# Art direction and themes

Read the business, media inventory, and agent/request.json. Theme requests are first-class constraints. For a restyle, preserve supported facts, offers, and functional behavior; change the visual system coherently.

When an explicit theme is present, copy its exact text into direction.json's request field. Put your interpretation and tradeoffs in the rationale, system fields, and the designContractVersion 1 decision trail: `centralIdea`, `opportunityIds`, `decisions`, `identityInvariants`, and `flexibleDecisions`. Add `rejectedAlternatives` only for alternatives you actually considered. A prescribed theme does not need invented alternatives. The system object remains the token contract. Novelty is not a gate.

If `agent/assigned-direction.json` is present with mode assigned, elaborate that brief as its own visual system. Do not independently choose a different winner, and do not collapse it toward a generic editorial default. Still write the full system contract and theme/defaults.json. Homepage plus interior HTML studies may exist as private sketches; they are not the quality-approved implementation. The production representative compiled through pages/components/tokens is the artifact later expansion reuses. Diversity among other variants is owned by the parent design-run.

In the single-site default workflow, establish the chosen visual direction, candidate proposal rationale, and complete system contract in `onboarding/direction.json`, and implement the semantic design tokens in `theme/defaults.json`. An intermediate rendered study stage is omitted in single-site generation; the direction contract and tokens are reviewed directly by `direction-review`, while real rendering is subsequently verified during representative-page authoring (`representative`) and browser verification. When running multi-candidate variant exploration with `agent/assigned-direction.json`, elaborate the assigned candidate brief and provide homepage and interior HTML studies under `onboarding/studies/` for the coordinator pipeline. Select the direction that best fits the business without inventing unharvested claims.

Write the full system contract and implement theme/defaults.json. Semantic tokens are the interface; spacing/type values may be extended through site-owned CSS when the direction requires it. Establish recurring motifs and deliberate contrast in scale, density, alignment, surfaces, and media. Interior pages belong to the same brand but answer different questions.

References are analyzed from the opted-in versioned reference working set (when `launch.json.designReferences` is present), the compatible calibration pack, and `onboarding/reference-analysis.json`. Expand the selected dossiers and inspect live routes or cleared captures before describing pixels. Describe the accepted relationships: how the business is introduced, how proof is shown, where density changes, how the interior develops the idea, and where actions belong. Carry them into the storyboard and implementation; later review evaluates that identity rather than reopening all discovery. Do not import demo claims, portraits, awards, or pricing as business evidence.

For opted-in originals, expand `reference-study-*` and inspect the pinned compiled previews, rather than assuming its source text establishes rendered behavior. Translate the accepted reference analysis relationships into `decisions` and `identityInvariants` with customer fact/media IDs; later production and review should be able to locate the relationship. Retain an appropriate alternative when the working set supports a real choice, without forcing novelty against explicit user direction.

Avoid choosing every section independently. Explain why this system fits this business and its actual assets. No exact-one-motif, mandatory hero-photo, pill-button, or universal section-count rule.

State the central idea in business terms: who the visitor is, what they need to decide, and which facts or assets carry the page. Name a few visual relationships and which choices stay flexible. A slate repair business can lead with project photos. An accounting firm without photos can lead with service distinctions and evidenced credentials. Neither example fixes the font or the section count. Accessibility constraints in `accessibility.md` still apply.


For scroll motion, use the stage-scoped `motion.md` contract. Choose business-specific scenes and quiet intervals; preserve operator policies. Carry motionPlan v2 for every new/reauthored route (historical v1 remains compatible) from direction/storyboard to unique native/component target IDs, then inspect before/during/after normal and reduced scrolling. Temporal claims require live observations or recordings; agent review is not human preference.

Motion decision for new authoring: explicitly consider business character, useful emphasis and quiet intervals; compose the opening, development and closing of every authored route; static choices require explicit operator restrictions or connected quiet intervals. Preserve operator off and existing customer policies. Load only the selected motion-count/numeric/text/image/process/sequence recipe from agent/refs. Review actual scrolling for purpose, comprehensible pacing, immediate reading/actions, competing effects, enough stillness, intentional mobile treatment and repeated entrances. Bind scenes and statistic facts to stable compiled IDs; revise intent explicitly when it changes.


Whole-page motion responsibility: for new/reauthored routes use motionPlan v2 and read `motion-page`. Cover every authored route, including expansion/contact; locate opening, development, connected quiet intervals and closing in actual IDs. Keep essential content/actions static and readable. Representative runtime success or two colocated effects is insufficient. Inspect normal desktop/mobile full journeys and reduced/static views; critique distribution, continuity, inert stretches, competition and meaningful differences among routes with located evidence. Return actionable repairs, preserving operator off and historical records. Human preference stays unset.

When the opt-in theme picker has supplied a selected visual identity in CURRENT.md, carry that identity and exact note into direction, storyboard, authoring and critique. Load refs/theme-selection.md for the selection workflow and refs/template-adaptation.md for recorded adaptation answers. Keep the existing authoring mode, preserve the agreed reference relationships and section rhythm, and re-author customer facts. Missing content must follow the user's gap/removal policy.