Field Guide Kit — Start Here

What This Kit Does

This kit produces Field Guides — interactive HTML articles that take a business book and turn its core ideas into exercises and AI working sessions that produce real deliverables. Each field guide takes 5 ideas from one book and pairs each idea with an interactive exercise and a guided AI workflow prompt that walks the reader through producing a draft deliverable.

Every field guide built through this kit follows the same production path: book analysis → idea selection → interactive design → prompt engineering → build → QC → campaign spec → delivery.

What a Field Guide Is

A single self-contained HTML file. 14 slides:

• Slide 1: Intro (book title, attribution, thesis, table of contents with deliverable names)
• Slide 2: Diagnostic (3 questions → identifies which idea will hit hardest)
• Slide 3: Mental Model (visual framework that sets up the book's core argument before the exercises begin)
• Slides 4–13: Five idea pairs (concept slide + AI working session slide)
• Slide 14: Bridge (single CTA to Systems Diagnostic — dark background)

Three of the five concept slides are interactive exercises (the reader does something). Two are static reference visuals (the reader absorbs a framework). The AI working session slides each contain a copyable workflow prompt in TASK/INTRODUCTION/STEP format.

Layout Architecture

Every slide uses a full-width stacked layout — never side-by-side columns for content and interactives.

• Text sits in a container (max-width 700px, centered) at the top of the slide
• Interactives, prompts, and visuals sit in a container-wide (max-width 900px, centered) below the text
• Exercise instructions are merged into the concept frame header — not floating as a separate callout above the frame
• Slide 1 (Intro) uses container-wide throughout
• Content scrolls within the slide viewport — no side-by-side competition for horizontal space

This layout matches the shipped interactive narratives (Proof Gap, Subtract/Add). Text introduces at readable width, tools and prompts take full width below.

Visual Rhythm

Slides alternate backgrounds to create visual differentiation:

• Concept/exercise slides (4, 8, 12): cream background (#f5f4f0)
• Session/prompt slides (5, 7, 9, 11, 13): off-white background (#faf9f7) using .section.off-white
• Static concept slides (6, 10): cream background (#f5f4f0)
• Bridge slide (14): dark background (#1a1a1a) with cream text using .section.dark-bridge
• Mental model (3): cream background with dark insight callout box

Every slide title has a gold accent bar: 40px × 3px, #b79d64, rendered via ::after pseudo-element.

Color Rules

Zero rgba(). Every color value in the output file must be a hardcoded hex value. No rgba(), no CSS variables (var()). This is the single most critical brand rule for field guides. The hex conversion table is in File 03 (Golden Example).

Two Theme Directions

Both themes use the same content and layout. The theme determines color treatment and bridge destination.

What It Produces

Field guide: A single HTML file. Named field-guide-[book-slug]-[theme].html. Self-contained — no external dependencies except Google Fonts.

Campaign spec: A single HTML file containing the LinkedIn posts, DM sequence, email sequence, automation logic, calendar, and ship checklist. Named campaign-[book-slug]-field-guide.html.

LinkedIn visual: A single HTML file, 1200x1200, screenshotted and uploaded as an image. Named linkedin-visual-[book-slug].html.

What This Kit Does Not Do

• Choose the book. The book selection comes from the content calendar and must be a book the target audience recognizes.
• Replace book analysis. The kit documents the production process — it does not make the editorial decisions about which 5 ideas to extract or how to frame them.
• Produce the campaign copy. The campaign spec provides the architecture and the structure. The copy is written by the consultant or reviewed against the copy QC before shipping.
• Build the bridge destination. The field guide CTA points to the Systems Diagnostic. If a different destination exists, substitute.

The Gap Protocol

The gap protocol is the most important rule in this kit.

A gap is any editorial decision not yet made or any required input not yet provided. Common gaps: book not fully read, ideas not selected, deliverables not named, interactives not designed, mental model not defined.

The rule: Gaps are flagged — never filled by the builder. When a required input is missing, the build stops. The consultant makes the editorial decisions. The builder does not guess, infer, or pick what seems reasonable.

Filling a gap without the consultant's decision produces a field guide with invented content — ideas the consultant didn't choose, deliverables they didn't name, exercises they didn't design. That field guide won't represent the consultant's expertise and won't book calls.

The Standard Path

1. Book analysis — Read the book. Identify candidate ideas (typically 8–12). Select the 5 that matter most for the target audience. For each idea, determine: does this need an interactive exercise, or does the AI session itself do the work?

1. Idea extraction — For each of the 5 ideas, define: the concept (what the author is arguing), the deliverable (what the reader walks away with), the exercise type (interactive or static), and the prompt design (what steps, what confirmations, what session handoffs).

1. Mental model design — Define the visual framework that sets up the book's core argument. This becomes Slide 3. Typically a two-column comparison (before/after, trap/asset) with a dark insight callout.

1. Build — Follow the build skill (File 05). Build in section order. Complete each section before starting the next.

1. QC — Run the quality checklist (File 04). Zero rgba() confirmed. Prompts tested by pasting into AI and running the full guided session. Interactives tested by clicking through scenarios. Copy QC run against all text. Brand compliance checked.

1. Campaign spec — Build the campaign architecture around the field guide. LinkedIn post, DM sequence, email sequence, visual.

1. Delivery — Host the field guide. Schedule the campaign. Ship.

File Inventory

Relationship to Other Kits

AOS Brand Kit: Governs all visual decisions — palette, typography, theme direction, gold usage rules. The brand kit skill and QC apply to every field guide.

LinkedIn Image Skill + QC: Governs the hand-raiser visual. Quote Card format for field guide campaigns. Must be run before any visual ships.

Copy QC: Governs all written text — slide copy, prompt text, callouts, bridge copy. Run against every field guide before shipping.

LinkedIn Sentence Editor: Governs all LinkedIn post copy in the campaign spec. Run against every post before shipping.

Series Architecture

Each field guide is one book, one campaign, one entry point. The series compounds:

Same format. Same campaign architecture. Different book, different ideas, different prompts. One field guide per month.