Ship Email

Purpose

A release is "done" in git but not in the world until the people who care hear about it — in their terms. This skill takes one version's shipping-log entry and re-tells it for a chosen audience, producing four ready-to-send assets:

The point is audience tailoring: a homeowner, an investor, and a crew lead get genuinely different copy from the same release — not the same blast with the names swapped.

Part of the /ship-* pack

This skill consumes what the rest of the pack produces and shares the docs/VERSION anchor:

docs/VERSION              ← single source of truth (semver)
docs/brand.json           ← colors + fonts (brand-as-data) — themes every output
docs/SHIPPING-LOG.md      ← what shipped, per version (this skill's INPUT)
   ├─ ship-changelog (shipping-log)   → writes the shipping log this skill reads
   ├─ ship-guide (user-guide-builder) → "how it now works" (link it in the email)
   ├─ ship-screenshots (screenshot-capture) → feature art you can attach/reference
   ├─ ship-logos (logo-pack) / ship-brand    → establish brand.json tokens + the wordmark
   └─ ship-promo                       → a promo-video plan for the same release

If there's no shipping log yet, run /ship-changelog first — that's the upstream source of truth.

Workflow

1. Discover what exists (always first)

Never guess the version or invent history. Run the bundled scan from the repo root:

node "<skill-dir>/scripts/scan-release.mjs" --json          # or omit --json for a readable summary
node "<skill-dir>/scripts/scan-release.mjs" --version 0.8.0  # announce a specific version

It reports: the resolved version (from docs/VERSION or --version), the matching docs/SHIPPING-LOG.md entry and its body, whether docs/brand.json exists, any prior announcements under docs/announcements/, and a warnings[] list. Read it before acting.

Handle what it tells you honestly:

• No shipping log / no matching entry → run /ship-changelog (or ask the user for the notes). Do not fabricate features.
• No docs/brand.json → the renderer falls back to a neutral, non-purple theme; offer to run /ship-logos or /ship-brand to set real tokens. Never invent a palette.
• Target folder already populated → confirm before overwriting; or render an audience-suffixed variant alongside (see the schema reference).

2. Pick the audience(s)

Ask if unstated. Read references/audiences-and-voice.md — it has a profile (lead value, vocabulary, proof, CTA, tone) for homeowner, investor, and crew, plus how to derive a custom audience from the same four moves. One audience per content file. If the user wants several, produce one content file (and one set of assets) per audience — don't blend them.

3. Load the voice + the real release content

• Read the brand voice from docs/brand.json (tagline, any voice/tone fields) and honor every brand rule (e.g. no purple, ever). Match the product's existing register, not a generic newsletter voice.
• Read the target version's body from docs/SHIPPING-LOG.md (the scan gave you its location). Translate, don't transcribe: turn each shipped bullet into the chosen audience's stakes.

4. Write the content file

Copy assets/content.example.json to docs/announcements/<version>/content.json and fill it for the audience. Schema + a full input→output worked example: references/content-schema-and-example.md. Write plain text in every field (the renderer escapes HTML for you). Aim for 2–5 items[], benefit-first; a specific, ≤55-char subject; a preheader that complements (not repeats) it.

5. Render the assets

node "<skill-dir>/scripts/render-email.mjs" \
  --in docs/announcements/<version>/content.json \
  --outdir docs/announcements/<version> \
  --brand docs/brand.json

Writes email.html, email.txt, whats-new.html, social.txt. The script themes everything from brand.json. Because email renders on a light card, it keeps the brand's accent/brand color but forces body/heading/muted ink to a readable dark value whenever a brand token is too light for a white background (the common dark-theme case — e.g. a light text token with no surface), so copy is never near-white-on-white. It prints a summary: theme colors, any ink it had to swap, the social char count, and warnings if items[] is empty or unsubscribeUrl is missing.

6. Review against the quality bar + report

Open email.html to eyeball it (it's a single self-contained file). Run the anti-generic checklist in the voice reference. Then report to the user: the version + audience, the four file paths, the subject line, and the social char count. If anything was staged/un-merged, say so plainly — don't imply staged work is live. Offer to render another audience, or to run /ship-promo for a video.

Quality bar

A draft ships only if all of these hold:

• Audience-true. A homeowner email and an investor email for the same release read differently — different lead value, vocabulary, proof, and CTA. If you could send one copy to all three, redo it.
• Evidence-based. Every claim traces to a real entry in docs/SHIPPING-LOG.md. No invented features, no invented metrics, no implied security breach. Unclear impact → inspect or omit.
• Benefit-first, jargon-free. Lead with what the reader can now do, not the implementation. "Refactored finance module" → "See exactly where your budget is going."
• Specific subject. Passes the ≤55-char, benefit-first test; would NOT fit any other product.
• Honest about ship status. Un-merged/un-deployed work is "rolling out", never "live."
• On-brand + safe HTML. Themed from brand.json (never purple by default); email.html and whats-new.html are self-contained, themeable via :root/scoped CSS variables, and use no backdrop-filter and no SVG feTurbulence (both hang renderers / get stripped by mail clients).
• Deliverable. A plain-text part exists alongside the HTML; bulk mail includes an unsubscribe.

Cross-project notes

• Generic by design. Nothing is hardcoded to one app. The scan probes common locations (docs/VERSION, docs/SHIPPING-LOG.md / CHANGELOG.md, docs/brand.json) and degrades gracefully when they're absent. Works in any repo.
• Tool-agnostic delivery. This skill produces files; it does not assume an ESP is installed. To actually send, hand email.html + email.txt to whatever the user has via an adapter — paste into Mailchimp/Resend/Customer.io/SendGrid, attach to a Gmail draft, or commit the modal snippet into the app. Reference those tools; never assume them.
• Re-runnable. Regenerate any time the release notes or brand change — outputs are deterministic from content.json + brand.json.

Files in this skill

• scripts/scan-release.mjs — discovery: resolves version, finds the shipping-log entry + brand, flags prior announcements and missing inputs. Dependency-free. Run it first.
• scripts/render-email.mjs — renders the four assets from content.json, themed by brand.json. Dependency-free, email-client-safe, no purple / no backdrop-filter / no feTurbulence. Forces body/heading/muted ink to a readable dark value when a brand token is too light for the white email card (dark-theme brands), and warns on empty items[] or a missing unsubscribeUrl.
• assets/content.example.json — ready-to-edit content file (the worked example's input).
• references/audiences-and-voice.md — audience profiles, the four tailoring moves, brand-voice rules, and the anti-generic + subject-line checklists.
• references/content-schema-and-example.md — the content.json schema and a full input→output worked example for all four assets.