hook-generator

name	hook-generator
description	Generates attention-hijacking hooks for social media posts, ads, emails, sales pages, and video content. Scores every hook against a 100-point rubric and only delivers hooks that score 90+. Use when asked to write hooks, headlines, attention-grabbers, scroll-stoppers, pattern interrupts, opening lines, subject lines, or thumbnail text.

<essential_principles>

The Dean Graziosi Principle: The Hook Is the Only Thing That Matters

Dean Graziosi spent a fortune recreating a Larry King set and filming the perfect interview. It bombed. The opening sentence was about HIM: "Tonight on Larry King, I'm here with my guest Dean Graziosi..."

He rebuilt the set, flew Larry back, and changed ONLY the opening sentence to: "Have you ever in your adult life looked at yourself in the mirror and thought 'I should be further ahead by now?'"

That single sentence change turned a failure into a machine that sold millions. A mediocre hook with brilliant content fails. A brilliant hook with mediocre content wins. The hook is everything.

The Attention War

You are not competing with other marketers. You are competing with Netflix, 5 billion daily YouTube videos, 700,000 podcasts, every ex posting vacation photos, and a newsfeed engineered by billion-dollar algorithms. Your hook must be so disruptive that it creates a pattern interrupt in a brain processing 50,000 thoughts per day.

Open Loops Are Everything

The number one failure mode of hooks is being complete thoughts. A hook must create unbearable curiosity. If someone can walk away satisfied without reading more, the loop is not open enough. See references/open-loop-techniques.md for the full playbook.

The Quality Standard

Every hook MUST score 90+ on the 100-point Jaw-Drop Rubric or be automatically regenerated. No exceptions. The five criteria:

1. Pattern Interrupt (25 pts) -- Would this stop someone mid-conversation with their spouse?
2. Specificity & Credibility (20 pts) -- Could a competitor copy-paste this unchanged? If yes, it is not specific enough.
3. Emotional Voltage (20 pts) -- Does this hit a nerve so deep they feel SEEN?
4. Open Loop Tension (20 pts) -- Could someone walk away satisfied without reading more? If yes, the loop is not open enough.
5. Target Lock Precision (15 pts) -- Does the ideal customer feel called out while non-customers self-select out?

Full rubric with scoring bands: references/jaw-drop-rubric.md

The 70-20-10 Generation Rule

When generating hooks, always produce 10+ across multiple categories:

• 7 hooks (70%): Proven, reliable structures from the Hormozi categories
• 2 hooks (20%): Emerging or adapted formats -- trend-jacking, cross-niche adaptation
• 1 hook (10%): High-risk "burn the boats" hook -- polarizing, controversial, completely novel

Anti-Patterns: Never Do These

• Generic hooks that could apply to anyone
• Corporate-speak or buzzwords (see the copywriting skill's banned words list)
• Hooks that give away the punchline (the whole point is to NOT complete the thought)
• Safe, forgettable openings
• Hooks that require context to understand
• Anything that sounds like "Hey guys, welcome to..."
• Claims without specificity
• Hooks your competitor could copy-paste unchanged

</essential_principles>

What do you need hooks for?

Provide as much of this as you can:

1. Topic or offer -- What are we hooking people into? (A post, an ad, a sales page, a video, an email, a webinar)
2. Target audience -- Who specifically are we trying to stop mid-scroll? What keeps them up at 3 AM? What do they secretly want?
3. Platform -- Where will these hooks appear? (LinkedIn, Facebook, X/Twitter, Email, YouTube, Ads, VSL/Webinar, or General)
4. Emotional core -- What primary emotion should the hook target? (Fear, desire, anger, hope, curiosity, shame, pride)
5. Existing content -- Do you have draft content, notes, or a transcript to hook?

If target audience is unclear, ASK: "Before I generate hooks that make jaws drop, I need to know: Who specifically are we trying to stop mid-scroll? What keeps them up at 3 AM? What do they secretly want that they won't admit out loud?"

If only a topic is provided: Infer the most likely audience and emotional core, state your assumptions, and generate. Offer to regenerate with more specific targeting.

<reference_index> Detailed guidance in references/:

• hook-categories.md -- All 10 Hormozi hook categories with examples, when to use each, and fill-in-the-blank formulas
• jaw-drop-rubric.md -- Full 100-point scoring system with detailed scoring bands for each of the 5 criteria
• open-loop-techniques.md -- How to create unbearable curiosity gaps: withholding techniques, cognitive dissonance, incomplete information patterns, the "but that's not the interesting part" construction
• platform-adaptations.md -- Platform-specific hook rules for LinkedIn, Facebook, X/Twitter, Email, YouTube, Ads, and VSL/Webinar
• legendary-hooks.md -- Swipe file of the best hooks from Hormozi, Suby, Graziosi, Gary Halbert, John Caples, David Ogilvy, Eugene Schwartz -- real examples with analysis of why they work </reference_index>

<workflows_index>

Workflow	Purpose
generate-hooks.md	Full hook generation process: analyze input, generate 10+ hooks across categories, score each against the rubric, regenerate if below 90, present top 3 with reasoning
</workflows_index>

<integration_with_other_skills> This skill works best when paired with:

• copywriting -- Once you have winning hooks, the copywriting skill writes the body copy they lead into. The hook-generator creates the opening; copywriting delivers on the promise.
• brand-voice -- If a brand voice guide exists, hooks must match it. Feed the voice guide into the hook generation process to ensure hooks sound like the brand, not like generic direct response.
• belief-based-marketing -- The belief map tells you which beliefs need to shift. Hooks that target those specific beliefs convert harder because they hit existing mental tension.
• buyer-persona -- A detailed buyer persona makes Target Lock Precision scores go from 10 to 15. The more you know about who you are stopping mid-scroll, the sharper the hook.
• offer-definition -- Knowing the Product (transformation) vs. Vehicle (delivery) helps write hooks that tease the result without revealing the mechanism -- which is the core of a strong open loop.
• competitive-analysis -- Know what hooks competitors use so you can say it differently. If every competitor leads with "5 ways to...", your hooks must break that pattern.

When these skills have been used, reference their outputs. When they have not, gather the minimum: who is the audience, what do they want, what is the offer. </integration_with_other_skills>

<success_criteria> Hooks produced by this skill:

• Score 90+ on the Jaw-Drop Rubric (Pattern Interrupt, Specificity, Emotional Voltage, Open Loop Tension, Target Lock)
• Create such unbearable curiosity that NOT reading more feels like a loss
• Are specific enough that a competitor could not copy-paste them unchanged
• Make the target audience feel seen -- like you are reading their mind
• Work on the specified platform (character limits, format rules, audience expectations)
• Follow the 70-20-10 distribution (7 proven, 2 emerging, 1 high-risk)
• Deliver at least 3 hooks scoring 90+ or automatically regenerate until they do
• Sound like a real person, not a marketing department </success_criteria>