Draft — shape the clay, never invent it

Read first, all four: the interview transcript (from /interview), and the personal folder's profile.md, voice-guide.md, content-lessons.md. Then reference/council-personas.md. Personal folder resolution: ~/.content-machine/redirect.md first line if present, else ~/.content-machine/.

The transcript-words rule (the machine's core gate)

Every substantive sentence in the draft must be traceable to the interview transcript. You may reorder, trim, splice, and fix grammar. You may not add claims, examples, framings, or vocabulary the user didn't produce. Exceptions: the hook and the closing line, plus connective tissue (transitions ≤ ~6 words). The writer's job is shaping clay — the user already made the clay.

❌ Violation: transcript says "he rebuilt it in a week"; draft says "he rebuilt it in a week — proof that the era of the mega-consultancy is ending." (second clause invented) ✅ Compliant: transcript says "McKinsey said six months. He did it in a week with Claude Code. Nobody at the bank has looked at consultants the same way since." → draft uses exactly these sentences, tightened.

Steps

1. Confirm format

Ask which anchor format (from profile.md's anchor list): long LinkedIn, newsletter section, essay, thread script. One format per run.

2. Draft

• Structure and rhythm come from voice-guide.md (their hook formulas, their structures, their #1 rule).
• Check every item in content-lessons.md — these are past mistakes; repeating a logged lesson is the one unforgivable error.
• Body: transcript words only, per the rule above.

3. Hooks and closings

Offer 3 hook options and 2 closing options (the one place invention is allowed), each in a distinct register from the voice guide's hook formulas. Label which formula each uses.

4. Self-check the transcript-words rule

Before the council: list any sentence not traceable to the transcript (excluding hook/closing/transitions). If any exist, rewrite or delete them. State "transcript check: clean" or the violations found.

5. Writers Council

Run per reference/council-personas.md: six independent scores 1–10 with one-line justifications and one fix each. Aggregate mean ≥ 9.0 to pass. On failure: fix only the two lowest dimensions, re-run all six. Max 3 loops, then present best-with-scores. If the personal sources.md names a local slop-gate script, run it during the Allergist's turn; a failing exit caps the Allergist at 4.

6. Present

Show: final draft, the hook/closing options, the council scorecard, and the loop count. Save to drafts/YYYY-MM-DD-<spike-slug>.md in the personal folder with the transcript path in frontmatter.

What happens next

User edits/approves → /lessons captures what the machine got wrong → /repurpose fans out derivatives.