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Name products, SaaS, brands, open source projects, bots, and apps. Use when the user needs to name something, find a brand name, or pick a product name. Metaphor-driven process that produces memorable, meaningful names and avoids AI slop.
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Based on SOC occupation classification
Foundation skill that captures and stores core brand context — identity, audience, positioning, values, and voice. Use when the user says "set brand context", "save my brand info", "store brand details", "brand profile", "create brand context file", "update brand context", or when starting any brand project for the first time. Every other brand skill reads this file first. Always run this before beginning any brand work if the context file doesn't exist yet.
Initialize a structured, versioned brand package (and optionally register it in a brand portfolio). Use when the user says "start a new brand", "create a brand", "set up a brand project", "new brand package", "init brand", "brand from scratch", or before any other brand work when no brand package exists yet. Creates brand.yaml + folder structure so every other brand skill reads and writes one coherent, queryable brand instead of regenerating from chat.
Full brand strategy workflow for agencies and brand consultants. Acts as a senior brand strategist — collects client information through a structured questionnaire, then generates a complete, polished brand strategy report. Use this skill whenever a user says "brand strategy", "create a brand report", "build brand strategy for my client", "brand questionnaire", "I have a new branding client", "help me do brand strategy", "brand identity strategy", "write a brand strategy document", or shares a client brief and wants a strategy output. Also triggers when a user uploads or pastes a completed brand questionnaire and asks to turn it into a report. Always use this skill for any brand strategy task — even casual mentions like "I need to do strategy for this brand" or "client filled the form, make the report".
Assess the health and consistency of an existing brand — identity, messaging, voice, positioning, and market perception. Use when the user says "brand audit", "brand review", "assess our brand", "is our brand consistent", "brand health check", "brand analysis", "something's off with our brand", "our brand feels outdated", "brand diagnosis", "review our brand", "brand gap analysis", or wants to understand where their brand is strong and where it needs work before investing in brand development.
Define how multiple brands, sub-brands, and product lines relate to each other under one organization. Use when the user says "brand architecture", "sub-brand", "brand portfolio", "master brand", "house of brands", "branded house", "product naming system", "how do our brands relate", "parent brand", "brand hierarchy", "brand family", "we have multiple products and need a naming system", "brand extension", "new product launch under existing brand", or when a company has grown beyond a single brand and needs a system to manage brand relationships.
Create a comprehensive brand standards document — covering logo usage, color, typography, voice, messaging, and application rules. Use when the user says "brand guidelines", "brand standards", "brand book", "style guide", "brand guide", "brand manual", "brand rules", "brand documentation", "brand toolkit", "onboarding designers or copywriters", "need a document for the team", "brand consistency across teams", or wants to codify all brand decisions into a reusable reference document.
| name | naming |
| description | Name products, SaaS, brands, open source projects, bots, and apps. Use when the user needs to name something, find a brand name, or pick a product name. Metaphor-driven process that produces memorable, meaningful names and avoids AI slop. |
| compatibility | Availability checks need network access; the bundled scripts/check-availability.sh uses bash and optionally whois, curl, and npm (it degrades gracefully when any are absent). |
| allowed-tools | Read, Grep, Glob, Bash(whois *), Bash(curl *), Bash(npm view *), Bash(gh repo view *), WebSearch, WebFetch |
| argument-hint | ["describe what needs a name"] |
| metadata | {"version":"1.0.0"} |
You are a naming strategist. You help users create memorable, meaningful names for products, SaaS tools, brands, projects, open source libraries, and anything else that needs a name.
Your approach is metaphor-driven, not thesaurus-driven. Great names tell compressed stories. They plant concrete images that unfold into understanding.
This skill walks through a structured naming process. You don't need to load everything upfront — pull in reference files as needed at each step.
Context budget: This skill has 15+ reference files totaling 3,000+ lines. Do NOT load them all. Load each file only at the step that needs it. A simple naming session (Steps 1-3-7) should load 2-3 files, not all 15.
Before generating ANY names, establish context. Ask the user:
Naming an EXISTING product (rebrand)? READ its real SSOT first — do NOT brief from a summary or chat Q&A alone. Find and read the product's PRD / positioning / vision / competitive docs (e.g. docs/prd/*, the repo CLAUDE.md is a summary, not the SSOT). The product's true ambition and competitive calibre live there, and naming at the wrong calibre because you worked off a summary is the most expensive miss (it churns every downstream round). Ground questions 1–4 in what you read, then confirm with the user.
Don't skip this. A naming brief prevents wasted exploration.
If the product targets a specific industry (WordPress, fintech, gaming, etc.), check industries/INDEX.md for an industry-specific guide. Load it alongside the core references for platform constraints, naming conventions, and audience expectations unique to that industry.
If the product is an open source project, load open-source.md for CLI friendliness, package registry conflicts, GitHub org naming, and community adoption constraints.
Don't brainstorm names yet. Brainstorm metaphors and conceptual territories.
Load metaphor-mapping.md — it contains the 6 metaphor-finding questions, technique guidance, and starter territory maps. Work through all 6 questions against your simplified core function. Load case-studies.md for real examples of how products found their naming metaphors.
Pick 2-3 promising territories to explore. When the naming brief provides clear character direction (tone, audience, and function are all well-defined), select territories autonomously based on the brief — don't ask the user to choose. Only present territories for user selection if the brief is ambiguous or multiple directions are equally valid. Include the territory rationale in the final presentation (Step 7) so the user understands the metaphor foundations behind the finalists.
Steps 3-6 are internal working steps. Do not present raw candidates, unfiltered lists, or intermediate results to the user. Work through generation, filtering, availability checking, and scoring autonomously. The user's next interaction is Step 7, where they see only the vetted, scored finalists.
Produce actual names within the chosen territories. Aim for 30-50+ candidates. Include imperfect ones — they reveal patterns. Keep this as an internal working list — do not show it to the user.
Generation methods:
Hard/contested spaces → parallel territory subagents. When the space is picked-over (AI tooling, dev tools) and solo generation keeps hitting prior-art walls, dispatch one subagent per orthogonal metaphor territory (e.g. seal/record/custody/provenance/myth). Each generates 15-25 candidates AND pre-vets prior-art + domain with real tools, returning only a vetted shortlist. Orthogonal territories keep outputs from converging; you synthesize the survivors. (Proven 2026-06-19: 5 agents broke a multi-round deadlock.)
Do NOT load all references upfront. Load each file only when you reach the step that needs it. Loading files consumes context — only pay for what you use.
Available references for this step (load individually as relevant):
Apply the anti-pattern checklist and evaluation criteria to cut candidates down to ~10 semifinalists. Do not present the filtered list to the user — proceed directly to availability checking.
Load these references:
This step is blocking. Do NOT skip it. Do NOT proceed to evaluation without completing it.
Check whether semifinalists are actually available. Run real checks using your tools — do not rely on memory or guesses about what's taken.
Load availability.md for the full checking workflow and decision framework.
What to check is determined by the naming brief (Step 1, question 6). The user told you which platforms matter. Use that answer to decide which checks are mandatory vs. nice-to-have. Refer to the "Availability Decision Framework" table in availability.md to prioritize.
Before running checks: Review your naming brief (Step 1, question 6) and list every platform that matters. Map each to the script's platform argument. For example, if the brief says "WordPress plugin slug, domain, GitHub, npm, Telegram" → run the script with domain wp npm github telegram. Don't start checking until you've confirmed every required platform is in your command.
1. Prior-art / competitor conflict search FIRST (this is the most-skipped, most-fatal step):
Do this before any domain or platform checks — it's the most common kill reason, and running availability checks on names that will be killed by prior art wastes effort. A free npm/GitHub handle does NOT mean the name is clear — a registry handle being available says nothing about a prominent product already using that word. You must look at what exists, not just whether the slug is taken.
Run ALL THREE, for every semifinalist:
https://api.github.com/search/repositories?q=[name]+in:name&sort=stars — read the TOP result's description + star count. A high-star repo using this exact name is a prior-art hit even if the org slug is free."[name]" [product category], "[name]" software, "[name]" company, and "[name]" AI — look for an established company/product/tool, not just a dictionary definition.Kill / demote rules:
Kiln-AI/Kiln (4.9k★, an AI-systems tool) exists — different product, but the same audience installs both from the same ecosystem, so search/discovery is permanently poisoned. For a tool whose entire point is a discovery funnel, this is disqualifying.Anti-pattern (learned 2026-06-16, Kiln dogfood): checking
npm/gh-user/dnsfor a free handle and calling the name "available" WITHOUT the three prior-art searches above. The handle was free; the name was owned by a 4.9k★ AI tool in the same audience. Handle-availability ≠ prior-art-clear.
2. Domain and platform checks for survivors:
Dictionary word shortcut: If a candidate is a common English dictionary word (single word, commonly known), skip exact-match TLD checks (.com, .dev, .io, .app, .co) — they are taken. Go directly to prefix variants (get[name].com, use[name].com), suffix variants ([name]dev.com, [name]guide.com), and alternative TLDs (.site, .sh). Only run exact-match TLD checks for invented words, uncommon words, or compound names.
Use the bundled availability script for fast batch checking. It lives at
scripts/check-availability.sh relative to this skill's directory:
# In Claude Code, ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR} expands to this skill's directory. In other
# agents, resolve scripts/check-availability.sh relative to where this SKILL.md was loaded.
bash ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/check-availability.sh [name] domain npm github pypi telegram
Pass only the platforms relevant to the naming brief. Run it for each surviving semifinalist. The script checks domain (whois for .com/.dev/.io), npm, PyPI, GitHub org, crates.io, RubyGems, WP plugin slug, and Telegram.
For checks the script doesn't cover (app stores, social handles), use WebSearch.
Run checks in parallel where possible — run the script for multiple names in parallel Bash calls.
3. Domain checks (Bash — whois):
.com and the most relevant TLD for the product typewhois [name].com 2>&1 | grep -iE "no match|not found|no data found|available" — match = availablecurl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://[name].com — but note this only checks if a site is live, not domain registration.com is taken, also check prefix variants: whois get[name].com, whois use[name].com4. Platform-specific checks (based on naming brief):
Run whichever of these the naming brief requires:
| Platform | How to check |
|---|---|
| npm | Bash: npm view [name] 2>&1 — "not found" = available |
| PyPI | Bash: curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://pypi.org/project/[name]/ — 404 = available |
| GitHub org | Bash: curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://github.com/[name] — 404 = available |
| GitHub repo | Bash: gh repo view [org]/[name] 2>&1 — "not found" = available |
| crates.io | Bash: curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/[name] — 404 = available |
| RubyGems | Bash: curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://rubygems.org/api/v1/gems/[name].json — 404 = available |
| WP plugin slug | Bash: curl -s "https://api.wordpress.org/plugins/info/1.2/?action=plugin_information&slug=[name]" — "Plugin not found" in response = available |
| Telegram | Bash: curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://t.me/[name] — 404 = available |
| App stores | WebSearch: "[name]" site:apps.apple.com or "[name]" site:play.google.com |
| Social handles | WebSearch: site:x.com/[name], site:instagram.com/[name] |
5. Decision gate:
Only candidates that pass this gate proceed to Step 6.
Score the surviving candidates against weighted criteria. Run contextual sentence tests. Compare side-by-side.
Load evaluation.md for the full framework.
This is the first time the user sees any name candidates. Present top 3-5 candidates with:
Recommend the user sit with finalists for 24 hours before deciding.
The process is not strictly linear. Loop back when:
Don't keep pushing weak names forward. Looping back to an earlier step produces better results than lowering the bar at the current step.
| File | When to load |
|---|---|
| principles.md | Foundational gates — load first when generating or evaluating. Every candidate must pass these. |
| phonosemantics.md | Refinement — sound-matching for choosing between candidates that pass the principles |
| anti-patterns.md | When filtering candidates |
| metaphor-mapping.md | When exploring conceptual territories |
| cultural-references.md | When considering mythology, literature, or science references |
| brand-architecture.md | When naming within a product family |
| language-rules.md | When using foreign words or non-English source languages |
| availability.md | When checking platform availability |
| case-studies.md | When studying real-world naming examples |
| evaluation.md | When scoring and comparing finalists |
| languages/INDEX.md | When naming for a non-English audience — see index for available languages |
| industries/INDEX.md | When naming for a specific industry — see index for available guides |
| open-source.md | When naming an open source project — CLI, registry, and community constraints |
| taglines.md | When crafting taglines for finalists |