# Income statement growth Human Guide

## What This Is For
Retrieve year-over-year growth in income statement items including Revenue, Gross Profit, Operating Income, Net Income, and EPS Diluted. 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 Income statement 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 income statement 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 Income statement 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
- **Growth acceleration**: Identify years with strong growth across all metrics
- **Margin divergence**: Note when Net Income growth differs significantly from Revenue growth
- **EPS vs Net Income**: Compare EPS growth to Net Income growth (share buybacks impact)
- **Contraction periods**: Flag years with negative growth and potential causes
- "What factors contributed to the significant net income growth in [YEAR] despite moderate revenue growth?"
- "Why did net income decline in [YEAR] despite positive operating income growth?"
- "How did [COMPANY]'s cost management strategies impact gross profit trends?"
- **EPS outpacing Net Income**: Indicates share buyback activity reducing share count
- **Gross Profit > Revenue growth**: Margin expansion from pricing power or cost efficiency
- **Operating Income > Gross Profit growth**: Operating leverage from fixed cost management
- **Net Income volatility**: Often driven by one-time items, taxes, or interest expenses
- Revenue growth percentage YoY

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Prerequisites, Query Format, Output Format, Key Observations Pattern, Follow-up Queries, Metrics Reference, Analysis Tips, Supporting file: marketplace.json, Supporting file: README.md, Installation.

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 Income statement 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 `income-statement-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.

# Income Statement Growth

Retrieve and analyze year-over-year growth in key income statement items 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 income-statement items 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 income-statement items for AAPL, limited to 5 records and filtered by period FY"
  }
}
```

## Output Format

The agent returns a table with YoY growth percentages:

| Fiscal Year | Revenue Growth (%) | Gross Profit Growth (%) | Operating Income Growth (%) | Net Income Growth (%) | EPS Diluted Growth (%) |
|-------------|-------------------|------------------------|----------------------------|----------------------|------------------------|
| 2025 | 6.43 | 8.04 | 7.98 | 19.50 | 22.70 |
| 2024 | 2.02 | 6.82 | 7.80 | -3.36 | -0.82 |
| 2023 | -2.80 | -0.96 | -4.30 | -2.81 | 0.33 |
| 2022 | 7.79 | 11.74 | 9.63 | 5.41 | 8.91 |

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

## Key Observations Pattern

After receiving data, generate observations:

1. **Growth acceleration**: Identify years with strong growth across all metrics
2. **Margin divergence**: Note when Net Income growth differs significantly from Revenue growth
3. **EPS vs Net Income**: Compare EPS growth to Net Income growth (share buybacks impact)
4. **Contraction periods**: Flag years with negative growth and potential causes

## Follow-up Queries

Based on results, suggest deeper analysis:

- "What factors contributed to the significant net income growth in [YEAR] despite moderate revenue growth?"
- "Why did net income decline in [YEAR] despite positive operating income growth?"
- "How did [COMPANY]'s cost management strategies impact gross profit trends?"

## Metrics Reference

| Metric | Definition |
|--------|------------|
| Revenue Growth | YoY change in total sales |
| Gross Profit Growth | YoY change in Revenue minus Cost of Goods Sold |
| Operating Income Growth | YoY change in income from core operations |
| Net Income Growth | YoY change in bottom-line profit after all expenses |
| EPS Diluted Growth | YoY change in earnings per share (fully diluted) |

## Analysis Tips

1. **EPS outpacing Net Income**: Indicates share buyback activity reducing share count
2. **Gross Profit > Revenue growth**: Margin expansion from pricing power or cost efficiency
3. **Operating Income > Gross Profit growth**: Operating leverage from fixed cost management
4. **Net Income volatility**: Often driven by one-time items, taxes, or interest expenses

---

## Supporting file: marketplace.json

```json
{
  "name": "income-statement-growth",