Style Guides Overview

A style guide is the reusable definition of how your articles sound, look, and land. One JSON file per style, saved to cody-projects/article-writer/styles/<name>.json. Every article you write attaches to a style guide; one style can power infinite articles.

Style guides exist so you don’t have to teach Cody your voice every time. Configure once, reuse forever.

The four categories

Category	What it controls	When it applies in the workflow
Voice	Tone, humor, opinion strength, technical depth	Phase 4 (title & thesis)
Context	Who you are, who you’re writing for, the relationship	Phase 4 (title & thesis)
Structure	Opening type, closing type, examples, visual breaks	Phase 5 (outline)
Formatting	Emojis, em dashes, blockquotes	Phase 7 (writing)

Why settings apply progressively

Voice and context shape what you’re saying and to whom, so they belong at the thesis layer — the article’s claim and framing are inseparable from how strong an opinion you hold and who you’re addressing.

Structure shapes how the article is organized, so it belongs at the outline layer — opening types decide how you hook the reader, closing types decide how you leave them, examples decide what evidence you weave in.

Formatting shapes prose-level texture — em dashes, emojis, blockquotes — so it belongs at the writing layer, after the structure is settled.

Applying every setting at every phase would muddy the work. Progressive application keeps each phase focused.

Creating a style guide

Triggered explicitly with “create a new article style”, or inline during Phase 3 of the article workflow when you have no styles yet. The creation flow:

1. Recommendation Offer (optional)
       │
       ▼
2. Configuration  (Set Voice → Set Context → Set Structure → Set Formatting)
       │
       ▼
3. Review Settings
       │  Needs Update ───┐
       ▼                  │
4. Name & Description     │
       │                  │
       ▼                  │
5. Final Confirmation ────┘
       │
       ▼
6. Save to styles/<name>.json

Phase 0 — Recommendation Offer

Before configuration, Cody asks if you want AI-recommended settings based on your writing purpose, target audience, or example articles. If yes, Cody generates a complete style as a starting point and you skip directly to Review. If no, manual configuration starts.

Phase 1 — Configuration

Cody walks you through each category in order:

1. Voice — Tone, Humor, Opinion, Technical (each 0–10).
2. Formatting — Emojis (0–10), EM Dashes (0–10), Blockquotes (never/rare/occasional/frequent).
3. Structure — Opening type(s), Closing type(s), Visual Breaks, Examples, Example Types.
4. Context — Author Role, Author Topic Knowledge, Audience Role, Audience Topic Knowledge, Author Relationship to Audience.

Detailed prompts for each setting live on the per-category pages — see the table above.

Phase 2 — Review Settings

Cody presents the full configuration for approval:

Voice:
- Tone: 7/10 (leaning professional)
- Humor: 3/10 (mostly serious)
- Opinion: 8/10 (opinionated)
- Technical: 5/10 (balanced)

Formatting:
- Emojis: 0/10 (none)
- EM Dashes: 2/10 (minimal)
- Blockquotes: Occasional

Structure:
- Opening: Narrative + Tension
- Closing: Callback + Call to Action
- Visual Breaks: Moderate
- Examples: Some
- Example Types: Lists, Code Snippets, Quotes

Context:
- Author Role: AI Educator and Startup Founder
- Author Knowledge: 8/10
- Audience Role: Enterprise Product Managers
- Audience Knowledge: 4/10
- Relationship: 7/10 (expert positioning)

Does this look correct, or would you like to adjust anything?

Adjust as many times as needed.

Phase 3 — Name & Description

Once settings are approved, Cody suggests a name and a one-line description:

Suggested name: "Professional LinkedIn"
Suggested description: "For thought leadership articles targeting enterprise product managers"

You approve or override. Both are required.

Phase 4 — Final Confirmation & Save

Cody shows the full style one more time (settings + name + description) and asks for explicit “save” confirmation. On save:

1. Filename is generated from the name (kebab-case): Professional LinkedIn → professional-linkedin.json.
2. All required fields are validated.
3. File is written to cody-projects/article-writer/styles/.
4. Cody confirms: Saved style guide as professional-linkedin.json.

The style is now available in every future article’s Phase 3.

What’s NOT in a style guide

A common point of confusion: research settings are not part of a style guide. Research depth, citation preference, and approved sources are configured per-article in Phase 2 of the article workflow. Style guides are reusable across articles regardless of research needs.

Style guides are about voice and form. Research is about subject matter. They live separately by design.

Storage and editing

Styles live as plain JSON files in cody-projects/article-writer/styles/. You can:

• Edit with a trigger (“edit my X style”) or by opening the JSON directly.
• Delete with “delete the X style”.
• List with “list my writing styles”.

For the full management flow, see Managing Styles. For the JSON schema, see Storage & Data.