# Financial growth Human Guide

## What This Is For
Retrieve comprehensive year-over-year growth in key financial metrics including Revenue, Gross Profit, Operating Income, Net Income, EPS, and Free Cash Flow. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for growth marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Financial growth agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for financial growth.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Financial growth guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Peak performance years**: Identify years with highest growth across all metrics
- **Earnings vs cash flow divergence**: Compare Net Income growth to FCF growth
- **Margin trends**: Compare Gross Profit and Operating Income growth to Revenue
- **EPS enhancement**: Note when EPS growth exceeds Net Income growth (buybacks)
- **Challenging periods**: Flag years with broad-based declines
- Identify specific drivers (new products, markets, pricing)
- Assess sustainability of growth rate
- Compare to industry and competitors
- Potential working capital build
- Aggressive revenue recognition
- One-time items boosting earnings
- Active share repurchase program

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Prerequisites, Query Format, Output Format, Key Insights Pattern, Metrics Reference, Analysis Tips, Exceptional Growth Years, Earnings Quality Check, Share Buyback Impact, Margin Expansion.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- **Install Homebrew** (if you don't have it):

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Financial growth human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the octagonai/skills skill entry for `financial-growth`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Financial Growth

Retrieve and analyze comprehensive year-over-year growth in key financial metrics for public companies using Octagon MCP.

## Prerequisites

Ensure Octagon MCP is configured in your AI agent (Cursor, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, etc.). See [references/mcp-setup.md](references/mcp-setup.md) for installation instructions.

## Query Format

```
Retrieve year-over-year growth in key financial metrics for <TICKER>, limited to <N> records and filtered by period <FY|Q>.
```

**MCP Call:**

```json
{
  "server": "octagon-mcp",
  "toolName": "octagon-agent",
  "arguments": {
    "prompt": "Retrieve year-over-year growth in key financial metrics for AAPL, limited to 5 records and filtered by period FY"
  }
}
```

## Output Format

The agent returns a comprehensive table with YoY growth percentages:

| Fiscal Year | Revenue Growth (%) | Gross Profit Growth (%) | Operating Income Growth (%) | Net Income Growth (%) | EPS Growth (%) | Free Cash Flow Growth (%) |
|-------------|-------------------|------------------------|----------------------------|----------------------|----------------|--------------------------|
| 2025 | 6.43% | 8.04% | 7.98% | 19.50% | 22.59% | -5.73% |
| 2024 | 2.02% | 6.82% | 7.80% | -3.36% | -0.81% | 6.98% |
| 2023 | -2.80% | -0.96% | -4.30% | -2.81% | 0.16% | -10.64% |
| 2022 | 7.79% | 11.74% | 9.63% | 5.41% | 8.47% | 19.89% |
| 2021 | 33.26% | 45.62% | 64.36% | 64.92% | 71.30% | 26.70% |

**Data Source:** octagon-financials-agent

## Key Insights Pattern

After receiving data, generate insights:

1. **Peak performance years**: Identify years with highest growth across all metrics
2. **Earnings vs cash flow divergence**: Compare Net Income growth to FCF growth
3. **Margin trends**: Compare Gross Profit and Operating Income growth to Revenue
4. **EPS enhancement**: Note when EPS growth exceeds Net Income growth (buybacks)
5. **Challenging periods**: Flag years with broad-based declines

## Metrics Reference

| Metric | Definition |
|--------|------------|
| Revenue Growth | YoY change in total sales |
| Gross Profit Growth | YoY change in Revenue minus COGS |
| Operating Income Growth | YoY change in income from operations |
| Net Income Growth | YoY change in bottom-line profit |
| EPS Growth | YoY change in earnings per share |
| Free Cash Flow Growth | YoY change in operating cash flow minus capex |

## Analysis Tips

### Exceptional Growth Years
When all metrics show double-digit growth:
- Identify specific drivers (new products, markets, pricing)
- Assess sustainability of growth rate
- Compare to industry and competitors

### Earnings Quality Check
When Net Income Growth >> Free Cash Flow Growth:
- Potential working capital build
- Aggressive revenue recognition
- One-time items boosting earnings
- Investigate cash conversion

### Share Buyback Impact
When EPS Growth > Net Income Growth:
- Active share repurchase program
- Check shares outstanding trend