Blog Brand: Durable Editorial Context

Generates two project-root files that every blog sub-skill auto-loads 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 provide persistent editorial 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. 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

Ask:

• 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; complements but is separate from the AI-detection blocklist)
• 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

- **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

1. Check for BRAND.md and VOICE.md at project root.
2. If both exist, print a summary table (key sections only) and the file paths.
3. 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.