Brand Book

Write BRAND.md, the file agents follow, and take it to acceptance. Done when the person has accepted the page, accept has run, and the pointer is added or declined.

Run node brand/tools/brand.mjs status (if brand/tools/ is missing or next is none, hand off to brandfile); if next names another skill, hand off to it. Read brand/work/brief.md, brand/work/selection.md if it exists, and the format; for a book in Russian, also the Russian notes.

Write to brand/work/candidate/BRAND.md. For a rework, start from a copy of brand/BRAND.md and brand/assets/, and change only what the brief's scope covers. Send a gap back to its owner:

• a choice you cannot write as a rule: blank its Choice in brand/work/selection.md, put the question in its Why, and hand off to brand-directions;
• a missing fact: add it under "Open questions" in the brief, set confirmed: no, and hand off to brand-interview.

Write a diff

The book is a diff against what a capable agent does anyway. Every line traces to something the person said or chose, or a file you found. Mark anything else as an assumption where it stands and list it in {#open}. Keep the book under about 3,000 words.

• Testable rules. Write each rule so an outsider or a script can say "violated" without asking a designer: a number or ratio tied to something measurable, such as the height of the mark. What cannot be formalized gets a pair of examples and the name of whoever decides.
• Use first. Open with what to use: "Use var(--primary) for the one action". Give a prohibition only for this brand, with its reason: a generic list of what looks machine-made only shifts the fashion and can ban the brand's own traits.
• Structure, not just values. Fill {#layout}. An axis nobody decided reads "not decided, ask the owner".
• Constant and variable. For each element, say what never changes, what may, and who allows an exception. Keep a quirk that is theirs, with a line saying so.
• Turned down. Write what was rejected beside what was chosen, with the reason.
• No claims. Write unknown for what is unknown. Promise nothing about revenue and quote no brand-consistency statistics.

Fonts and files

Put the full file of each font the book names in brand/work/candidate/assets/fonts/ and the logo files in brand/work/candidate/assets/, so build can check coverage and the book works away from the project. Take an open font whole from its source, such as google/fonts, with its license file beside it. For a commercial font, ask for the file they are licensed to use; with no file, write —.

Build and probe

Run node brand/tools/brand.mjs build and fix every error. Leave the values behind warnings as they are and put each warning to the person at the stop. Write brand/work/candidate/CHANGELOG-entry.md: what this version decides, why, and what people using the brand must do. Then hand off to next; the person sees the page only once probes are on it.

Treat a stray in a probe report as a defect in the book until shown otherwise. Fix the rule, not the output, rebuild, and probe again if the fix touches what the tasks depend on.

Stop: they accept

Give the path brand/work/candidate/index.html, opening it if you can. Point to the "To check" box, the assumptions in {#open}, and the runs side by side. Ask whether this is their brand: fit, not liking.

They often answer by the page's labels: "color.accent is too loud". Edit the candidate and rebuild, since index.html is generated. Send a rejected style back to brand-directions as above. The book is accepted when they say so; a reaction to a detail is not acceptance.

Then run node brand/tools/brand.mjs accept and offer the pointer. With their yes, add it in that file's language to AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md, whichever exists, or ask which to create. If they decline, tell them agents here will not know the book exists.

## Brand
Before work people will see (interface, copy, emails, images), read brand/BRAND.md. It also says how to change the brand.

Committing is their call. Tell them brand/work/ stays out of git because the brief can hold competitors and prices, and fonts and logos in brand/assets/ keep their own licenses.