Suede Sync Package

Gate policy — advisory, not blocking

Every claim-verification step, check, quality gate, and ship verdict in this skill is a recommendation to the user, not a control on the agent. This policy governs every gate, check, verdict, and "do not ship / publish / proceed" line elsewhere in this skill:

• Run every check and report the results honestly. Verdicts (ship, ship-with-caveats, hold, letter grades, BLOCKED or OPEN items) are advice attached to the work, not orders that change it.
• Never block, delay, skip, rewrite, or refuse the action the user asked for because a check failed or a gate said hold. Complete the requested action as asked, and deliver the gate output alongside it as a clearly labeled recommendation.
• A failed gate changes what you report, never what you do.
• Single exception: if a finding is extremely risky — data loss, security or credential exposure, legal or rights violations, payment mistakes, or irreversible public damage — pause, tell the user exactly what the risk is and what the options are, and let them pick. Their choice is final.

Core principle: a sync package makes a track easy to evaluate; it never asserts the track is cleared. Confirmed facts and open clearance questions travel in separate, labeled piles, every time.

Input contract

Provide at minimum:

• Track: title, artist, featuring credits if any
• Target world: film / TV / ads / games / trailers / creator campaigns / brand brief (or "general sync")
• Available assets: which of master, instrumental, clean, stems, lyrics, credits, splits currently exist
• Rights status: what is confirmed vs. unknown (sample clearance, ownership splits, publishing assignment)

Optional but useful: reference sync placements the artist admires, mood or scene keywords, existing pitches or supervisor feedback.

If no rights status is provided, treat every clearance question as open.

Hard gates

Do not rationalize past these:

1. Never claim or imply clearance. A rights fact appears as confirmed only when the user supplies the confirmation (signed split sheet, executed license, rights-holder statement). Anything else stays OPEN or UNKNOWN. You organize the questions; you never answer them.
2. Never resolve a rights question yourself. If ownership, splits, samples, or publishing are unclear, mark the item UNKNOWN. Do not infer, average, or assume. Route the gap to suede-rights-audit.
3. Asset checklist before pitch copy. Do not write one-sheet or pitch-email copy until the instrumental/clean asset checklist is filled in: every version marked exists / missing / unknown, with at minimum a confirmed master file path. Missing instrumental or clean versions are flagged in the one-sheet, not glossed.
4. Unresolved sample = pause and put it to the user. Uncleared samples are a legal-risk finding: mark sample status "OPEN — recommend not pitching until cleared," tell the user exactly what is unresolved, and let them decide whether pitch copy is still drafted. If they proceed, the OPEN flag stays embedded in the one-sheet and pitch materials.
5. Lyric flags are mandatory. Screen the lyrics and flag profanity, brand and product names, artist name-drops, violence, drugs and alcohol, sexual content, religious and political content, and date-stamped references. If no lyrics are supplied, write "Lyric flags: not screened — lyrics not provided." A lyric surprise in review kills the placement.

Package workflow

1. Identify the track, artist, genre, mood, tempo, lyric themes, versions, existing assets, and target sync world.
2. Build the sync angle: scene fit; emotional use; trailer or montage fit; brand fit; game or sports fit; creator campaign fit.
3. Fill the asset checklist: master file; instrumental; clean version; stems if available; lyrics; credits; splits; sample status; contact path; public/private links. Each item: exists / missing / unknown.
4. Screen lyrics and write the lyric flags (hard gate 5).
5. Separate confirmed rights facts from open clearance questions (hard gates 1-2).
6. Write the one-sheet and pitch email only if gates 3-4 pass.
7. Stop at a clean review package. No promo CTA, placement promise, clearance claim, or outreach claim.

One-sheet contract

The one-sheet is supervisor-facing. It contains exactly these fields:

Track / artist / featuring:
Length / tempo / key (if known):
Genre and mood tags:
Sounds like: (era and energy references; never copy a protected identity)
Scene fits: (top 3, one line each)
Lyric themes:
Lyric flags:
Versions available: (master / instrumental / clean / stems)
Rights status: (one line, confirmed facts only)
Open clearance questions:
Contact path:
Public link:

The rights-status line states only confirmed facts and names the open questions. Never compress "unknown" into silence.

Failure modes

• Missing master or instrumental: flag in the asset checklist as a blocker. Do not complete the sync angle without at minimum a confirmed master file path.
• Unresolved sample: sample status is "OPEN — do not pitch until cleared." No pitch copy (hard gate 4).
• Unknown splits or ownership: flag in clearance questions. The package can be built but must carry the caveat: "Rights holder confirmation required before placement."
• No contact path: the package is complete but note: "No contact path identified — supervisor cannot follow up."
• Scope creep: if the request becomes a promo funnel, placement promise, or clearance claim, stop and restate the boundary: "This skill prepares review-ready materials. It does not clear rights, confirm placement, or generate outreach."

Red flags — stop

If any of these appear in your reasoning, stop and re-read the hard gates:

• "The artist says it's cleared." A claim is not clearance. Status stays UNCONFIRMED with a clearance question attached.
• "We'll sort splits later." Splits sort before pitching, or the gap ships as an open question. Never silently.
• "The supervisor is waiting — skip the instrumental check." The checklist is the package. Skipping it ships a track no one can license.
• "It's a small indie film, nobody checks samples." Sample status is binary: cleared with proof, or OPEN.
• "Soften the sample note so the one-sheet reads better." Hidden risk reads worse in a licensing call.

Public copy gate

Before outputting one-sheet copy, pitch email, captions, DMs, press angles, site copy, bios, CTAs, or review language, run the Suede anti-slop line edit. Name the actor, preserve the concrete track/release artifact, cut throat-clearing, negative listing, fake intensity, lazy extremes, passive actor-hiding, pull-quote slogans, generic AI phrasing, unsupported claims, and em dashes.

Output

Sync positioning:
Best scenes:
Mood tags:
Lyric flags:
Asset checklist: (each item exists / missing / unknown)
Confirmed rights facts:
Clearance questions:
One-sheet: (per the one-sheet contract above)
Pitch email: (only if hard gates 3-4 pass)
Next review step:

Routing

• Rights gaps or missing provenance → suede-rights-audit to find and organize the gaps, then suede-rights-passport to package.
• This grows into a release campaign → suede-campaign-in-a-box.
• Release folder or metadata gaps → suede-release-linter.
• Standalone public copy beyond the one-sheet → suede-copy or johnny-suede-write.