# Brand voice enforcement Human Guide

## What This Is For
Apply existing brand guidelines to all sales and marketing content generation. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for brand and messaging: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Brand voice enforcement agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for brand voice enforcement.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Brand voice enforcement guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Ask the user** — If none of the above found guidelines, tell the user:
- Run `/brand-voice:discover-brand` to find brand materials across your platforms
- Run `/brand-voice:generate-guidelines` to create guidelines from documents or transcripts
- Paste guidelines directly into this chat or point me to a file"
- `strictness`: strict | balanced | flexible
- `always-explain`: whether to always explain brand choices
- **Content type**: email, presentation, proposal, social post, message, etc.
- **Target audience**: role, seniority, industry, company stage
- **Key messages needed**: which message pillars apply
- **Specific requirements**: length, format, tone overrides
- Apply "We Are / We Are Not" attributes from guidelines
- Use brand personality consistently

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Loading Brand Guidelines, Enforcement Workflow, Analyze the Content Request, Apply Voice Constants, Flex Tone for Context, Generate Content, Validate and Explain, Handling Conflicts, Open Questions Awareness, Reference Files.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- The average sales rep spends 4.2 hours/day on tasks that don't close deals.
- **Terminology**: Avoided "revolutionary" and "game-changing" (prohibited terms)
- **Voice** is WHO the brand is — personality, values, identity. It never changes regardless of channel, audience, or content type. Think of it as the brand's character.
- The "We Are / We Are Not" table is the anchor of brand voice. It defines the brand's personality in paired attributes — what the brand IS and the boundary it should never cross.
- | **Confident** — we know our product and stand behind it | **Arrogant** — we never talk down to prospects or dismiss alternatives |
- Check each "We Are Not" boundary — does the content avoid crossing it?
- | Demo / presentation | Medium-High | High | High | Show, don't just describe |
- **Approachable** — don't sound like a robot

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Brand voice enforcement human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins skill entry for `brand-voice-enforcement`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Brand Voice Enforcement

Apply existing brand guidelines to all sales and marketing content generation. Load the user's brand guidelines, apply voice constants and tone flexes to the content request, validate output, and explain brand choices.

## Loading Brand Guidelines

Find the user's brand guidelines using this sequence. Stop as soon as you find them:

1. **Session context** — Check if brand guidelines were generated earlier in this session (via `/brand-voice:generate-guidelines`). If so, they are already in the conversation. Use them directly. Session-generated guidelines are the freshest and reflect the user's most recent intent.

2. **Local guidelines file** — Check for `.claude/brand-voice-guidelines.md` inside the user's working folder. Do NOT use a relative path from the agent's current working directory — in Cowork, the agent runs from a plugin cache directory, not the user's project. Resolve the path relative to the user's working folder. If no working folder is set, skip this step.

3. **Ask the user** — If none of the above found guidelines, tell the user:
   "I couldn't find your brand guidelines. You can:
   - Run `/brand-voice:discover-brand` to find brand materials across your platforms
   - Run `/brand-voice:generate-guidelines` to create guidelines from documents or transcripts
   - Paste guidelines directly into this chat or point me to a file"

   Wait for the user to provide guidelines before proceeding.

Also read `.claude/brand-voice.local.md` for enforcement settings (even if guidelines came from another source):
- `strictness`: strict | balanced | flexible
- `always-explain`: whether to always explain brand choices

## Enforcement Workflow

### 1. Analyze the Content Request

Before writing, identify:
- **Content type**: email, presentation, proposal, social post, message, etc.
- **Target audience**: role, seniority, industry, company stage
- **Key messages needed**: which message pillars apply
- **Specific requirements**: length, format, tone overrides

### 2. Apply Voice Constants

Voice is the brand's personality — it stays constant across all content:
- Apply "We Are / We Are Not" attributes from guidelines
- Use brand personality consistently
- Incorporate approved terminology; reject prohibited terms
- Follow messaging framework and value propositions

Refer to `references/voice-constant-tone-flexes.md` for the "voice constant, tone flexes" model.

### 3. Flex Tone for Context

Tone adapts by content type and audience. Use the tone-by-context matrix from guidelines to set:
- **Formality**: How formal or casual should this be?
- **Energy**: How much urgency or enthusiasm?
- **Technical depth**: How detailed or accessible?

### 4. Generate Content

Create content that:
- Matches brand voice attributes throughout
- Follows tone guidelines for this specific content type
- Incorporates key messages naturally (not forced)
- Uses preferred terminology
- Mirrors the quality and style of guideline examples

For complex or long-form content, delegate to the content-generation agent (defined in `agents/content-generation.md`).
For high-stakes content, delegate to the quality-assurance agent (defined in `agents/quality-assurance.md`) for validation.

### 5. Validate and Explain

After generating content:
- Briefly highlight which brand guidelines were applied
- Explain key voice and tone decisions
- Note any areas where guidelines were adapted for context
- Offer to refine based on feedback

When `always-explain` is true in settings, include brand application notes with every response.

## Handling Conflicts

When the user's request conflicts with brand guidelines:
1. Explain the conflict clearly
2. Provide a recommendation
3. Offer options: follow guidelines strictly, adapt for context, or override