CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

What This Is

A Claude Code skill (SKILL.md) that runs a five-phase pipeline to research any brand's visual identity and produce a branded HTML report. Built by Curious Endeavor, a brand agency using agentic branding flows.

The skill is invoked conversationally ("research Cash App", "visual research on Stripe") — there is no build step, test suite, or runtime. The repo is documentation and templates, not executable code.

Repository Structure

• SKILL.md — The skill definition. This is what Claude reads when the skill is invoked. Contains the full pipeline spec, input format, phase definitions, and image embedding procedure.
• templates/report.html — HTML report template with {{PLACEHOLDER}} variables and data-slot image positions. Full-width layout with sticky CE bar, hero block, pill-track navigation, and 12 report sections. Uses CSS custom properties for branding (:root block). Fonts: Larken (Adobe Fonts, headlines), Inter (Google Fonts, body), JetBrains Mono (Google Fonts, technical labels). CE logo is base64-embedded.
• templates/assets/ce-logo-red.png — CE logo source file (embedded in the template as base64).
• references/ — Supporting docs the skill reads during execution:
  • brand-audit-framework.md — The 13-section research template
  • source-discovery-guide.md — Search strategies for finding brand assets
  • image-extraction-techniques.md — Instagram API, Prismic CMS, yt-dlp recipes
  • ce-styleguide.md — Curious Endeavor design rules (colors, typography, spacing, components)

Key Concepts

Five phases: Discover → Capture → Extract → Analyze → Package. Each phase has specific tool requirements and fallbacks documented in SKILL.md.

Template variables in report.html: Uses {{MUSTACHE}} placeholders for content ({{BRAND_NAME}}, {{TLDR_VERDICT}}, {{SIGNAL_HEADLINE}}, {{FACT_N_VALUE}}, {{SWATCH_N_HEX}}, {{EVOLUTION_N_YEARS}}, etc.). Images use a data-slot system — each <img> has a data-slot="N" attribute (slots 0-18) and data-aspect for expected ratio. Images are base64-embedded by replacing the src attribute of the matching slot.

CE Styleguide rules (from references/ce-styleguide.md): White background, #CC0000 red used sparingly (section labels only), no shadows/rounded corners, generous whitespace, light font weights for body. Hero overlay gradient is the one exception to the no-gradients rule.

Section mapping: The 13-section markdown research doc maps to a different order in the HTML report. Sections 04+05 merge into "Brand Identity", Section 13 is absorbed into Social/Personality, and new synthesized sections (TL;DR, Signal) are added. See references/brand-audit-framework.md for the full mapping table.

When Editing

• Changes to the pipeline logic go in SKILL.md
• Changes to report appearance go in templates/report.html and references/ce-styleguide.md
• Changes to research methodology go in the relevant references/ file
• After any change, reinstall the skill by running (from the repo root): cp -r ./* ~/.claude/skills/visual-research/