Brand Kit — the only thing you bring

Everything the skill knows about a brand comes from two files at the root of this skill:

• BRAND-KIT.md (this file) — the brand in plain English. Fill it once per brand, in a copy saved with the brand's work (for example /root/workspace/<brand>-kit/BRAND-KIT.md). Humans and Claude read it.
• brand.json — the same facts in the shape the scripts read (product photo, price list, banned words, checks). Copy it to the brand's working folder and fill it from this kit. Scripts read it; nothing is hard-coded.

Golden rule: never invent a fact. If you don't know a field, write [MISSING] and ask the founder. An ad is never generated with an unresolved [MISSING] fact (rule B20). A filled example for a real brand: the wildhorn-static-ads skill (/root/claude-vault/skills/wildhorn-static-ads/wildhorn/brand.md and /root/claude-vault/skills/wildhorn-static-ads/brand.json).

Each field says which step uses it (the 6 steps are in SKILL.md: 1 Brand kit · 2 Understand · 3 Make · 4 Review · 5 Improve · 6 Measure). Fields marked → brand.json key must also be copied into brand.json.

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1. Brand voice

2. Product facts (exact, never paraphrased)

3. Label text (the packaging must show exactly this)

Write every line of the label in reading order, exactly as printed, plus the container (material, colour, lid).

Container:  e.g. amber glass jar, matte black lid, cream label
Line 1:     [logo] BRAND
Line 2:     PRODUCT NAME
Line 3:     ...
Band:       ...
Count:      30 CAPSULES

Used in: Step 3 → product_lock (one sentence naming every visible element in reading order — pasted into every prompt). The AI never draws the label or the text alone: the real cutout and the exact text are pasted by script (golden rule 4).

4. Offer, price, guarantee (the ONLY numbers allowed in an ad)

Reconfirm the price with the founder before the first batch (Wildhorn's was locked only after asking).

5. Proof (each with its source)

Used in: Step 3 → proof (and the copy). Step 2 — which templates we can clone (a stat template needs a real stat).

6. Avatar (who buys)

7. The core problem in the customer's own words

Write 5–10 sentences the customer actually says (reviews, comments, Reddit, call notes), in quotes, with the source. The simplest words win: these become headlines.

"..."   — source
"..."   — source

Used in: Step 2 (angles, bridge sentence) · Step 3 (headlines). Rule B2: every line names the core problem in plain words.

8. Angles and mechanisms

Not sure yet? Run step 2 first: 1-understand/new-brand-worksheet.md builds the mechanism map, avatar and angle map with two founder sign-offs, then come back and fill this section.

9. Banned words and compliance

10. Logo rule

11. Fonts and colours

12. Product photo and cutout (the two most important files)

• Product photo → product_photo — Image 1 of every generation. The real packshot, front label readable, neutral background, high resolution. The model copies what it sees: a blurry label = a garbled label in every ad.
• Product cutout → product_cutout — pasted by scripts/composite.py. Transparent background (PNG/WebP with alpha), tight crop, upright, front label, at least 800 px tall. Make it from the photo with a background-removal pass; check the edges at full resolution (a halo looks fake). Render one composite on white and one on black to check.
• Several products? One cutout each; composite product blocks take "src".
• Put both under $SAC_WORKDIR (or reference the brand's existing asset paths read-only).

Used in: Step 3 (every generation and every composite).

13. Competitors

Used in: Step 2 (research, 1-understand/competitor-case-studies.md) · Step 3 → competitors (never printed). When a template comes from a brand that sells to the same buyer, its angle usually IS ours: copy it (rule A6).

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brand.json — key by key

brand.json at the root of this skill is the blank template (every value is [MISSING]). Keys starting with _ are notes.

Where the scripts find it (scripts/sac_config.py): $BRAND_JSON if set → $SAC_WORKDIR/brand.json → the brand.json at the root of this skill. Copy it into the brand's working folder and fill it there; the skill's own copy stays the blank template. Check it loads: python3 -c "import json;json.load(open('brand.json'))", then python3 $SKILL/scripts/lint.py <any spec file> (a JSON error shows there first).

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What is Wildhorn-only (do NOT carry over blindly)

• The beer-belly default, the estrogen villain, the organ visuals (C2's wording), the horn icon, the 45–60 greying avatar, the $49.95/BOGO offer, the competitor list — all come from brand.json/specs and must be replaced.
• The rules themselves stay; their Wildhorn evidence explains WHY. When a rule's wording names a Wildhorn thing, apply its principle to the new brand's equivalent.
• The brand's own rule additions go into the brand's LESSONS.md (or a brand section) AND, if they are general, into 3-improve/rules.md with a new ID.

Next: 2-make/first-batch.md (working folder, templates, the first 10 ads, pre-flight checklist).