| 1 | # Modes — Index |
| 2 | |
| 3 | A **mode** is the deck's **narrative + persuasion skeleton** — how the argument is organized and advanced across pages. Resolve **one mode per deck**; Default locks it, while Quick keeps it only in active context. It shapes page sequencing, title voice, page-structure tendencies, and speaker-notes register. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | > A mode is *not* a visual style. **Mode = how you argue; visual style = how it looks** (see [`visual-styles/_index.md`](../visual-styles/_index.md)). Resolve the two independently — any mode pairs with any visual style (a `pyramid` deck can look `swiss-minimal` or `dark-tech`). |
| 6 | |
| 7 | --- |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ## 1. Catalog (5 modes) |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Each mode has its own file with: narrative skeleton, page-structure tendencies, speaker-notes register, and a page skeleton example. Default reads the locked preset file; Quick reads the preset it resolves in active context. A catalog-based `custom` reads every preset actually used as a basis; a novel `custom` reads none. Never glob the directory. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | | Mode | Narrative skeleton | Best for | |
| 14 | |---|---|---| |
| 15 | | [`pyramid`](./pyramid.md) | Conclusion first; structured arguments; data contextualized with supported comparisons where useful | Decision support, analysis, strategy, board / exec reports | |
| 16 | | [`narrative`](./narrative.md) | Story arc — situation → tension → resolution; suspense and turns | Pitches, case studies, brand journeys, fundraising | |
| 17 | | [`instructional`](./instructional.md) | Concept decomposition; step-by-step; parallel exposition | Training, tutorials, explainers, knowledge sharing | |
| 18 | | [`showcase`](./showcase.md) | Visual-led impact; big imagery / numbers; emotional rhythm | Launches, brand reveals, event / promo decks | |
| 19 | | [`briefing`](./briefing.md) | Neutral, complete, scannable; topic titles, even weight, no thesis | Status updates, reference decks, catalogs, meeting packs, FAQs | |
| 20 | |
| 21 | > The five are **argument strategies, not a taxonomy of communication purposes**. A presentation may inform + align + request a decision at once; that composite intent stays as open prose in Default's Stage-1 communication contract or Quick's active brief. Default Stage 2 or the Quick main agent chooses the mode that best carries the dominant body-page spine, or one concrete `custom` act sequence when no preset can serve the stated priority / sequence. |
| 22 | > |
| 23 | > **A mode is a lens, not a mandate over an explicitly preserved structure.** Default applies the confirmed `content_divergence`; Quick applies the equivalent user-stated or active-context boundary to a supplied outline. An ordinary source outline is a Reference that the mode may regroup, reorder, or retitle while preserving its facts and intended relationships. Preserve page order, titles, or wording only when the user presents the outline as the final page plan or explicitly requests that boundary. When the user gives no structure, the mode does the structural lifting. To keep reshaping light, `briefing` imposes the least skeleton. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | --- |
| 26 | |
| 27 | ## 2. Auto-selection — communication contract + source signal → mode |
| 28 | |
| 29 | | Contract / source signal | Recommended mode | Alternates | |
| 30 | |---|---|---| |
| 31 | | Decision / recommendation outcome; analysis, board, investor; criteria and trade-offs must land | `pyramid` | `narrative` | |
| 32 | | Persuasion or mobilization lands through a case, tension, transformation, or origin arc | `narrative` | `showcase`, `pyramid` | |
| 33 | | Understanding or capability must build step by step; course, onboarding, how-to, explainer | `instructional` | `pyramid`, `briefing` | |
| 34 | | Attention / emotion / launch moment is primary; sparse presenter-led delivery | `showcase` | `narrative` | |
| 35 | | Complete reference, status, record, hand-off, FAQ, meeting pack; no thesis dominates | `briefing` | `pyramid`, `instructional` | |
| 36 | |
| 37 | > No keyword decides the mode. Read `communication_intent`, `audience_outcome`, `core_message`, delivery context / afterlife, source texture, and any user-authored outline together. When several purposes coexist, follow the dominant **argument movement of the body pages**, not the cover and not the first purpose word. A data review can legitimately run almost entirely `pyramid`; a progress report whose durable hand-off matters more than persuasion may stay `briefing`. |
| 38 | |
| 39 | **Close calls** — the genuinely adjacent pairs; every other pair is far enough apart that the auto-selection signal decides. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | | Torn between | …the first when | …the second when | |
| 42 | |---|---|---| |
| 43 | | `pyramid` / `briefing` | it must land a recommendation — conclusion-first, figures contextualized toward a decision | it must inform completely without arguing — topic titles, even weight | |
| 44 | | `narrative` / `pyramid` | the point lands through a story arc, tension → resolution | the point lands as a conclusion stated up front, then supported | |
| 45 | | `narrative` / `showcase` | an argument travels through the story | presence leads — concise copy and a clear visual focus | |
| 46 | | `instructional` / `briefing` | the goal is to build understanding step by step | the goal is to lay out a complete reference to scan | |
| 47 | |
| 48 | > "Keynote-style" is a *mode* request, not a visual style — it means showcase pacing (a clear primary idea, hero-scale visual treatment, reveal rhythm), skinned by whatever visual style fits the brand (`swiss-minimal` clean, `dark-tech` dramatic, `glassmorphism` premium). Don't reach for a "keynote" visual style — there isn't one, by design. |
| 49 | |
| 50 | --- |
| 51 | |
| 52 | ## 3. How to use |
| 53 | |
| 54 | | Active profile | Use | |
| 55 | |---|---| |
| 56 | | Default Generate | Strategist reads this index at confirmation `d. Layer 1`, authors the required candidate set, records the confirmed mode in `design_spec.md`, and projects it to `spec_lock.md`; Executor reads the locked preset or exact custom references | |
| 57 | | Quick Generate | The current main agent reads this index, resolves the best-fit preset or one warranted custom behavior without interaction, reads only the exact preset source(s) actually used, and keeps the result in active context without Design Spec/lock | |
| 58 | |
| 59 | **Resolution scope**: deck-wide (one mode per deck). The five are the catalog you select from; if the structure is genuinely mixed, pick the mode of the body pages and let pages vary within it, or use a warranted `custom` blend (§4). Default recommends and confirms; Quick decides directly. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | --- |
| 62 | |
| 63 | ## 4. Escape hatch — `custom` |
| 64 | |
| 65 | `custom` holds **any bespoke narrative direction the five don't give as-is** — and what *kind* of thing it is doesn't matter. It might be a nameable cadence (dialectic 正反合, myth-vs-reality, countdown / Top-N, Socratic), a deliberate multi-act fusion of several modes, or the user's own feel for how the deck should carry (confrontational here, detached there). Don't try to taxonomize it. |
| 66 | |
| 67 | **Default candidate**: Stage 2 includes one visible, non-empty AI custom proposal beside the five presets, spelling out the cadence / fusion / posture in plain language. It is initially unselected and does not replace the best-fit preset recommendation unless the user already supplied that exact custom direction; with a template, it must fit available prototype capacity. When the user selects it, the editable prose is saved as `mode: custom` plus `mode_behavior`; otherwise it remains recommendation-only. The Strategist crystallizes a selected custom direction in the Design Spec first, then projects the behavior and any actual catalog basis to `spec_lock.md`. The Executor reads every listed basis file before following that prose, or follows it directly when the direction is novel. |
| 68 | |
| 69 | **Quick custom**: do not author or display a candidate set. Use `custom` only when no single preset supplies the dominant spine, resolve its behavior directly in active context, and read every catalog source actually used as a basis. Persist nothing. |
| 70 | |
| 71 | **Mandatory — read every catalog source actually used**: If a custom direction combines or borrows an existing mode, name its exact catalog id and read that mode file before writing the synthesis. A `pyramid` + `narrative` fusion therefore reads both [`pyramid.md`](./pyramid.md) and [`narrative.md`](./narrative.md). Default writes `mode_references: pyramid, narrative` beside `mode_behavior`; Quick retains those bases only in active context. Do not add loosely related references after the fact. A genuinely new cadence reads no catalog source. |
| 72 | |
| 73 | > **One value per deck — fusion is *one* `custom`, not several modes.** A deck always resolves a single `mode`. A multi-mode blend is expressed as **one** custom behavior whose paragraph describes the acts — never as several simultaneous modes. |
| 74 | > |
| 75 | > **First ask whether it's really fusion.** A resolved mode is a *tendency*, not a cage: a `narrative` deck can still carry one analytical (pyramid-style) page, an `instructional` deck one showcase reveal — that is leaning within a dominant mode, and needs **no** `custom`. Reach for `custom` only when there is genuinely no single dominant spine. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | **The one thing to avoid**: selecting `custom` as a *dodge* — defaulting to it because picking among the five takes judgment. Default's custom candidate is mandatory; selecting it is not. Quick creates no candidate. When a preset genuinely fits, keep that preset selected. A user-stated direction remains authoritative the same way a user-supplied outline is — see the lens-not-mandate note in §1. |
| 78 |