Blog Brand: Durable Editorial Context

Generates two project-root files that the blog orchestrator auto-loads for supported writing and planning commands when present:

• BRAND.md: who the audience is, what the brand stands for, what to never say

• VOICE.md: how the brand sounds, structurally and lexically

These are the editorial equivalent of impeccable's PRODUCT.md / DESIGN.md pattern: persistent context that survives across sessions and propagates to every command.

Why this exists

Today, persona JSON (from blog-persona) is loaded by some skills and not others. Topic-cluster context lives inside cluster vaults. Competitor positioning lives nowhere. Each blog command re-derives "what is the brand" from whatever context it has.

BRAND.md and VOICE.md fix this: one canonical source, loaded by the blog orchestrator at the start of every command.

When neither file exists, behavior is unchanged from v1.7.1. Backward compatible.

Commands

Init Workflow

Run the 5-step interactive interview. Ask each step, wait for response, then proceed. If blog-persona JSON already exists, pre-fill voice answers from it.

Step 1: Audience

Ask:

• Primary audience role (e.g. "head of marketing at a 50-500 person B2B SaaS")

• Secondary audience (optional)

• Reader expertise level: beginner / intermediate / advanced / mixed

• Problems the reader is actively trying to solve (3 to 5 bullets)

• Common misconceptions the audience holds (used to anchor information gain)

Step 2: Positioning and Canonical Entity

Ask:

• Official entity name (legal or public brand name)

• Homepage URL (canonical brand front door)

• Logo URL or file path (preferred square or SVG asset)

• sameAs profiles (LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Crunchbase, GitHub, or other official profiles)

• Wikidata Q-ID if one exists; leave blank if not notable

• One-sentence brand mission (what the brand helps people do)

• Distinctive point of view (the contrarian or non-obvious belief that shapes content)

• What this brand is NOT (anti-positioning, what to never be confused with)

• Top 3 direct competitors with the one-line differentiator vs each

Step 3: Editorial rules

Ask:

• Do list (3 to 7 things the blog will always do; e.g. "cite primary sources only," "name the practitioner not the product")

• Don't list (3 to 7 things the blog will never do; e.g. "no clickbait titles," "no listicle filler")

• Taboo phrases (specific words or phrases this brand never uses; separate

from the repository's optional project style list)

• Required disclosures (e.g. affiliate disclosure, AI-content disclosure, conflict-of-interest patterns)

Step 4: Topic boundaries

Ask:

• Topics fully in scope (core content pillars)

• Topics partially in scope (adjacent; covered only with original angle)

• Topics out of scope (will not cover; redirect to partner content)

• Recurring formats / column names if any (e.g. "Monthly Field Notes," "Reader Q&A")

Step 5: Voice (auto-fill from blog-persona if present)

Ask:

• Pronoun stance: first-person (we / I), second-person (you), third-person (the team), or mixed

• Acceptable contractions: full / partial / none

• Sentence ceiling: max words per sentence as a hard cap

• Paragraph ceiling: max words per paragraph (default 150)

• Headline patterns to favor: numbered / question / promise / statement

• Headline patterns to avoid: any patterns banned for this brand

• Summary box label: from blog-persona, or pick one

Output Files

BRAND.md template

Write to project root as:

# Brand Context

> This file is auto-loaded by all blog sub-skills. Last updated: YYYY-MM-DD.

## Audience

- **Primary**: [role + context]

- **Secondary**: [if any]

- **Expertise**: [level]

- **Active problems**:

  - [problem 1]

  - [problem 2]

  - [problem 3]

- **Common misconceptions**:

  - [misconception 1]

  - [misconception 2]

## Positioning

- **Official entity name**: [brand/entity]

- **Homepage**: [canonical URL]

- **Logo**: [URL or file path]

- **sameAs profiles**:

  - [profile URL 1]

  - [profile URL 2]

- **Wikidata Q-ID**: [QID or none]

- **Mission**: [one sentence]

- **Distinctive POV**: [contrarian or non-obvious belief]

- **What we are NOT**: [anti-positioning]

- **Competitors**:

  - [Competitor A]: [our one-line differentiator]

  - [Competitor B]: [our one-line differentiator]

  - [Competitor C]: [our one-line differentiator]

## Editorial Rules

### Always do

- [rule 1]

- [rule 2]

- [rule 3]

### Never do

- [rule 1]

- [rule 2]

- [rule 3]

### Taboo phrases

- [phrase 1]

- [phrase 2]

### Required disclosures

- [disclosure rule]

## Topic Scope

- **In scope**: [pillars]

- **Partial scope**: [adjacent topics]

- **Out of scope**: [topics to refuse]

- **Recurring formats**: [if any]

VOICE.md template

Write to project root as:

# Voice Context

> This file is auto-loaded by all blog sub-skills. Last updated: YYYY-MM-DD.

## Pronoun stance

[first-person / second-person / third-person / mixed]

## Lexical rules

- **Contractions**: [full / partial / none]

- **Sentence ceiling**: [N words max]

- **Paragraph ceiling**: [N words max, default 150]

- **Summary label**: [Key Takeaways / TL;DR / etc.]

## Headline patterns

- **Favor**: [list]

- **Avoid**: [list]

## Voice fingerprint (from blog-persona)

- Funny vs serious: [0.0 to 1.0]

- Formal vs casual: [0.0 to 1.0]

- Respectful vs irreverent: [0.0 to 1.0]

- Enthusiastic vs matter-of-fact: [0.0 to 1.0]

## Readability target

- Audience tier: [consumer / professional / technical]

- Flesch Grade: [range]

- Flesch Ease: [range]

## Reference samples

- [URL 1] (extracted patterns: [summary])

- [URL 2] (extracted patterns: [summary])

Show Workflow

• Check for BRAND.md and VOICE.md at project root.

• If both exist, print a summary table (key sections only) and the file paths.

• If one or both are missing, print which are missing and suggest /blog brand init.

Update Workflow

Same as Init, but pre-fills every answer with the current value. The user can press enter to accept or type a new value. After collecting all answers, overwrite both files with the new contents and update the Last updated: line.

Integration with the blog orchestrator

When /blog write, /blog rewrite, /blog brief, /blog outline, /blog calendar, or /blog strategy runs, the orchestrator (skills/blog/SKILL.md) checks for BRAND.md and VOICE.md at the project root. If present, the contents are injected into the system prompt for downstream agents (blog-researcher, blog-writer, blog-seo, blog-reviewer).

If absent, behavior is unchanged. The orchestrator does not prompt the user to create them; they are opt-in context.

Relationship to blog-persona

blog-brand does not replace blog-persona; it consumes it. The persona JSON remains the source of truth for tone dimensions, sentence-length distribution, and contraction frequency. VOICE.md mirrors the readable parts so prompts are self-contained.

If no persona exists when /blog brand init runs, the voice questions still produce a VOICE.md. Users who want programmatic enforcement can run /blog persona create after.

Error Handling

• Project root unclear: ask the user where to write the files. Default is the current working directory.

• Files already exist on init: ask whether to overwrite or run update instead.

• Persona referenced but missing: ask whether to leave the persona reference blank or create one.

• Reader provides minimal answers: prompt for at least 2 audience bullets and 3 editorial rules; refuse to write skeletons.