# Wiki Engine brand guide

## Brand thesis

Wiki Engine is not an all-knowing second brain and not an automatic graph generator. It is a **local-first research intake engine** that helps a person move from saved material to evidence-linked understanding.

```text
Capture → Signal → Connect
```

The emotional promise is calm control over research overload. The operational promise is narrower: preserve the source, expose the interpretation, and keep synthesis provisional.

## Position

**Category:** local-first research intake engine  
**Primary line:** **From saved sources to traceable signal.**  
**Plain-English line:** Save a source. Get what matters. Know where it came from.  
**Audience:** research-heavy Claude Code, Codex, and Obsidian users.

## Product vocabulary

- **Capture** — untrusted material waiting for admission.
- **Source** — exact admitted bytes and identity.
- **Signal** — concise one-source interpretation for human reading.
- **Wiki** — provisional synthesis across distinct sources.
- **Review** — Alpha.1 is a read-only orientation queue; the target contract adds explicit human disposition, never universal truth.

Use `Capture → Signal → Connect` in public explanation. Use the full architecture only in technical material.

## Voice

- Clear before clever.
- Evidence-led, not defensive.
- Confident about demonstrated behavior; precise about intended behavior.
- Technical without becoming bureaucratic.
- Never imply that valid structure proves semantic truth.

Prefer:

- “repository-authored tests demonstrate…”
- “the target architecture…”
- “provisional synthesis”
- “uninspected resource”
- “no hosted account”

Avoid:

- “save anything”
- “AI truth”
- “fully automatic knowledge”
- “hours saved” without measurement
- “production-ready” during alpha
- generic “second brain” positioning

## Visual identity

The visual metaphor is a **research signal desk**:

```text
incoming material | amber selection strip | evidence-linked Signal
```

### Palette

| Token | Hex | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Ink | `#171C22` | authority, control plane, primary type |
| Archive paper | `#E9E7E0` | durable files, reading surface |
| Signal amber | `#D99A2B` | selected attention only |
| Steel | `#4F5963` | accessible metadata and secondary evidence on paper |
| Rule | `#B9B7B0` | structure and lineage |
| Raised paper | `#F5F3EC` | cards and reports |

Amber is semantic. It marks selected Signal, active evidence, or the next deliberate action. It is not a decorative gradient.

### Typography

Use a narrow system sans for display, a neutral system sans for reading, and a system monospace for evidence, status, IDs, and commands. The website must not depend on remote font delivery.

### Composition

- asymmetric editorial layouts;
- visible rules, ledgers, and source strips;
- large but controlled headlines;
- real repository evidence instead of fake application chrome;
- no AI-purple gradients, neural-network art, glassmorphism, or fabricated dashboards.

## Emoji system

Emoji can make the README easier to scan. Use one semantic emoji per value lane, never as decoration inside technical contracts.

- `📥` Capture
- `⚡` Signal
- `🔗` Connect
- `🧾` Provenance
- `🎬` Video research
- `🔒` Local ownership
- `🧭` Review and orientation
- `🧠` Second-brain bridge

## Claim hierarchy

Every public claim belongs to one level:

1. **Alpha.1 demonstrated** — repository-authored tests or retained witness.
2. **Declared boundary** — behavior explicitly excluded or unsupported.
3. **Target architecture** — designed but not yet stable.
4. **Future integration** — second brain, richer visual acquisition, or external systems.

Never visually present levels 3 or 4 as if they were level 1.

## Core assets

- `docs/assets/wiki-engine-header.svg` — GitHub README banner.
- `docs/assets/social-preview.svg` — editable social source.
- `docs/assets/social-preview.png` — 1200 × 630 rendered social preview.
- `docs/assets/favicon.svg` — compact Signal strip mark.
- `docs/index.html` — canonical public expression.
- `docs/essays/from-llm-wiki-to-traceable-signal.html` — intellectual-lineage report.