diligence-brand-guidelines

name	diligence-brand-guidelines
description	Apply The Diligence Stack visual identity, source attribution, citation format, and canonical-link policy to user-facing content created from Diligence Stack research. Use whenever this plugin creates or edits prose, documents, decks, spreadsheets, charts, dashboards, web pages, images, exports, or other deliverables; use the visual defaults unless the user explicitly requests different styling.

Diligence Stack Brand Guidelines

Apply this contract to every user-facing artifact produced from Diligence Stack information. A user may explicitly request different visual styling, but the attribution, citation-integrity, access, and canonical-link rules still apply.

Brand identity

• Use The Diligence Stack on first reference and Diligence Stack thereafter.
• Use The Diligence Stack by Creative Strategies for a masthead, colophon, or source note.
• Favor an evidence-first editorial character: clear hierarchy, generous white space, strong tables, restrained decoration, and visible uncertainty.
• Do not invent a shortened brand name, alter the wordmark, or imply that separately entitled third-party research is the Diligence Stack house view.

Color system

Role	Color	Use
Diligence Orange	#FF6719	Primary accent, key data series, rules, highlights, and calls to action
Deep Orange	#FF5600	Hover or pressed state only
Stack Gold	#FBBB14	Limited secondary accent and second chart series
Charcoal	#363737	Headings and primary text
Dark Gray	#515151	Accessible secondary text
Medium Gray	#868787	Large metadata or decorative text only
Surface Gray	#F0F0F0	Panels, table bands, and quiet backgrounds
Border Gray	#E6E6E6	Dividers, gridlines, and borders
White	#FFFFFF	Default background and negative space

Use Orange, Gold, Charcoal, #929292, and #B7B7B7 in that order for multi-series charts. Directly label series and add markers or patterns so meaning never depends on color alone. Keep body text Charcoal on White; do not use small white text on Orange or small Medium Gray text on White. Do not introduce unrelated decorative colors unless the user explicitly requests a different palette.

Typography and layout

• Use Inter for headings, body text, labels, and data; fall back to Arial, Helvetica, then sans-serif.
• Use sentence case, compact headings, left-aligned prose, and tabular numerals for financial or operating data.
• Keep charts flat, clean, and annotation-led. Use light gridlines, minimal borders, and Orange only for the evidence or series that deserves attention.
• Prefer one strong conclusion per page or panel. Preserve ranges, dates, units, source notes, and confidence near the relevant claim.

Official assets

• Use the horizontal wordmark for wide mastheads on White.
• Use the stacked logo for square or portrait placements.
• Use the Creative Strategies mark only where a compact icon is needed.
• Preserve each asset's aspect ratio, colors, clear space, and background treatment. Do not crop, stretch, recolor, trace, or reconstruct it.

Attribution and citations

Attribute every material claim derived from the MCP to The Diligence Stack and retain the title, date, locator, evidence ID, and access class. Use these visible formats:

• House research: The Diligence Stack — “{title},” {publication or source date}, {section or page} (Evidence {id}).
• Separately entitled research: Accessed via The Diligence Stack — {publisher}, “{title},” {date}, {locator} (private; Evidence {id}).
• Artifact source note: Research and citations: The Diligence Stack by Creative Strategies.

Preserve the true original publisher for licensed or primary material; access through The Diligence Stack does not transfer authorship. Cite non-Diligence Stack primary material used alongside the corpus by source name, date, and locator in plain text. Never fabricate a citation, public page, or link.

Canonical link policy

In generated deliverables, emit an external hyperlink only when its scheme is https and its exact hostname is www.thediligencestack.com.

• Link a citation only when the MCP returns a matching public canonical Diligence Stack page. Remove tracking parameters.
• When no allowed public page exists, keep the citation as unlinked text with its evidence ID and locator.
• Never emit portal, MCP, authenticated-original, admin, Substack, publisher, vendor, data-room, or other third-party links.
• Never rewrite or relabel a disallowed URL to make it appear to be a Diligence Stack URL.
• Request original_link internally when it helps verification, but do not expose it unless it already satisfies this exact allowlist.

Delivery check

Before delivery, verify that:

1. Visual content uses this palette, typography, and the unmodified official assets unless the user requested different styling.
2. Every material Diligence Stack-derived claim has visible Diligence Stack attribution and a traceable evidence record.
3. Private and third-party sources remain correctly labeled and access-safe.
4. Every emitted external hyperlink uses https://www.thediligencestack.com; unavailable citations are unlinked.
5. No portal, MCP, authenticated, or third-party URL appears in the artifact.