Apply existing brand guidelines to all sales and marketing content generation. Load the user's brand guidelines, apply voice constants and tone flexes to the content request, validate output, and explain brand choices.
Loading Brand Guidelines
Find the user's brand guidelines using this sequence. Stop as soon as you find them:
Session context
— Check if brand guidelines were generated earlier in this session (via
/brand-voice:generate-guidelines
). If so, they are already in the conversation. Use them directly. Session-generated guidelines are the freshest and reflect the user's most recent intent.
Local guidelines file
— Check for
.claude/brand-voice-guidelines.md
inside the user's working folder. Do NOT use a relative path from the agent's current working directory — in Cowork, the agent runs from a plugin cache directory, not the user's project. Resolve the path relative to the user's working folder. If no working folder is set, skip this step.
Ask the user
— If none of the above found guidelines, tell the user:
"I couldn't find your brand guidelines. You can:
Run
/brand-voice:discover-brand
to find brand materials across your platforms
Run
/brand-voice:generate-guidelines
to create guidelines from documents or transcripts
Paste guidelines directly into this chat or point me to a file"
Wait for the user to provide guidelines before proceeding.
Also read
.claude/brand-voice.local.md
for enforcement settings (even if guidelines came from another source):
strictness
strict | balanced | flexible
always-explain
whether to always explain brand choices
Enforcement Workflow
1. Analyze the Content Request
Before writing, identify:
Content type
email, presentation, proposal, social post, message, etc.
Target audience
role, seniority, industry, company stage
Key messages needed
which message pillars apply
Specific requirements
length, format, tone overrides
2. Apply Voice Constants
Voice is the brand's personality — it stays constant across all content:
Apply "We Are / We Are Not" attributes from guidelines
Tone adapts by content type and audience. Use the tone-by-context matrix from guidelines to set:
Formality
How formal or casual should this be?
Energy
How much urgency or enthusiasm?
Technical depth
How detailed or accessible?
4. Generate Content
Create content that:
Matches brand voice attributes throughout
Follows tone guidelines for this specific content type
Incorporates key messages naturally (not forced)
Uses preferred terminology
Mirrors the quality and style of guideline examples
For complex or long-form content, delegate to the content-generation agent (defined in
agents/content-generation.md
).
For high-stakes content, delegate to the quality-assurance agent (defined in
agents/quality-assurance.md
) for validation.
5. Validate and Explain
After generating content:
Briefly highlight which brand guidelines were applied
Explain key voice and tone decisions
Note any areas where guidelines were adapted for context
Offer to refine based on feedback
When
always-explain
is true in settings, include brand application notes with every response.
Handling Conflicts
When the user's request conflicts with brand guidelines:
Explain the conflict clearly
Provide a recommendation
Offer options: follow guidelines strictly, adapt for context, or override
Default to adapting guidelines with an explanation of the tradeoff.
Open Questions Awareness
Open questions are unresolved brand positioning decisions flagged during guideline generation, stored in the guidelines under an "Open Questions" section. When generating content, check if the brand guidelines contain open questions:
If content touches an unresolved open question, note it
Apply the agent's recommendation from the open question unless the user specifies otherwise
Suggest resolving the question if it significantly impacts the content
Reference Files
references/voice-constant-tone-flexes.md
— The "voice constant, tone flexes" mental model, "We Are / We Are Not" table structure, and tone-by-context matrix explanation
references/before-after-examples.md
— Before/after content examples per content type showing enforcement in practice