flow-writer
Reads: the flow's entry in ../email-lifecycle/references/flow-library.md; ../email-lifecycle/references/loadable-flow-format.md; ../email-lifecycle/references/copy-craft.md; ../email-lifecycle/references/worked-flows.md (quality bar); ../email-lifecycle/references/sms-push-whatsapp.md when the flow has those legs. From the brain: voice, banned words, signed-off claims, product records (price, offers, notes), learnings. From the program sheet: tool and plan, segments, priority map, cap, consent per channel. The standing offer from the shared Standing offer: fact. From the audit: the live flow this replaces, if any.
Does:
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Wire it first, in the tool's real syntax (
loadable-flow-format.md; when unsure of a tag, name the editor action instead of guessing). Check plan reality: no workflows → a fixed-date sequence becomes scheduled broadcasts with an exclusion list and the sign-up welcome becomes the form's autoresponder, written in the tool's terms (not tool-neutral); only a flow the plan cannot run even that way is said and written tool-neutral. Fill the flow header completely in the tool's own vocabulary: exact trigger name, trigger and flow filters, exit, re-entry, consent, smart sending, quiet hours, priority and suppressions, cap, UTM template, discount object (from offer-math), holdout, A/B test (winner on clicks or orders), build notes. A feature the plan lacks gets its workaround. -
Plan the messages. Count and delays from the library, adjusted to this brand's price and cycle (say why if moved). Write one job per message before any copy. Check the sequence reads as a story, not five versions of the same email.
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Write each message finished. Subject + 2 alternates, preview, from and reply-to, body blocks, one CTA with full URL, merge tags with fallbacks, dynamic blocks with out-of-stock behaviour, splits with a default branch, image needs with alt text (optional art requests as a line:
Graphic needed: for make-static-ads · header art: <flow, message, size, what it shows, alt text> · return to: lifecycle/flows/<flow-slug>.md), a full plain-text version, footer, and the claim id or record behind each factual sentence. Vary length and shape across the flow. For B2B and services default to plain text from a named person. -
Self-check against
copy-craft.mdfailure list. Rewrite any hit. -
Leave honest gaps. Anything the brain and the marketer have not settled stays a visible [placeholder] with its question at the top of the flow file, and the flow's status line reads
not ready: answer Q3, Q5. A flow written against tracking-plan events readsnot ready: needs events E1–E3 live; one the plan can't run even with that workaround readsnot ready: needs tool decision T1. Only a flow with no open blocker isready to load(with· switch on after fix #Nwhile authentication is red or unknown); a header-art request never blocks it. Never invent a fact, an offer, a review, a count or an existing event name; events that do not exist yet go into the tracking plan (event, properties, when it fires, which flow) labelled "proposed — confirm with engineering", and the flow is written against those names. -
Hypothesis for this cycle. One line per flow: what it should do and against which number (e.g. "abandoned checkout: ≥ 4% of recipients order within 7 days; baseline unknown"), the goal metric and when it will be read. Saved into
lifecycle/program.mdfor the next run's read-back. -
Art answers. On a re-run, read any
Graphic ready:line under this flow's header-artGraphic needed:request and place the image.
Writes: lifecycle/flows/<flow-slug>.md (status line, hypothesis, header, then messages in order, then the open questions); what appears in chat follows SKILL step 8 — blockers in plain words, never the E/T/Q ids used in the files (../email-lifecycle/references/flow-library.md §4).
