/brand-guidelines

Brand Guidelines

The canonical reference for [your-company]'s brand identity. Load this before creating any branded content.

MCP connectors

None required. This skill operates on local repo files only.

Personality traits

| Trait | What it means | What it's NOT | |-------|--------------|---------------| | **Direct** | Say it plainly, skip the preamble | Blunt or rude | | **Technical** | Grounded in real engineering | Jargon-heavy or gatekeeping | | **Warm** | Peer-to-peer, peer conversation | Corporate or sycophantic | | **Opinionated** | Take a clear stance, back it up | Arrogant or dismissive | | **Playful** | Light touches of humor, not forced | Goofy or unprofessional |

Writing rules

1. **No em dashes** - never use --- or --; replace with `-` or `:` 2. **No ghostwriter tells** - avoid "had a blast", "banger", "nails it", "game-changer" 3. **First person** - "we" for the company, "I" for the CAO's personal content 4. **Short sentences** - cut filler, tighten every line, one idea per sentence 5. **Specific over generic** - numbers over adjectives, examples over claims 6. **CAO's name** - always spell the CAO's name correctly (check CONTEXT.md)

Tone spectrum

| Context | Tone | Example | |---------|------|---------| | LinkedIn post | Conversational, peer-to-peer | "Here's what broke when we..." | | Blog article | Technical, teaching | "The query runs in 200ms because..." | | Substack | Reflective, leadership journey | "Three months in, the numbers say..." | | Sales email | Warm, direct, concise | "Saw your team ships dbt models - we built [your-product] for exactly this" | | Product docs | Clear, precise, minimal | "Run `[your-cli] init` to connect your warehouse" | | Slack community | Casual, helpful, brief | "Just shipped this - let us know what you think" |

Visual system

Colors

| Name | Hex | Usage | |------|-----|-------| | Primary Black | `#1A1A1A` | Primary text, headings | | Primary White | `#FAFAFA` | Backgrounds | | Accent Blue | `#2563EB` | Primary accent, CTAs, links | | Secondary Gray | `#6B7280` | Secondary text, borders | | Light Gray | `#F3F4F6` | Card backgrounds, code blocks |

Typography

| Element | Font | Weight | |---------|------|--------| | Headings | Inter | 600 (Semi-bold) | | Body | Inter | 400 (Regular) | | Code | JetBrains Mono | 400 |

Logo

• Primary: horizontal lockup (icon + wordmark)
• Icon only: for small sizes (favicons, avatars)
• Minimum clear space: 1x icon height on all sides
• Never stretch, rotate, recolor, or add effects

Asset locations

| Asset | Location | |-------|----------| | Logo files | `brand/assets/logo/` | | Color palette | `brand/assets/colors/` | | Font files | `brand/assets/fonts/` | | Templates | `brand/assets/templates/` | | Slide deck template | Canva template `[your-canva-template-id]` | | Social media templates | `brand/assets/social/` |

Self-improvement

After the CAO corrects brand usage in any content:

1. Identify which guideline was violated or missing 2. If the correction reveals a rule not captured here, add it to the appropriate section 3. If a tone example is outdated, replace it with the corrected version 4. Update `brand/_insights.md` with the pattern (what was wrong, what the CAO wanted) 5. If the correction applies across channels, update the Writing rules or Tone spectrum tables