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 sayVOICE.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
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
/blog brand init | Interactive interview, writes BRAND.md and VOICE.md to project root |
/blog brand show | Display current contents (or report missing) |
/blog brand update | Re-run the interview with current values as defaults |
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:
markdown# 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:
markdown# 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.mdandVOICE.mdat 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
| Concern | blog-persona | blog-brand |
|---|---|---|
| Structured persona JSON for programmatic use | Yes | No |
| Readable brand context for cross-skill prompts | No | Yes |
| Audience and positioning | No | Yes |
| Taboo phrases and editorial don'ts | Partial (don't list) | Full (taboo + disclosures + scope) |
| Competitor differentiation | No | Yes |
| Topic boundaries | No | Yes |
| Voice fingerprint (tone sliders) | Yes (canonical) | Mirror (read-only) |
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.
