ax brand

The brand is the product. Every contributor surface should feel like the same hand drew it. This page is the contract.

Wordmark

ax  AGENT EXPERIENCE

ax - lowercase, Georgia serif, 32px in the dashboard masthead, matching size in the README hero. No uppercase. No abbreviation ("axctl" is the CLI; "ax" is the project).
AGENT EXPERIENCE - uppercase, ui-monospace, 10px, letter-spacing 0.14em, baseline-aligned to the wordmark, muted.
The two are separated by 10px horizontal gap on screen, a single space in markdown.

No logo, no glyph. The brand is the typography.

Voice


Pronoun	Second person ("your agent", "you"). Never first-person plural ("we").
Case	Lowercase headings where they fit (e.g. `ax retro`, `ax doctor`). Sentence case prose.
Tone	Terse, evidence-first, no startup voice. State facts, then move on.
Forbidden words	"magical", "delight", "revolutionary", "powered by AI", "unlock".
Hedge sparingly	Say what's true. Mark what's roadmap with "tracked next".

Examples:

✅ "ax answers these by reading what already happened." ❌ "ax magically uncovers hidden patterns in your agent history."

✅ "Skill triage - which of your installed skills get used, which never fire." ❌ "Get powerful insights into your skill usage."

Palette

CSS custom properties locked in src/dashboard/web/src/styles.css:

Variable	Value (light)	Role
`--ink`	near-black	Primary text, wordmark, borders
`--page`	paper	Background
`--panel`	soft off-white	Card / panel background
`--line`	light gray	Hairline borders
`--muted`	mid gray	Secondary text, tags, captions
`--green`	live signal	`LIVE` pulse, success states, primary accent
`--blue`	reference	Highlight rows, links, info
`--red`	failure	Errors, offline state
`--yellow`	review	Review-bucket triage
`--orange`	watch	Recommendations that need attention

Rule of thumb: monochrome by default, color only when it carries information.

Typography

Stack	Use
Georgia, serif	Wordmark, masthead h1
ui-monospace, Menlo, monospace	Brand tag, data tables, code, panel meta
system-ui sans (default body)	Prose

Numbers in tables are right-aligned, ui-monospace, no thousands separator in CLI (40389), thousands separator in dashboard (40,389).

Motifs

The live pulse - green dot, 1.6s ease-in-out opacity loop. Use this once per surface to indicate freshness. Don't duplicate.
Hairline rules - 1px lines separating sections. Never use shadows for hierarchy.
Code as evidence - actual CLI output in README and docs. Real numbers, real timestamps, real session IDs. Scrub project names with the acme-app placeholder. Don't fake data.

Naming pattern

User-facing commands and surfaces follow ax <verb>:

ax doctor - system check
ax retro - retrospective
ax wrapped - annual recap
ax studio (= the dashboard at axctl serve)
ax pilot (= the agent skill)
ax score (= the composite taste metric)

The CLI binary is axctl when the technical layer matters (axctl install, axctl daemon). User stories say "run ax doctor", not "run axctl doctor".

See docs/language.md for the full vocabulary.

Don'ts

No emoji in commit messages, code, or docs unless the user explicitly asks.
No ALL-CAPS section headings except AGENT EXPERIENCE (the brand tag) and uppercase column headers in dashboard tables.
No marketing taglines on individual commands. "ax doctor - checks your system" beats "ax doctor - your trusted AI health companion".
No screenshots without scrubbed project names.