version: "1.0.1" name: blog-brand description: > Establish durable brand and voice context for cross-skill consumption. Generates BRAND.md (audience, positioning, do/don't editorial rules, taboo phrases, competitor differentiation) and VOICE.md (existing persona JSON re-expressed as readable prose), both written to the project root. When present, the blog orchestrator auto-loads these files for write, rewrite, brief, outline, calendar, and strategy workflows. Pairs with blog-persona, which manages the structured persona JSON. Use when user says "blog brand", "create brand context", "brand voice doc", "BRAND.md", "VOICE.md", "establish editorial brand", "brand guidelines for blog". user-invokable: true argument-hint: "[init|show|update]" license: MIT

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

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.