Tone Mapping

Build a voice and tone profile by analyzing real writing samples. The output is brain/voice-and-tone.md, which content-producing skills read to match the user's natural voice.

Why This Matters

Without a tone map, every skill produces generic-sounding output. With one, blog posts, social content, emails, and landing pages start sounding like the person who runs the company wrote them.

Workflow

Step 1: Collect Writing Samples

Ask the user:

I need 3-5 real writing samples to map your voice. These should be things you wrote yourself (not edited by someone else) that sound most like you.

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Options: 1. Paste directly — copy text from LinkedIn posts, blog posts, emails, newsletters 2. Link to a URL — I'll fetch the content (LinkedIn articles, blog posts, personal site) 3. Point to a file — if you've dropped samples in /incoming/

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Which works best?

Minimum: 3 samples, ideally 500+ words total. More samples produce a better map.

If they have fewer than 3 samples: Accept what they have but flag that the profile will be approximate. Suggest they update it later as they produce more content.

What makes a good sample:

• Written by them, not ghostwritten or heavily edited
• Represents how they want to sound going forward (not how they used to write)
• Variety helps: a casual post, a technical explanation, an opinionated take

Step 2: Extract Patterns

Analyze the samples across eight dimensions. For each dimension, identify the specific pattern with evidence (quote a short phrase from the sample).

#### The Eight Dimensions

1. Sentence rhythm

• Average sentence length (short/medium/long)
• Variation pattern (do they mix short punchy sentences with longer ones, or stay consistent?)
• How they open paragraphs (statement, question, anecdote, data?)

1. Vocabulary register

• Formal to casual spectrum (1-5 scale)
• Technical density (do they use jargon freely, explain it inline, or avoid it?)
• Industry-specific terms they default to

1. Structural patterns

• How they organize arguments (top-down conclusion first? build-up? problem-solution?)
• Use of lists vs. prose paragraphs
• Paragraph length tendencies

1. Pronouns and perspective

• First person ("I") vs. collective ("we") vs. second person ("you")
• How they address the reader (directly? as a peer? as a student?)
• Do they use "one" or passive voice to generalize?

1. Hedging vs. conviction

• Do they qualify claims ("might," "could," "tends to") or state directly?
• How they handle uncertainty (acknowledge it, skip past it, frame it as a question?)
• Strength of opinionated statements

1. Humor and personality markers

• Dry wit, self-deprecation, sarcasm, none?
• Use of analogies and metaphors (frequent, rare, specific domain?)
• Personality that comes through (irreverent? earnest? measured?)

1. Punctuation and formatting habits

• Em dash usage (heavy user? never?)
• Parenthetical asides (frequent, rare?)
• Bold/italic patterns
• How they use colons, semicolons, ellipses

1. Opening and closing patterns

• How they start pieces (hook, question, bold claim, anecdote?)
• How they end (CTA, summary, open question, provocative statement?)
• Transition style between sections

Step 3: Confirm with Sample Sentences

Before writing the profile, test it. Generate 3 sentences that apply the extracted patterns to a topic the user hasn't written about. Present them:

Here's how your voice profile would sound on a new topic. Do these sound like you?

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1. [sentence applying their rhythm + vocabulary + conviction level] 2. [sentence applying their humor/personality + structural pattern] 3. [sentence applying their opening style + pronoun usage]

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What's off? Too formal? Too casual? Missing something?

Iterate until the user confirms the voice feels right. This is the most important gate in the process.

Step 4: Write voice-and-tone.md

Write the profile to brain/voice-and-tone.md using the template structure. Include:

• The eight dimension scores with evidence
• A "Voice DNA" summary (3-4 sentences capturing the overall feel)
• A "Do / Don't" quick-reference table
• 3 sample sentences as calibration anchors

Step 5: Update references

If brain/INDEX.md exists, check whether it already lists voice-and-tone.md. If not, add it under the Brand section.

Tell the user:

Voice profile saved to brain/voice-and-tone.md. Content skills (blog, social-content, copywriting, email-sequence, case-studies) will read it when drafting.

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To update your voice profile later, run /tone-mapping again with new samples.

Rules

• Never fabricate sample quotes. Only quote from the user's actual writing samples.
• The voice profile is descriptive, not prescriptive. Capture how they actually write, not how a style guide says they should write.
• If samples conflict (one is casual, another formal), ask which register they want as their default and note the range.
• Don't over-index on a single sample. Patterns should appear across multiple samples to be included.
• If the user already has a voice-and-tone.md, show what would change and confirm before overwriting.
• The profile should be concise enough that skills can read it quickly. Target 150-200 lines max. No padding.