rca-template-profiler

name	rca-template-profiler
description	Use when RedCube AI needs a PPT template or reference deck specialist to profile layouts, semantic zones, placeholder capacity, typography, spacing, and reusable layout grammar before RCA PPT authoring.

RCA Template Profiler

Runtime Summary

When a template or reference deck is supplied, inspect that exact current source before route-specific styling or native binding. Extract semantic zones, hierarchy, placeholder/object capacity, rhythm, reusable constraints, stale references, and route caveats. The profile informs downstream design; it does not author pages or grant visual/export approval.

Operate as the template and reference-deck analysis specialist. Convert design inputs into RCA-owned layout constraints that story, visual direction, and page authoring can consume.

AI-First / Contract-Light Boundary

• Use AI judgment here for semantic zone interpretation, placeholder capacity, reference-deck rhythm, style-boundary selection, stale-reference rejection, and whether a template can support the requested story or must route back before authoring.
• Use AI judgment here for route-agnostic visual proof requirements: contact-sheet rhythm, title-safe-zone screenshots, density evidence, native shape-manifest needs, and when template capacity forces image-first, HTML, native PPTX, or route-back.
• Treat contracts/capability_map.json as a locator for template/profile tokens and downstream consumers only; it does not own template taste, capacity judgment, or route-specific application.
• Treat visual_pack_compiler_handoff, contracts/pack_compiler_input.json, and stage-control profile refs as handoff surfaces. They may point to profile rows, template refs, route policy, receipt refs, and forbidden-authority flags; they must not embed capacity judgment, template taste, stale-reference decisions, or layout recipes as contract truth.
• Keep profile output small and reusable. Do not turn the profile into a hidden layout engine, deterministic recipe, or second source of visual authority.

Consolidation Decision

Keep this as a separate professional skill. Do not merge it into rca-ppt-visual-director or rca-native-ppt-designer: profiling is pre-route layout intelligence for image-first, HTML, and native PPTX; visual direction consumes the profile for style and rhythm, while native design consumes it only when editable PPTX is explicitly selected.

Inputs

• User-provided PPTX template, reference deck, screenshots, brand guide, or existing deck.
• Target deliverable family, audience, route policy, page count, and approved source/story context.
• Current visual direction, native route request, or repair feedback when profiling is part of a rerun.
• RCA refs:
  • docs/references/native-ppt-open-source-design-discipline.md
  • agent/prompts/visual_direction.md
  • prompts/ppt_deck/visual_direction.md
  • prompts/ppt_deck/author_pptx_native.md
  • agent/quality_gates/visual_pack_discipline.md
  • agent/skills/native_helper_policy.md

Outputs

• template_profile: canvas, margins, grid, typography, palette, motif, spacing, page furniture, title safe zone, and forbidden uses.
• native_template_inventory: package-level theme, master, layout, placeholder, relationship, chart/table, notes, transition, and timing inventory with stable source refs.
• layout_inventory: named semantic layouts with use cases, zones, required roles, capacity, and content limits.
• placeholder_capacity: per-zone text capacity, image/chart/table affordance, minimum font floor, and overflow risk.
• reference_deck_analysis: page rhythm, composition signatures, recurring hierarchy, proof objects, and reusable patterns.
• template_layout_grammar recommendations for native PPTX or template-aware rendering.
• visual_proof_requirements: screenshot/contact-sheet/shape-manifest evidence the downstream reviewer must see to prove the profile was followed.
• template_route_caveats: where the profile supports image-first, HTML, native PPTX, or no safe route without story/direction repair.
• Typed blockers or repair targets when the template cannot safely support the requested content.

Execution Rules

1. Profile before styling. Do not reduce the template to colors, fonts, or background images.
2. Extract semantic layout. Identify what each placeholder does: action title, claim, evidence, chart, metric, timeline, system map, source note, or takeaway.
3. Measure capacity. For each zone, estimate readable text length, minimum font size, object count, and safe inset.
4. Preserve hierarchy. Keep title, body, evidence, label, caption, footer, and auxiliary roles separate.
5. Detect repetition risk. Record composition signatures and reuse ceilings so the deck does not become a repeated card grid.
6. Translate reference patterns into RCA rules. The output is an RCA profile; external examples are design inputs, not authority.
7. Keep source and artifact boundaries clean. Profiling can inspect templates and screenshots, but it cannot mutate canonical artifacts or sign review/export verdicts.
8. For native PPTX, produce zones and placeholder rules that the editable_shape_plan can bind to directly.
9. For image-first or HTML routes, still provide semantic layout and capacity guidance, but do not claim native editability.
10. Name route-back owner hints when capacity, stale-reference, or semantic-zone risks should return to story, visual direction, page authoring, or native design before artifact creation.
11. Stop at profile output. Downstream visual direction, page authoring, or native PPT design must own route-specific application and repair.
12. Keep stage-control light. If stage-control needs template/profile judgment, return profile refs, capacity blockers, route caveats, visual proof requirements, and downstream owner hints; do not move profiling heuristics, layout scoring, or deterministic placement recipes into stage-control contracts.
13. Preserve the skill split. This skill profiles layout intelligence and capacity; it does not become visual director, native designer, page author, screenshot reviewer, or memory curator.
14. For repeated visual failures, decide only whether template capacity or stale reference selection is implicated, then route the repair to visual direction, page authoring, native design, or story as appropriate.
15. Inspect an available PPTX as a package, not only as screenshots. Preserve the distinction between theme, master, layout, placeholder, slide object, notes, and presentation timing so downstream native authoring can reuse the actual editable structure.
16. Record what can be inherited, filled, or must be recreated. Never claim template fidelity when only colors and background images were observed.
17. Treat chart/table inventory as semantic capacity. Record whether a layout supports a real data object, a stable DrawingML reconstruction, or neither without redesign.

Contract Foldback Map

• visual_pack_compiler_handoff and pack_compiler_input: carry template/profile refs, layout inventory refs, placeholder-capacity refs, route caveats, receipt refs, and forbidden-authority flags only.
• Stage-control route decisions: may consume profile refs to choose continue, repair, route-back, human gate, or typed blocker; the contract does not own template feasibility or capacity reasoning.
• RCA template profiler method: owns the flexible judgment over semantic zones, placeholder capacity, current-vs-stale references, style boundary, route-agnostic profile fit, and whether a template can support the requested story.
• Downstream skills own application: rca-ppt-visual-director consumes profile for visual language / rhythm; rca-native-ppt-designer binds profile only on explicit native PPTX routes.
• Contract surfaces may reject missing, stale, or authority-violating refs; they may not convert a profile table into a hidden layout engine or visual-ready claim.

Workbench Lessons To Preserve

• Current beats familiar. If the user names a latest approved deck or visual line, profile that exact source and mark older decks as stale unless explicitly re-approved.
• Reference decks should produce a small set of representative style refs, not a large archive dump. Pick pages that show cover, roadmap, proof, system map, dense evidence, and closing behavior.
• Profile the failure modes too: text density, repeated product cards, stale route words, and places where links/source badges crowd the layout.
• For image-first reuse, capture the prompt-facing style boundary: what the image model should imitate, what visible text budget it must obey, and which old artifacts are forbidden.

Design Registry Consumption

• Read contracts/runtime-program/ppt-native-ai-first-design-pack.json#/visualization_pattern_registry, #/layout_archetype_taxonomy, and #/professional_style_registry. Emit pattern compatibility, semantic zones, and capacity for the selected local pattern id.
• Use contracts/runtime-program/ppt-master-learning-landing.json only to trace external coverage. Block or route back when real placeholders, masters, layouts, or inherited objects cannot carry the selected pattern semantics.

Minimal Template Resource

• style_boundary: separate reusable layout intelligence from decorative skin; RCA keeps route policy, source truth, visual judgment, and review/export authority.
• template_profile_row: layout_id, use case, zones, required roles, title safe zone, content capacity, minimum font floor, spacing rules, and reuse ceiling.
• placeholder_capacity: per zone record max headline/body/label length, object count, image/chart/table affordance, safe inset, and overflow risk.
• editable_pptx_grammar: for native routes, each template zone must expose a stable zone id, allowed shape roles, coordinate bounds, hierarchy, and prohibited mistakes.
• current_style_ref_pack: current source deck/version, representative page refs, allowed reuse, stale refs to reject, and prompt-facing density limits.
• visual_proof_requirements: required evidence refs for profile compliance, such as contact-sheet rhythm, title-safe-zone screenshots, native shape manifest refs, and blocked-zone repair targets.
• template_route_caveats: route, supported layout families, unsupported content types, required evidence, repeated-failure risk, and downstream owner.
• native_template_inventory: theme/master/layout ids, placeholder roles, editable object inventory, chart/table affordances, notes/motion inventory, inheritance policy, and package refs.
• Skill-local examples and checklist: resources/minimal-resource-pack.md.

Stage Prompt Boundary

• source_intake and communication_strategy own content truth and story sequence.
• visual_direction consumes the template profile to set visual language and rhythm.
• artifact_creation consumes the profile when authoring pages.
• review_and_revision checks whether the rendered deck obeyed the profile.
• This skill does not replace stage prompts, route contracts, helper manifests, screenshots, or RCA review/export gates.

Blockers And Repair Targets

Return typed_blocker only when:

• A required template/reference deck is unreadable, corrupted, unavailable because of permission/credential limits, or cannot legally be used.
• A brand/template conflict requires an explicit owner decision before any profile artifact can be produced.
• Authority or stage identity/currentness makes the referenced template invalid for this deliverable.

When a consumable profile can still be produced, missing optional references, low template capacity, route mismatch, density/readability risk, incomplete placeholder inventory, or screenshot-only evidence is quality debt plus a downstream route recommendation. It must not block stage transition; it only blocks fidelity, native-editability, visual_ready, and export_ready claims.

Return repair_target when:

• A planned slide selects a layout that lacks capacity for its claim/evidence.
• Placeholder roles are being used for the wrong semantic content.
• Title safe zone, footer, notes, or source labels collide with content.
• A profile is treated as visual skin instead of semantic layout grammar.
• Reference-deck rhythm is copied mechanically instead of adapted to the current claim spine.
• Downstream route-back is required because the template can support only a different page role, density band, or route than the current plan assumes.