# Tone Mapping > Build a voice and tone profile from real writing samples. Trigger with /tone-mapping or when the user mentions 'tone mapping,' 'voice profile,' 'how do I sound,' 'brand voice,' 'writing style,' 'tone of voice,' 'voice extraction,' or 'make it sound like me.' Extracts patterns across eight dimensions and writes brain/voice-and-tone.md, then optionally brain/voice-samples.md with quoted calibration examples. - Skill: `t0ddharris/tone-mapping` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add t0ddharris/tone-mapping` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/t0ddharris/tone-mapping/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: t0ddharris (https://skillmd.com/u/t0ddharris) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/t0ddharris/tone-mapping --- # Tone Mapping Build a voice and tone profile by analyzing real writing samples. The output is `brain/voice-and-tone.md`, which content-producing skills read to match the user's natural voice. --- ## Why This Matters Without a tone map, every skill produces generic-sounding output. With one, blog posts, social content, emails, and landing pages start sounding like the person who runs the company wrote them. --- ## Workflow ### Step 1: Collect Writing Samples Ask the user: > I need 3-5 real writing samples to map your voice. These should be things you wrote yourself (not edited by someone else) that sound most like you. > > Options: > 1. **Paste directly** — copy text from LinkedIn posts, blog posts, emails, newsletters > 2. **Link to a URL** — I'll fetch the content (LinkedIn articles, blog posts, personal site) > 3. **Point to a file** — if you've dropped samples in `/incoming/` > > Which works best? **Minimum:** 3 samples, ideally 500+ words total. More samples produce a better map. **If they have fewer than 3 samples:** Accept what they have but flag that the profile will be approximate. Suggest they update it later as they produce more content. **What makes a good sample:** - Written by them, not ghostwritten or heavily edited - Represents how they want to sound going forward (not how they used to write) - Variety helps: a casual post, a technical explanation, an opinionated take ### Step 2: Extract Patterns Analyze the samples across eight dimensions. For each dimension, identify the specific pattern with evidence (quote a short phrase from the sample). #### The Eight Dimensions 1. **Sentence rhythm** - Average sentence length (short/medium/long) - Variation pattern (do they mix short punchy sentences with longer ones, or stay consistent?) - How they open paragraphs (statement, question, anecdote, data?) 2. **Vocabulary register** - Formal to casual spectrum (1-5 scale) - Technical density (do they use jargon freely, explain it inline, or avoid it?) - Industry-specific terms they default to 3. **Structural patterns** - How they organize arguments (top-down conclusion first? build-up? problem-solution?) - Use of lists vs. prose paragraphs - Paragraph length tendencies 4. **Pronouns and perspective** - First person ("I") vs. collective ("we") vs. second person ("you") - How they address the reader (directly? as a peer? as a student?) - Do they use "one" or passive voice to generalize? 5. **Hedging vs. conviction** - Do they qualify claims ("might," "could," "tends to") or state directly? - How they handle uncertainty (acknowledge it, skip past it, frame it as a question?) - Strength of opinionated statements 6. **Humor and personality markers** - Dry wit, self-deprecation, sarcasm, none? - Use of analogies and metaphors (frequent, rare, specific domain?) - Personality that comes through (irreverent? earnest? measured?) 7. **Punctuation and formatting habits** - Em dash usage (heavy user? never?) - Parenthetical asides (frequent, rare?) - Bold/italic patterns - How they use colons, semicolons, ellipses 8. **Opening and closing patterns** - How they start pieces (hook, question, bold claim, anecdote?) - How they end (CTA, summary, open question, provocative statement?) - Transition style between sections ### Step 3: Confirm with Sample Sentences Before writing the profile, test it. Generate 3 sentences that apply the extracted patterns to a topic the user hasn't written about. Present them: > Here's how your voice profile would sound on a new topic. Do these sound like you? > > 1. [sentence applying their rhythm + vocabulary + conviction level] > 2. [sentence applying their humor/personality + structural pattern] > 3. [sentence applying their opening style + pronoun usage] > > What's off? Too formal? Too casual? Missing something? Iterate until the user confirms the voice feels right. This is the most important gate in the process. ### Step 4: Write voice-and-tone.md Write the profile to `brain/voice-and-tone.md` using the template structure. Include: - The eight dimension scores with evidence - A "Voice DNA" summary (3-4 sentences capturing the overall feel) - A "Do / Don't" quick-reference table - 3 sample sentences as calibration anchors ### Step 5: Update references If `brain/INDEX.md` exists, check whether it already lists `voice-and-tone.md`. If not, add it under the Brand section. Tell the user: > Voice profile saved to `brain/voice-and-tone.md`. Content skills (blog, social-content, copywriting, copy-editing, email-sequence, case-studies) read it when drafting and editing. > > To update your voice profile later, run `/tone-mapping` again with new samples. ### Step 6: Offer Calibration Samples (voice-samples.md) The profile captures the measurable dimensions of the voice. Calibration samples capture what dimensions can't: signature moves, argument structures, and real quoted examples. Offer this step: > Want me to also build `brain/voice-samples.md`? It's the positive companion to the profile — your signature moves with real quotes from your writing, so drafts don't just match your metrics but reuse your actual patterns. Works best with 5+ samples. If yes, extract from the same samples (plus any new ones): 1. **The voice in one paragraph** — describe the voice the way you'd brief an editor 2. **Signature moves (3-7)** — recurring patterns that make the voice recognizable (e.g., analogy-first framing, parenthetical asides, self-deprecation, direct address). For each: what it is, 2-3 quoted examples **taken verbatim from the samples**, and how often to use it 3. **Structural patterns** — how pieces open and close, paragraph and subhead habits, with quoted examples 4. **Argument structures** — how they build a case (e.g., consensus-then-pivot, experience escalation), with the beats spelled out 5. **What this writer rejects** — patterns that never appear in their writing, stated concretely 6. **Specificity calibration** — how concrete the voice gets (names, numbers, tools vs. pattern-level) Write to `brain/voice-samples.md` following the template structure. Confirm the signature moves with the user — show each move with its quotes and ask "is this actually you, or an artifact of one post?" Drop anything that appears in only one sample. **Hard rule:** every example in voice-samples.md must be quoted verbatim from the user's real writing. If you can't quote it, don't include the move. If `brain/INDEX.md` exists, list `voice-samples.md` there too. --- ## Rules - Never fabricate sample quotes. Only quote from the user's actual writing samples. - The voice profile is descriptive, not prescriptive. Capture how they actually write, not how a style guide says they should write. - If samples conflict (one is casual, another formal), ask which register they want as their default and note the range. - Don't over-index on a single sample. Patterns should appear across multiple samples to be included. - If the user already has a `voice-and-tone.md`, show what would change and confirm before overwriting. - The profile should be concise enough that skills can read it quickly. Target 150-200 lines max. No padding.