Iron Law

Never publish content without research and review.

Red Flags

• "I'll skip the research step, I know enough about this topic" → STOP, because writing without sources falls back to training knowledge silently — warn the user or provide --input.
• "The review found issues but they're minor, ship it" → STOP, because Critical and Major findings must be addressed before output — review is mandatory, not advisory.
• "I'll figure out the format as I go" → STOP, because the format spec file must be loaded before drafting — writing without it produces structure drift.
• "This is only 800 words but it covers everything" → STOP, because format minimums (newsletter 10000, article 4000, report 5000 chars of body) are hard rules — negotiate length with the user, never silently truncate.
• "The voice doesn't matter for this piece" → STOP, because tone inconsistency is the top reader-trust killer — load the voice guide and verify the voice checklist before finalizing.

Write

Produce content with automatic research and review unless the caller explicitly skips those steps.

When to Use

• The user asks for a draft, article, newsletter, report, short-form script, or social post
• Another skill needs polished written output

Workflow

1. Run /scc:research UNLESS --skip-research flag is set OR source material is already provided via --input. Guard: If --skip-research is set but no --input is provided and no source material exists in the conversation, warn the user: "No source material provided. Output will rely on training knowledge only. Continue?" Do NOT silently fall back to training knowledge.
2. Load format spec AND voice guide: read references/formats/{format}.md (required — abort if missing) and references/voice-guides/{voice}.md (recommended). If the voice guide file doesn't exist, proceed using the default voice characteristics from the Voices table mapping below.
3. Draft content following loaded format spec and voice constraints.
4. Run /scc:review --preset quick UNLESS --skip-review flag is set. This step is MANDATORY by default.
5. Address all Critical and Major review findings. Re-read the review output and apply fixes.

Options

--constraints: Review findings injected as hard requirements for this draft. Each entry is enforced as a non-negotiable rule during drafting and is not open to negotiation with the user. Passed automatically by the PDCA Act→Do route; can also be supplied manually.

When --input is provided (or when called from a pipeline with input_from), the file content is injected as source context and --skip-research is implied.

Soul-Aware Voice Resolution

Voice is resolved in this priority order:

1. --voice flag (explicit override — always wins)
2. ## Tone Rules in .data/soul/SOUL.md (personal preferences — merge with voice guide)
3. .data/soul/templates/STYLE.md defaults (bilingual baseline)
4. Format voice guide from the Voices table below

If .data/soul/SOUL.md exists, read its ## Tone Rules section and treat those rules as non-negotiable constraints on top of the selected voice guide. Soul tone rules override format defaults but never override an explicit --voice flag.

Voices

Voice Checklist

Before finalizing, verify:

• At least one first-person example (peer-mentor) OR authoritative citation (expert) OR conversational aside (casual)
• Tone is consistent throughout — no voice mixing
• CTA present for shorts/social formats

Format Rules

• newsletter: 6-stage arc, minimum 10000 chars of body, at least 2 research data points
• article: minimum 4000 chars of body
• report: minimum 5000 chars of body with numbered recommendations
• shorts: around 1800 chars with a mandatory CTA
• social: platform-optimized short post
• card-news: slide-by-slide narrative with visual direction

Length Negotiation

When user-specified length conflicts with format minimums:

1. Inform the user: "Article format minimum is 4000 chars, you requested ~800."
2. Offer alternatives: switch to shorts or social format, OR keep article at full length.
3. If user insists on short article, respect user intent but note the override in output metadata.

Never silently truncate or silently exceed the user's request.

Auto-Save

After the review step (or after drafting if --skip-review), save the final content:

• Path: .captures/write-{format}-{slug}-{YYYY-MM-DD}.md
• {slug} = topic lowercased, spaces to hyphens, max 40 chars
• Write the full content using the Write tool. Do NOT skip this step.
• Tell the user the saved path.

When --publish notion is set: requires a configured Notion MCP connection (mcp__claude_ai_Notion__notion-create-pages). Create a Notion page with the content, then save the local .md file. If Notion MCP is not available, warn the user and save to file only.

Gotchas

• Do not skip research unless real sources are already supplied.
• Do not start writing before loading the format spec file.
• Do not output content without running the review step (unless --skip-review is explicitly set).
• Do not miss the CTA in shorts or conclusions.
• Do not ship the reviewed version without addressing Critical and Major issues. Minor issues may be deferred.
• Severity levels follow the shared taxonomy: Critical (ship-blocking), Major (significant gap), Minor (polish). Same as /scc:review.

Subagents

writer: { model: opus, constraint: "follow format rules, voice, and length minimums" }
editor: { model: opus, constraint: "address all Critical and Major review items" }