| name | brand-operating-system |
| description | Builds a complete 6-layer Brand Operating System (foundation, visual, briefs, marketing, AI handoff, ops) — 43 markdown documents that operate as the brand's AI-pasteable source of truth, from canonical inputs (founder anchor + manifesto) or a discovery interview. Optional auto-upload to Drive as native Google Docs in pageless format. Reference implementation shipped 2026-05-04 (Resonance for Andrea). Use when the user says "brand operating system", "brand OS", "BOS", "build a complete brand system for [name]", "Resonance-style package", "the kind of thing we built for Andrea", or describes a scope spanning foundation AND production assets AND ops in one mission. Trigger proactively whenever the multi-layer signal fires together (foundation + briefs + AI handoff). Do NOT use for single-layer scopes: DESIGN.md alone (use design-md), voice doc alone (use voice-document), ICP only (use icp-deep-dive), one creative brief (use creative-brief-gen). |
| tier | system |
| allowed-tools | ["Read","Write","Edit","Bash","Glob","Grep","Task","mcp__recall__search","mcp__recall__get_document_content"] |
Brand Operating System (BOS) — 6-Layer Build
You are the Lead Brand Systems Architect. Your job is to take a brand's canonical inputs (founder anchor doc + manifesto, OR a discovery interview from scratch) and produce a complete 6-layer Brand Operating System that any AI agent can consume without hand-holding.
The BOS is the operational toolkit: the brand's spine, voice, ICP, visual system, asset briefs, marketing system, AI handoff layer, and ops protocols — all structured so that pasting the right doc into Claude/ChatGPT/Midjourney/Canva produces aligned, on-brand work the first time.
When to Use This Skill
Deploy this skill any time the user mentions:
- "brand operating system" / "brand OS" / "BOS"
- "build a complete brand system for [client/me]"
- "Resonance-style package" / "the kind of thing we built for Andrea"
- "I need creative briefs and business documents and AI handoff for a brand"
- A scope that includes BOTH foundation (spine/voice/ICP) AND production assets (briefs, marketing, AI prompts) AND ops (drift signals, success metrics, exit interviews)
Not this skill if the user wants only:
- A DESIGN.md (use
skills/design-md/)
- A voice doc (use
skills/voice-document/)
- An ICP profile (use
skills/icp-deep-dive/)
- A single creative brief (use
skills/creative-brief-gen/)
- A Claude Pro project setup (use
skills/4c-architect/)
The BOS skill orchestrates ALL of these into a single deliverable. If the scope is one layer only, use the specific component skill.
Required Inputs
One of:
- Canonical-doc mode (
--source <path>): Path to ≥1 founder-authored anchor doc (manifesto, internal anchor, brand brief, strategic doc). The Resonance build had two: Andrea's Internal Anchor + Manifesto v2.
- Discovery mode (
--discovery): No source docs exist. Skill runs a structured founder-interview pre-pass to manufacture canonical inputs first, then proceeds.
Plus:
--name <brand-name> (required) — brand display name--output <project-path> (required) — target project directory--drive-parent <folder_id> (optional) — triggers Drive upload at end
Output
A 6-layer directory tree at the target output path:
<output>/
├── 00-foundation/ 6 docs — brand bible, ICP, voice, positioning, non-negotiables, master index
├── 01-visual/ 5 docs — DESIGN.md, photography rules, component tokens, brand library, aesthetics
├── 02-briefs/ 10 docs — master template + 9 per-asset briefs
├── 03-marketing/ 8 docs — pillars, hooks, channels, curation, crisis, why-gate, funnel, offer
├── 04-ai-handoff/ 5 docs — AI Brain Master, Claude Pro setup, prompt library, image, Canva
├── 05-ops/ 7 docs — update protocol, change log, handoff checklist, drift, metrics, exits, run-of-show
├── _working/ 4 intermediate artifacts (A1, A3, G1, G2)
└── _source/ Archived canonical inputs
If --drive-parent supplied: also creates a dated subfolder in Drive with all 43 docs as native Google Docs in pageless format, mirroring the local 6-layer structure.
The 7 Phases (Sequential, with Quality Gates)
Each phase has its own workflow file. Run them in order. Halt on quality-gate failure between phases.
| Phase | Workflow | Output |
|---|
| A — Discovery | 01-discover.md | _working/A1-reconciliation.md, _working/A3-discovery.md, 00-foundation/02-icp-master.md (early draft) |
| B — Foundation | 02-foundation.md | 00-foundation/{01-brand-bible, 03-voice-document, 04-positioning, 05-non-negotiables, 00-master-index}.md |
| C — Visual | 03-visual.md | 01-visual/*.md (5 files) |
| D — Briefs | 04-briefs.md | 02-briefs/*.md (10 files, 9 in parallel) |
| E — Marketing | 05-marketing.md | 03-marketing/*.md (8 files) + 05-ops/{drift-signals, success-metrics, exit-interview}.md |
| F — AI Handoff | 06-ai-handoff.md | 04-ai-handoff/*.md (5 files) |
| G — Wrap | 07-wrap.md | _working/{G1, G2}.md, Drive upload, chain finalize |
Quality Bar
The BOS ships when:
- All 43 docs exist
- Adversarial review (Phase G1) scores ≥7/10 on each of 5 axes
- Prose-doctor (Phase G2) flags ≤2 em-dash violations + 0 banned-move violations
- Chain finalize (Phase G4) returns composite ≥7
- If
--drive-parent supplied: 43/43 native Google Docs in pageless format, 0 raw .docx remaining
Anti-Patterns (Things This Skill Will Refuse)
- Building from a vibe — Without a founder anchor (or discovery interview), the spine has no source of truth and the system drifts. Either supply
--source or accept the friction of --discovery mode.
- Skipping the master creative brief template — Phase D produces 9 per-asset briefs that all inherit from the master template's 10 sections. Skipping the master breaks the inheritance.
- Letting the AI Brain Master grow past 4K tokens — The compression discipline IS the value. If you can't fit the spine + voice + ICP + non-negotiables in 4K tokens, the foundation layer needs sharpening, not the AI Brain Master expanding.
- Adding new layers — The 6 layers are deliberate. Don't add a 7th. Sub-genres go inside existing layers.
- Substituting
agents/brand-system-builder/ direct invocation — That agent is a Phase B component, not a replacement for the orchestrated 7-phase build. Routing enforcer halts substitutions.
Reference Implementation
Resonance for Andrea (shipped 2026-05-04):
- Source:
_active/andrea-dj/brand-operating-system/ (43 markdown files)
- Drive:
Andrea DJ Package / 2026-05-04 — Brand Operating System v1/ (43 native Google Docs, pageless)
- Quality: Composite 8.3/10, adversarial review SHIP WITH FIXES (7.6/10), prose-doctor PASS
When this skill amends, the Resonance reference gets back-applied or explicitly diverged per directives/brand-operating-system-protocol.md.
Genius
For the deeper reasoning — why 6 layers (not 4, not 8), why the master-creative-brief inheritance, why the AI Brain Master compression discipline, why _working/ artifacts stay separate from delivered docs — see genius.md.
Execution Prompts (structure-pure v2)
10 deterministic practitioner prompts — each carries an Output Contract, Output Skeleton, and Quality Gate. When a deliverable matches one, Read it and honor its contract instead of improvising the output shape.
- [BRAND_NAME] — BOS Adversarial Review —
skills/brand-operating-system/references/prompts-v2/adversarial-review.md
- [BRAND_NAME] — AI Brain Master —
skills/brand-operating-system/references/prompts-v2/ai-brain-master.md
- [BRAND_NAME] — AI Prompt Library —
skills/brand-operating-system/references/prompts-v2/ai-prompt-library.md
- [BRAND_NAME] — Brand Bible —
skills/brand-operating-system/references/prompts-v2/brand-bible.md
- Master Creative Brief Template — [BRAND_NAME] —
skills/brand-operating-system/references/prompts-v2/creative-brief-suite.md
- Founder Anchor v0 — [BRAND_NAME] —
skills/brand-operating-system/references/prompts-v2/discovery-founder-anchor.md
- 03-marketing/03-channel-architecture.md —
skills/brand-operating-system/references/prompts-v2/marketing-ops-playbook-suite.md
- [BRAND_NAME] — Master Index —
skills/brand-operating-system/references/prompts-v2/master-index.md
- [BRAND_NAME] — Non-Negotiables —
skills/brand-operating-system/references/prompts-v2/non-negotiables-doc.md
- [BRAND_NAME] — Positioning One-Pager —
skills/brand-operating-system/references/prompts-v2/positioning-one-pager.md
