-skillsskills.sh

Sources

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

Show all 2
  1. developer-relations-skills README · github.com
  2. devrel-team-structure SKILL.md · github.com

Updated Nov 2, 2026.