Lifecycle Copy

---
name: lifecycle-copy
argument-hint: "[journey-id]"
description: Write CRM channel copy (email, push, SMS, in-app, WhatsApp) for journey steps — rule-checked against channel limits and sector lexicons, with A/B variants and character counts. Use when the user says "copy yaz", "metin yaz", "email metni", "push metni", "CRM copy", "write the messages".
metadata:
  version: 0.2.0
  category: copy
  updated: 2026-08-14
---

# Lifecycle Copy — Channel Copywriting

Produce send-ready copy for journey steps. Copy here is an engineering artifact: it has hard constraints (limits, banned words, consent text) and is **reviewed before it is shown**. The mandatory format is `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/templates/copy-output.md`.

## When NOT to use this

- **No journey doc or step description exists yet** — there's nothing to write copy for; run `lifecycle-journeys` first or supply a step description (channel + intent) directly.
- **The ask is whether EXISTING, already-shipped copy complies with channel/lexicon rules** — that's `lifecycle-audit`'s dimension 7 (spot-check), not this skill; this skill's review loop only covers copy it itself writes.
- **The need is a CRM-agnostic structured export of copy already written** — that's `lifecycle-export`, not this skill.

## Inputs (gate)

1. A journey doc (from `lifecycle-journeys`) OR a user-supplied step description (channel + intent minimum).
2. The rule chain, loaded in inheritance order (CLAUDE.md rule 8 — most specific wins, bans/compliance strictest wins):
   - `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/knowledge/brands/<brand>.md` if it exists — tone/formality override; `extra_banned_words` extend all ban lists; `brand_vocabulary` is authoritative for product/feature names.
   - `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/knowledge/lexicons/locales/<lang>.md` per target language — voice, emotion calibration, market red lines.
   - `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/knowledge/lexicons/<sector>.md`. No lexicon for the sector → use the closest and say so.
3. Tone + formality + language(s) from the brand file or Intake Summary. Missing → trigger `lifecycle-intake` (tone questions only).
4. **Persona context:** the journey doc's §3 audience definition (segment, lifecycle stage, RFM tier where known) is passed to the writer — copy addresses that persona, never a generic user.
5. **Failed-strategies check:** if `output/<brand>/failed-strategies.md` exists, a logged powered failure is not re-proposed to the same segment; when a strategy is skipped because of the log, say which entry caused it.
6. **Winning-strategies check:** if `output/<brand>/winning-strategies.md` exists and has a confirmed entry for this segment/journey stage, pass it to the writer as a precedent — it informs one variant's starting angle, never both; the other variant still explores a genuinely different, less-tested angle. A precedent narrows a starting point, it doesn't replace the two-distinct-angles rule.

## Procedure — write → review → fix (mandatory loop)

### 1. Load the rules

For every channel used, load `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/knowledge/channels/<channel>.md` — its frontmatter `limits` and "Hard rules" are the review contract. Load the lexicon's use/avoid table, urgency rules, and banned list.

### 2. Write

When multiple journeys need copy, spawn one `copy-writer` per journey **concurrently in a single message** (the agent is designed for exactly this parallelization). **Pre-bundle the shared rule files** (the sector lexicon, each channel file's limits + hard rules, the locale overlay, and the brand config's tone/banned/vocabulary) into each writer's prompt verbatim, read once here rather than re-read by every writer — the same cost saving the journey stage applies, and it matters more here because copy fans out to two agents per journey (writer + reviewer). Each writer then only needs its own journey doc, not a fresh read of the identical rulebook. For each journey step (its **intent line is the brief** — don't drift from it):
- A **target tone** per step, drawn from the lexicon's stage-calibration table and adjusted by the locale overlay's emotion calibration — goes in the template's Target tone field and binds the writer.
- Variant A and Variant B with genuinely different angles (e.g. utility vs social proof) — not synonym swaps. Each variant carries the template's `strategy` + `hypothesis` JSON metadata (one falsifiable sentence — `lifecycle-results` scores these later).
- One short Fallback with no personalization variables.
- Real character counts per field (count characters, do not estimate; for SMS respect the GSM-7 vs Unicode distinction in the channel file — Turkish characters change the limit).

### 3. Review (adversarial)

Delegate to the `copy-reviewer` agent (or, if subagents are unavailable, perform the same checklist yourself in a separate explicit pass):
- limits per field · banned/spam words (channel + lexicon) · single-CTA rule · urgency claims backed by real data variables · variable fallbacks exist · consent/opt-out text where required · tone matches lexicon calibration for the journey stage.
- Verdict per block: PASS / FIX (with the exact violation).

### 4. Fix and re-check

FIX blocks are rewritten and re-checked. Nothing labeled FIX may reach the user. If a rule cannot be satisfied (e.g. intent impossible in 120 push chars), change the step's channel recommendation and tell the user why.

**Legal-review path:** when the sector lexicon has `regulated: true` and a block carries a borderline money/health/outcome claim that is not outright banned, the block ships stamped `⚖️ legal review required` (with the exact claim quoted) instead of ✅ — it goes to manual sign-off, not into the send queue.

### 5. Deliver

**Mandatory format: `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/templates/copy-canvas.html`, reproduced verbatim via `python3 scripts/build_canvas.py --template ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/templates/copy-canvas.html --journeys <journeys.json> --meta <meta.json> --out output/<project>/<name>.html`** — the same deterministic copy-and-swap the journey canvas uses (it substitutes only the `JOURNEYS` data array, `<title>`, and eyebrow/h1/lede, self-verifies no boilerplate drifted, and handles copy-canvas's absence of `HOLDOUT_TIP`/`DATA_NOTE`). Hand-editing the template is only a fallback if the script is unavailable; never retype the boilerplate. The artifact's user-facing name and header follow the **user's language**, and never use the word "copy" toward Turkish users (it reads as "kopya/duplicate"): TR → "İletişim Metinleri", EN → "Message Copy". **This covers the generated FILE NAME too:** write the output to `output/<project>/iletisim-metinleri.html` (TR) / `message-copy.html` (EN) — and the markdown source-of-truth alongside it with the same base name — never `copy-canvas.html`/`copy-*.md`; only the repo template keeps its English name. One journey per tab, one card per step, review-status badge per card (✅ / ⚠️ with note / ⚖️ legal). The plain `templates/copy-output.md` structure is still the underlying content model each step's fields/variants/fallback follow — the HTML canvas is how it reaches the user, per this repo's output-authoring rule (CLAUDE.md rule 2). Multi-language requests: write each language natively per the lexicon's TR/EN notes — never translate literally.

## Word choice discipline

- The lexicon decides vocabulary; if a lexicon rule and a "nicer sounding" line conflict, the lexicon wins.
- Concrete beats clever: product names, real numbers (as `{{variables}}`), stated policies.
- Urgency/scarcity only when backed by a data variable that exists (`{{stock_count}}`, `{{sale_end_date}}`). No data → no urgency. Ever.

## Common Pitfalls

**Pitfall 1: Variants that differ in wording, not in angle.**
Symptom: Variant A and B say the same thing with synonyms swapped — "Sepetin seni bekliyor" vs "Sepetindeki ürünler seni bekliyor."
Consequence: the two variants test the same hypothesis twice; `lifecycle-results` has nothing to attribute a lift to, because there was only ever one lever in the test.
Fix: check each variant's `strategy` field before delivery — if both name the same lever (both "urgency," both "utility"), rewrite one around a genuinely different lever (social proof, loss-aversion, utility) rather than rephrasing.

**Pitfall 2: Urgency framing with no variable behind it.**
Symptom: a line reads urgent ("Fırsat kaçmadan şimdi bak") but no `{{stock_count}}`, `{{sale_end_date}}`, or other real data variable appears anywhere in the field.
Consequence: this is the "no data → no urgency" rule violated by tone rather than by an obviously banned word — a literal banned-word check won't catch phrasing that implies scarcity without stating it.
Fix: trace any urgent-reading line to the specific variable driving it; no variable found means rewrite without the pressure framing, not just soften the punctuation.

**Pitfall 3: A FIX rewritten but not re-checked.**
Symptom: a block flagged FIX gets rewritten to fix the named violation, then shipped on the strength of "it reads better now."
Consequence: the rewrite can introduce a new violation the first pass never had — shortening for a length limit can drop the required opt-out text, tightening a CTA can create a second one.
Fix: every FIX goes through the full checklist again after rewriting, not a visual read — the loop is write → review → fix → review, not write → review → fix → ship.

## Never do

- Never show unreviewed copy or skip the review pass "because it's short".
- Never output copy without character counts, or with estimated counts.
- Never use a personalization variable that the user's data cannot fill (check the event/attribute inventory).
- Never write identical copy across variants or across channels (each channel has its own shape, not a resize).
- Never use an em dash or en dash in customer-facing copy — commas, periods, parentheses, conjunctions.
- Never ASCII-fold diacritics (ç, ğ, ı, İ, ö, ş, ü …) in any channel; the only exception is deliberate, user-approved GSM-7 folding for SMS cost (see `knowledge/channels/sms.md`).