brand-studio-forge

name	brand-studio-forge
description	Use when the user wants to create, refine, or evolve a brand identity. Covers brand interviews, identity kit generation (logo, color, type, voice, guidelines), brand-specific content skills, and ongoing content via cron. Not for UI design or non-brand creative tasks.
version	1.0.0
user-invocable	true
argument-hint	[interview · forge · name · evolve · author | critique · audit | polish | content · schedule] [target]
license	MIT
allowed-tools	["Bash(python3 forge/scripts/*.py *)","Bash(bash forge/scripts/setup.sh)"]

Generates and evolves brand identities, then authors brand-specific skills that produce ongoing content.

Setup (non-optional)

Before any brand design or file edits, pass these gates. Skipping them produces generic output that ignores the brand.

Gate	Required check	If fail
Context	BrandProfile JSON exists and was loaded	Run /forge_interview or python3 forge/scripts/interview.py
Brand	PRODUCT.md exists with personality words, positioning, anti-references	Run /forge_interview, then resume
Mode	One of: identity / content / evolve identified from task cue	Identify mode before continuing
Image	API key for at least one image provider exists in ~/.forge/keys.json	Ask user for Gemini or OpenAI API key via keystore prompt
Mutation	All active gates above pass	Do not edit project files yet

Codex-style agents must state this before editing files:

FORGE_PREFLIGHT: context=pass brand=pass mode=identity|content|evolve image_gate=pass|skipped:<reason> mutation=open

Context gathering

Two files, loaded from the project root under forge/.

• PRODUCT.md — required. Brand name, industry, personality, positioning, anti-references.
• DESIGN.md — optional, strongly recommended. Color tokens, typography, voice rules, logo specifications.

Both are produced by the forge_interview and forge_forge commands. Load PRODUCT.md directly. DESIGN.md is populated after forge_forge generates the identity kit.

python3 forge/scripts/interview.py

If PRODUCT.md is missing: run /forge_interview, then resume the user's original task with fresh context.

If DESIGN.md is missing: nudge once per session, then proceed.

Mode selection

Three modes derived from the brand identity lifecycle. Priority: (1) task cue ("create a brand" → identity, "write a post" → content, "make this bolder" → evolve); (2) BrandProfile state (incomplete → identity, complete → content/evolve); (3) explicit user declaration. First match wins.

Mode	When	Reference files loaded
identity	Creating brand from scratch	color-theory.md, typography-voice.md, voice.md, logo-and-mark.md, identity-system.md, strategy.md
content	Generating ongoing branded content	voice.md, tone-and-copy.md, mood-vocabulary.md
evolve	Refining existing identity	identity-system.md, anti-slop.md, touchpoints.md

Shared design laws

Apply to every brand identity the skill generates. Vary across brands. Never converge on the same choices.

Color

• Use OKLCH. Reduce chroma as lightness approaches 0 or 100.
• Never use #000 or #fff. Tint every neutral toward the brand hue.
• Pick a color strategy before picking colors. Four steps on the commitment axis:
  • Restrained — tinted neutrals + one accent ≤10%. Corporate, professional services.
  • Committed — one saturated color carries 30–60% of the surface. Most consumer brands.
  • Full palette — 3–4 named roles, each used deliberately. Fashion, lifestyle, food.
  • Drenched — the surface IS the color. Entertainment, youth, disruptive brands.
• Category-aware: never pick the same primary color as the brand's top 3 competitors.

Typography

Font selection follows a 4-step procedure:

1. Write three concrete brand-voice words (physical-object words, not "modern" or "elegant").
2. List the three fonts you'd reach for by reflex. If any are on the reflex-reject list, reject them.
3. Browse a real catalog with the three words in mind. Find the font as a physical object.
4. Cross-check. If the final pick lines up with the original reflex, start over.

Reflex-reject fonts (training-data defaults): Fraunces · Newsreader · Lora · Crimson · Crimson Pro · Playfair Display · Cormorant · Cormorant Garamond · Syne · IBM Plex Mono · IBM Plex Sans · Space Mono · Space Grotesk · Inter · DM Sans · DM Serif Display · Outfit · Plus Jakarta Sans · Instrument Sans · Instrument Serif.

Reflex-reject aesthetic lanes:

• Tech-minimal blue. Blue primary, white background, Inter/DM Sans, rounded corners, gradient accents.
• Editorial-magazine. Display serif italic + small mono labels + ruled separators + monochromatic restraint.
• DTC pastel. Soft pinks, lavender, mint, rounded everything, script accents.

Voice

• Brand voice is constant. Tone shifts by context. Style is execution.
• Every generated copy must pass the voice-consistency check: remove the brand name — can you still tell which brand this belongs to?
• No "elevate", "empower", "seamless", "leverage", "innovative", "cutting-edge" — these are AI-branding tells.

Absolute bans

Match-and-refuse. If generated output contains any of these, rewrite.

• Side-stripe borders. border-left/right > 1px as colored accent.
• Gradient text. background-clip: text with gradient.
• Glassmorphism as default. Blurs and glass cards used decoratively.
• The hero-metric template. Big number, small label, gradient accent.
• Identical card grids. Same-sized cards repeated endlessly.
• Purple-blue gradients. The single most common AI brand cliché.
• "Empower" word family. elevate, seamless, leverage, innovative, cutting-edge, transform, unlock.

The AI slop test

If someone could look at this brand identity and say "AI made that" without doubt, it's failed.

First-order check: Can someone guess the color palette from the industry alone? "fintech → navy + gold", "wellness → sage + cream", "tech startup → blue + white" — rework until the answer isn't obvious from the category.

Second-order check: Can someone guess the aesthetic family from category-plus-anti-references? "coffee brand that's not brown → editorial-typographic cream", "SaaS that's not blue → terminal-dark mono" — the trap one tier deeper. Rework until both answers are not obvious.

Commands

All commands use forge_<subcommand> format (underscore-delimited) for Telegram bot compatibility. Spaces are not supported in Telegram slash commands.

Command	Category	Description	Reference
forge_interview	Create	Discover brand through multi-round questioning	references/interview.md
forge_forge	Create	Generate identity kit from brand profile	references/process.md
forge_name	Create	Brand naming and tagline generation	references/naming.md
forge_evolve	Create	Refine existing identity kit	references/identity-system.md
forge_author	Create	Write brand-specific .py skill to disk	references/skill-authoring.md
forge_critique	Evaluate	Brand identity review with heuristic scoring	references/anti-slop.md
forge_audit	Evaluate	Check identity kit completeness and consistency	references/identity-system.md
forge_polish	Refine	Final quality pass on brand collateral	references/grid-and-layout.md
forge_content	Generate	Generate brand-voice social/marketing content	references/tone-and-copy.md
forge_schedule	Generate	Set up NL cron for brand content	references/process.md

Routing rules

1. No argument — render the table above as the user-facing command menu, grouped by category. Ask what they'd like to do.
2. Argument starts with forge_ — strip the forge_ prefix, extract the subcommand, and load its reference file. Everything after forge_<subcommand> is the target context. Only the underscore-delimited format is valid for routing; bare subcommand names are never matched to avoid collisions with other skills.
3. No match — general invocation. Apply the setup steps, shared design laws, and the loaded mode reference, using the full argument as context.

Setup (context gathering, mode selection) is already loaded by then; sub-commands don't re-run the skill.

Hermes-specific

delegate_task: The forge_forge command fans out to 4 parallel children via delegate_task with max_spawn_depth=2. Child 1 loads color-theory.md and generates the palette. Child 2 loads typography-voice.md and selects fonts. Child 3 loads voice.md and defines the voice. Child 4 loads logo-and-mark.md and constructs logo prompts. Each child writes partial results to the shared filesystem. The parent merges and validates via src/identity_kit.py.

FTS5 recall: Cross-session brand memory via python3 forge/scripts/recall.py --search "<query>". Example use: "make it more like the coffee brand from last month" searches FTS5 index, retrieves the previous brand profile as reference.

NL cron: Recurring content scheduling via python3 forge/scripts/schedule.py. Hermes' built-in scheduler runs the generated brand_<name>_content.py skill on the specified cadence. Example: "Post Instagram captions every Tuesday at 9am" registers the cron job.

Self-evolving skills: The centerpiece. After forge_forge completes an identity kit, src/skill_forge.py writes brand_<name>_content.py to ~/.hermes/skills/. This file is a standalone Hermes skill containing baked brand constants, generate_content(), generate_weekly_calendar(), and get_brand_info(). The skill IS the deliverable. File tree shows a new .py appearing live. Next cron run uses that skill to generate authentic brand-voice content.

API key persistence: On first forge_forge invocation, if no image provider key is found in ~/.forge/keys.json, the agent MUST ask the user for at least one key (Gemini or OpenAI). Store via KeyStore.save(). Keys are reused across sessions — never re-ask if keys already exist. Supported providers: gemini (Google Gemini 3.1 Flash Image / Nano Banana 2), chatgpt (OpenAI GPT Image 2).