brand-voice

name	brand-voice
description	Build a source-derived writing style profile from real posts, essays, launch notes, docs, or site copy, then reuse that profile across content, outreach, and social workflows. Use when the user wants voice consistency across writing work without generic AI tropes. Do NOT use for drafting the content itself — that is article-writing / content-engine; this skill only produces the reusable VOICE PROFILE they consume.
origin	ECC

Brand Voice

Build a durable voice profile from real source material, then use that profile everywhere instead of re-deriving style from scratch or defaulting to generic AI copy.

When to use

• the user wants content or outreach in a specific voice
• writing for X, LinkedIn, email, launch posts, threads, or product updates needs a consistent register
• adapting a known author's tone across channels
• the existing content lane needs a reusable style system instead of one-off mimicry

When NOT to use:

• the deliverable is the article/post itself and a confirmed profile already exists — go straight to article-writing / content-engine
• the user wants a one-off tone tweak on a single sentence — just edit it
• no real source material exists and the user declines the documented defaults — a profile invented from imagination is worthless (see Failure modes)

Inputs

Required before starting — absent input = stop and ask, never proceed on imagination:

1. 5–20 real samples of the target voice, strongest first:
   1. recent original X posts and threads
   2. articles, essays, memos, launch notes, or newsletters
   3. real outbound emails or DMs that worked
   4. product docs, changelogs, README framing, and site copy
2. For the SkyyRose founder voice, the canonical repo sources are docs/brand/collection-stories.md and docs/brand/corey-questions.md — verbatim founder language, locked canon. Read them; do not paraphrase from memory.
3. The goal the profile serves (launch copy, outbound, social) — it changes what to extract.

Do not use generic platform exemplars as source material. If zero samples exist and no documented default applies, deliver "no profile derivable — need sources", not a guess.

Procedure

1. Gather 5 to 20 representative samples. Prefer recent material over old unless the user says the older writing is more canonical.
2. Separate "public launch voice" from "private working voice" if the source set clearly splits.
3. If live X access is available, pull recent original posts before drafting. Checked 2026-07-28: no x-api skill is installed in .claude/skills/ or ~/.claude/skills/ [repro] — so this step means an actual API call or an operator-supplied export, not a skill handoff. No access → work from the samples you have and say the X lane is uncovered.
4. Extract, per sample set:
   • rhythm and sentence length
   • compression vs explanation
   • capitalization norms
   • parenthetical use
   • question frequency and purpose
   • how sharply claims are made
   • how often numbers, mechanisms, or receipts show up
   • how transitions work
   • what the author never does
5. Write the profile using the exact schema in references/voice-profile-schema.md — every source in the Source Set is a real path or URL that was actually read this session.
6. Render one short sample paragraph under the profile and run the Verification checks on it before declaring the profile usable.

Output contract

Produce a reusable VOICE PROFILE block that downstream skills consume directly (schema: references/voice-profile-schema.md). Keep it short enough to reuse in session context. The point is operational reuse, not literary criticism.

Affaan / ECC defaults

If the user wants Affaan / ECC voice and live sources are thin, start here unless newer source material overrides it: direct, compressed, concrete · specifics, mechanisms, receipts, and numbers beat adjectives · parentheticals qualify or narrow · capitalization is conventional · questions are rare and never bait · tone can be sharp, blunt, skeptical, or dry · transitions feel earned.

Verification

Every check can return "no". A check that errors is a dead gate, not a pass (bug-230) — grep on a missing file exits 2, not 1; treat exit 2 as "re-run with a real path".

1. Profile completeness — the schema's required fields exist:

grep -cE '^(Author|Goal|Confidence):' voice-profile.txt

PASS: prints 3, exit 0. Fewer = incomplete profile, do not hand it downstream. [repro]

2. Trope scan — render one sample paragraph under the profile, then:

grep -nEi 'excited to share|no fluff|not [a-z]+, just|game.chang|cutting.edge|revolutionary|rapidly evolving' sample-draft.md

PASS: exit 1 (zero matches). Exit 0 = a banned trope survived; rewrite the sample AND tighten the profile's "never does" list. [repro]

3. Source reality — every entry in the profile's Source Set resolves: repo paths via ls <path> (exit 0), URLs via curl -sI <url> | head -1 (HTTP 200). PASS: all resolve. A source that cannot be opened gets deleted from the profile, not kept. [repro] / [live]

Prove check 2 can fail before trusting it: feed it one line containing "Excited to share", confirm exit 0, restore (rule 3 of the authoring standard — done once, observed, in the worked example below).

Worked example

Real run, 2026-07-28, deriving the SkyyRose founder voice. Source read from the repo: docs/brand/collection-stories.md (line 79: "Hurts" is not a theme. It is the bloodline that raised the founder. [repo]). Two test drafts written to the session scratchpad:

$ grep -nEi 'excited to share|no fluff|not [a-z]+, just|game.chang|cutting.edge|revolutionary|rapidly evolving' draft-bad.md
1:Excited to share our new drop. No fluff, just heat.
$ echo $?
0        # RED — the gate catches the tropes, proving it can fail

$ grep -nEi 'excited to share|no fluff|not [a-z]+, just|game.chang|cutting.edge|revolutionary|rapidly evolving' draft-good.md
$ echo $?
1        # GREEN — zero matches on the rewritten draft

Both outputs observed this session [repro]. The good draft kept the canon line ("The Love Hurts hoodie carries the bloodline story.") and dropped both tropes.

Failure modes

Failure	What it looks like	Rule
Profile from memory	"I know the founder's voice" with no sources read this session	Same defect shape as bug-096 (hallucinated brand canon): plausible ≠ sourced. Stop; read the canon docs
Mixed collection voices	"bloodline" language applied to Black Rose	Each collection has its own canon — docs/brand/collection-stories.md is the SOT; never substitute one collection's voice for another
Unfalsifiable sign-off	"matches the voice" with no check that could have said no	bug-287: tag the claim. "Trope scan exit 1 [repro]" is a verdict; "sounds right" is not
Dead gate read as pass	grep exits 2 (file missing), agent reports "clean"	bug-230 fail-open. Exit 1 is clean; exit 2 is a broken gate — fix the path and re-run
Repo-tracked fingerprints	personal voice profile committed without being asked	Persistence rule: save to the requested workspace/memory surface only; never repo-track personal voice data unasked

Hard bans — delete and rewrite on sight

fake curiosity hooks · "not X, just Y" · "no fluff" · forced lowercase · LinkedIn thought-leader cadence · bait questions · "Excited to share" · generic founder-journey filler · corny parentheticals

Persistence and downstream use

• Reuse the latest confirmed VOICE PROFILE across related tasks in the same session.
• Durable artifact requested → save in the requested workspace location or memory surface.
• This skill is the canonical voice source for content-engine, crosspost, article-writing, marketing-campaign, and outbound across X, LinkedIn, and email. If another skill has a partial voice-capture section, this skill's profile wins.