Headlines
Generate headlines, article titles, social posts, and email subject lines from a brief or draft. Four phases: find the charge, generate volume across named moves, tighten survivors, output per format. Core rule: volume over polish -- breadth beats optimization because word-level features predict winners weakly.
Phase 1: FIND THE CHARGE
Identify the single most compelling tension or stake in the material.
- Read the brief, draft, or topic statement in full.
- List every tension candidate: surprise, reversal, cost, conflict, a number that changes the picture, a stake the reader holds.
- Pick ONE -- the charge. Write it as one sentence naming who is affected and what is at stake.
- Test: would a reader who saw only this sentence want the rest? A topic label ("Kubernetes networking") fails; a live tension ("DNS resolved yesterday, fails today, nothing changed") passes.
Gate: Charge is one sentence, names a specific tension, is true to source. A weak charge produces 20 weak headlines.
Phase 2: GENERATE VOLUME
Produce 15-25 candidate headlines spread across these ten named moves. Write fast; judge later.
The Ten Headline Moves
| Move | Reflex | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Curiosity gap | Opens a question only reading can close | "The One-Line Nginx Default That Took Our API Down" |
| Specificity | Carries the concrete detail into the headline | "CoreDNS Returns NXDOMAIN for Internal Services After Upgrading to 1.31" |
| Stakes | Names what the reader loses or gains | "Your Postgres Backups May Be Silently Unrestorable" |
| Contrast | Two true things that should not coexist | "Local Build Passes, Cloudflare Deploy Fails -- Same Commit" |
| Question | Asks what the reader already wonders | "Is Your Standup Meeting Just a Status Email With Legs?" |
| How-to | Promises a capability, named precisely | "How to Cut Go CLI Startup From 400ms to 40ms" |
| Number | Count or measurement as the spine | "Three Config Lines That Halved Our CI Bill" |
| Voice-of-reader | Phrased in the reader's own words | "I Rotated the API Key and Production Still Worked. That's the Problem." |
| News peg | Anchored to a current event | "What the AWS Outage Reveals About Your Single-Region Bet" |
| Negative space | Leads with what is absent or refused | "The Test Suite Had No Test for the Thing That Broke" |
Rules:
- Cover at least 6 of the 10 moves. Tag each candidate with its move.
- Keep every candidate anchored to the Phase 1 charge.
- Pull concrete material from the brief: numbers, names, error messages, dates.
Gate: 15-25 candidates, each tagged, at least 6 moves represented. Fewer than 15 means the charge is under-mined -- return to the brief.
Phase 3: TIGHTEN
Select and sharpen 3-5 survivors.
- Score every candidate 1-5 on: specificity, tension, accuracy to the brief. Sum the three.
- Keep the top 3-5. Require move diversity -- two candidates from the same move compete for the same reader reflex; keep the stronger one.
- Tighten each survivor:
- Cut filler; front-load the charge into the first 3-4 words.
- Replace any vague noun with the concrete one from the brief.
- Verify every claim against the brief. The headline promises only what the content delivers.
- Drop any survivor that needs a hedge to stay accurate. Promote the next by score.
Gate: 3-5 survivors, each accurate, each from a distinct move where possible.
Phase 4: OUTPUT PER FORMAT
Adapt survivors to the formats the task needs.
| Format | Constraint | Adjustment |
|---|---|---|
| Article title | ~60-70 chars; sentence case | Full charge; specificity over wordplay |
| Social post | Platform length; standalone | Add the stake or number; end with pull, not summary |
| Email subject line | ~30-50 chars | Front-load the charge; cut articles and qualifiers first |
Per-platform specs from content-engine (references/platform-specs.md) win on length when both apply.
Output format:
markdown## Headline Options **Charge**: [one-sentence charge] ### Article titles 1. "[title]" -- [move] 2. ... ### Social posts 1. "[post]" ### Subject lines 1. "[subject]" **Recommendation**: [pick one, one sentence why]
Gate: Each requested format has 2+ options. Recommendation given with reasoning.
Integration
- writing: when the writing voice pipeline's hook scores below 8, the HOOK-GATE agent may run Phases 1-3 here against the article body to surface the concrete detail the opening should lead with.
- content-engine: supplies titles and subject lines for pipeline output; content-engine owns per-platform format specs.
- Standalone: usable directly on any brief, draft, or topic.
Error Handling
| Error | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Brief has no tension | Input is a topic label or flat release notes | Ask for the one fact that surprised the author, the cost of the problem, or what changed. If none exists, produce plain utilitarian titles. |
| All candidates sound the same | Generation stayed in 1-2 moves | Walk the move catalog in order; force one candidate per unused move. |
| Accurate headlines feel flat | Charge is weak, not the wording | Return to Phase 1. Find a sharper tension or report that the brief needs a stronger finding. |
