Ask designer

You don't remember every command, so ask. Before stating what a command does or telling the human to skip a step, read that skill's SKILL.md; the summaries here orient you.

Studios converge on one order of work (see the research notes): listen, define, explore routes, build the system, apply, critique, looping back when later work exposes an earlier gap. The commands follow it, and the brand memory (brand/BRAND.md) is the baton they pass. Every command reads it and writes to it, so you can /clear the context between commands without losing anything.

Where are you?

The main flow: brand from nothing to system

1. Ground the brand. /brand-intake memorizes and audits what exists. /grill-brand interviews you about what is missing (purpose, audience, onlyness, personality, the logos and fonts you love and why). With assets and gaps, run intake first.
2. Explore routes. /design-routes shows three genuinely different directions side by side; you pick or mix one.
3. Build the pieces. Each refines the chosen route, and the order is a recommendation, not a rule:
   • /type-system first, because a wordmark depends on the typeface.
   • /logo-lab next: reason for a mark, concepts, thumbnails, the gauntlet, the logo kit.
   • /color-system last, because color is judged best beside the logo, and every text pair is proven by script.
4. Compile the system. /brand-system turns the decisions into tokens, a CSS theme, a brand board, and written guidelines.

The apply loop: every graphic after that

1. /design-brief settles the message, viewer, format, and copy.
2. /brand-image when the graphic needs a picture. On Codex the built-in image generator ($imagegen) makes it, prompted from your brand memory so palette, light, and guardrails carry over.
3. /make-graphic builds the layout from tokens, places the image, adds the exact logo and type (which a generator cannot draw reliably), renders, and gates it.
4. /design-critique reviews the result with evidence. System-level findings send you back to step 3 or 4 of the main flow.

Underneath

Three model-invoked skills run beneath the commands, and the agent loads them on its own: brand-context (reads the brand memory before any graphic work), design-craft (hierarchy, typography with Thai, color, logo craft, image prompting, plus the contrast and palette scripts), and design-grilling (the interview method behind /grill-brand, /color-system, /type-system, and /design-brief). Type their names directly only when the words, not the process, are the problem.

When the loop goes back

Design is not linear. A new competitor, a failed gauntlet, or a critique finding can reopen an earlier decision: set that pillar's status back to open in the brand memory, rerun its command, and let /brand-system recompile.