Gated Long Form Content

@./format-guidelines.md Read when: starting this skill @../_shared/storytelling-frameworks.md Read when: selecting a narrative framework in Step 5 @../_shared/persuasion-principles.md Read when: selecting persuasion principles in Step 6

Gated Long-Form Content Skill

You are helping the owner produce a complete, publishable gated long-form asset (whitepaper, guide, ebook, or research report). The asset must comply with the format guidelines in this skill folder, reflect the company's brand voice, serve the confirmed audience/goal/funnel combination, and — if a campaign briefing is present — serve the briefing's goals.

This skill is language-, industry-, and audience-neutral. It works for any output language and any B2B or B2C context. Calibration happens through the loaded context files, the confirmed inferences in Step 3, and the owner's topic input.

Step 0: Recall learnings

If .claude/learnings.md exists, read it silently. Apply all entries relevant to this run — both [cc-content:*]-tagged entries and entries from other plugins that inform content quality or project constraints. Do not announce this step. If the file is absent, continue normally.

Step 1: Load context

Check for a ## Context files table in CLAUDE.md via:

grep -A 200 '## Context files' CLAUDE.md 2>/dev/null || echo "(no context table)"

CLAUDE.md files may exist at multiple hierarchy levels (workspace root, project root, sub-directory) and the harness loads all applicable ones. Where multiple tables exist, rows from more specific CLAUDE.md files take precedence.

Do not enumerate required categories by name. Context rows carry free-form, user-chosen labels — there is no schema of category names to match against. Instead, Read every file listed in the File column, then assess each row's Summary to work out what it covers, and map the loaded files to this skill's content needs:

Where multiple files plausibly cover the same need, pick the one whose Summary best fits the task at hand and note the choice.

Warn on semantic absence, not label absence — "No brand voice context found", never "no writing-style row". Gate on two needs only: if no loaded file plausibly covers brand voice, or none covers organization background, ask once whether this is intentional or whether the user should pause and run /content-onboarding. Same pause / DEGRADED OUTPUT pattern as all output-format skills. For absent audience, language, or format-specific rules: note silently and continue — never ask.

See ../_shared/context-categories.md for the full guide to common context patterns and the authoring rules this step follows.

Step 2: Check for campaign briefing

Determine the briefing path:

1. If the owner passed a file path as an argument ($ARGUMENTS), use that path.
2. Otherwise, check for brief.md in the current working directory:

ls brief.md 2>/dev/null && echo "found" || echo "missing"

• Found (either via argument or brief.md): read the file and note its key messages, goals, and constraints. Confirm: "✓ Campaign briefing loaded from <path>."
• Missing: note "No campaign briefing found — generating from company context only." and continue.

Step 3: Infer and confirm audience and goal

This is the most consequential step for this skill, since format-guidelines.md varies substantially by audience, goal, funnel stage, and expertise level.

1. Use the loaded audience context and campaign brief (if any) to infer: B2B or B2C, content goal (thought leadership / awareness / lead generation / nurturing / conversion / retention), funnel stage (TOFU / MOFU / BOFU), and audience expertise level (novice / familiar / expert). If the loaded context genuinely does not support a confident inference on any of these, ask the owner the missing question directly rather than guessing.
2. Present a one-line inference summary to the user, for example: "Audience: B2B (enterprise) · Goal: lead generation · Stage: MOFU · Expertise: familiar"
3. Ask the user to confirm or correct before generating. Do not silently apply assumptions.
4. Based on confirmed values, explicitly state which Layer 2 and Layer 3 variations from format-guidelines.md are being applied and why — e.g., "Applying the B2B committee-structure guidance (executive summary + technical appendix) and the MOFU proof-type guidance (original research, comparative data)."

Step 4: Ask for the content topic (if not provided)

Ask: "What should this whitepaper/guide/ebook be about?" and wait.

Step 5: Select storytelling framework

Read ../_shared/storytelling-frameworks.md and follow its selection process. Apply the chosen framework as the structural spine — typically a problem → insight → solution arc for this format, per format-guidelines.md.

Step 6: Select persuasion principles

Read ../_shared/persuasion-principles.md and follow its selection process. Pick 1–3 principles plus a pre-suasive opener strategy, favoring the mechanisms called out as strongest for this format in format-guidelines.md (central-route argument quality, narrative transportation via case studies, source credibility, reciprocity). Note the choices in working notes.

Step 7: Generate the asset

Produce a complete whitepaper/guide/ebook that:

• Follows the required structure from format-guidelines.md Layer 1 (executive summary, problem definition, body/evidence, recommendations, conclusion, CTA)
• Applies the confirmed B2B/B2C variant from Layer 2, including the confirmed sub-variation (e.g., SMB vs. enterprise) where relevant
• Applies the confirmed content-goal and funnel-stage variant from Layer 3
• Pairs major claims with both data and an illustrative case where the input material supports it
• Uses the storytelling framework and persuasion principles selected in Steps 5–6
• Reflects tone and vocabulary from loaded brand-voice context
• Matches length to the format label and audience per the Layer 1 length table — no padding to hit a word count
• States an explicit, justified gating recommendation per the "Gating Decision" section of format-guidelines.md, including a recommended form-field count

Include a [TODO: ...] placeholder for any format-specific mandatory elements — for example, a required word count, mandatory legal/compliance sections, or a specific design template — that the user must specify for their use case.

Internally verify against the quality checklist in format-guidelines.md before presenting.

Present the output in a clearly delimited block showing the content and its word count:

─────────────────────────────────────────────
<FORMAT LABEL> draft
─────────────────────────────────────────────
<content>
─────────────────────────────────────────────
Word count: <N>

If output is degraded (a required context need is uncovered), prepend: ⚠ DEGRADED OUTPUT — generated without: <list of missing needs>

Step 8: Feedback

This step has two phases:

Auto-store phase. Before asking the user for feedback, review the run for qualifying observations. For each, append one tagged line to .claude/learnings.md (create with standard header if missing), tagged [cc-content:gated-long-form-content]. Qualifies: content preferences or constraints not already in any loaded context file or CLAUDE.md; corrections the user made; project-specific facts that would change future output; accepted/rejected suggestions deviating from best practices. Does not qualify: standard behavior applied without deviation; facts already in context files or CLAUDE.md; anything derivable by re-reading context files; facts semantically equivalent to any existing .claude/learnings.md entry under any plugin tag — when in doubt, skip; redundancy is worse than a missed entry.

Check for the file before appending:

ls .claude/learnings.md 2>/dev/null && echo "exists" || echo "missing"

Standard header when creating the file:

# Learnings

Corrections and feedback collected during content sessions.
Entries are tagged by skill and dated.

---

Explicit feedback. Ask whether the output met expectations. If the user provides a correction, append it as a tagged entry using the same criteria. Confirm total entries written across both phases: "✓ N learning(s) saved to .claude/learnings.md." If the user confirms quality or skips: if any entries were auto-stored, confirm "✓ N learning(s) auto-saved to .claude/learnings.md." Then deliver a closing line: "✓ Draft ready. Move it into your design template for layout, then route it through legal/compliance review (if applicable) before publishing behind the gate." and exit.