Stage 4: How to begin
Document-First Extraction or Guided Brand Interview. Switching paths mid-flow.
Stage 4 is the path choice. Two options. The choice shapes the agent's first 30 minutes of work, not the final output.
The two paths
Document-First Extraction
Best when documents are already uploaded.
Brand Crafter reads everything before asking the first strategic question. The agent extracts facts with source tags, lists what it found, lists what is missing, and asks only about gaps. This is the fastest path to a high-confidence canon.
Recommended when Stage 2 received a brand book, a positioning deck, or both.
Guided Brand Interview
Best when documents are scarce or out of date.
Brand Crafter runs the eight stages as a structured conversation. One question per turn. The operator can still upload documents during the conversation. The agent will pause, read, and resume. This is the slower path, and the right one when the canon is being built from scratch.
Recommended for new brands or brands rebuilding the canon.
Switching paths mid-flow
The path is a starting posture, not a contract. The operator can switch at any point:
- Document path to guided. "I do not have a positioning doc. Let us work it out together."
- Guided to document path. "Here is the deck. Read it before the next question."
Brand Crafter reorients without losing prior answers.
After Stage 4
The intake step finishes. The agent loads:
- The Stage 1 brand identity draft.
- Every uploaded document and its annotations.
- The Stage 3 strategic context answers and voice calibration.
- The chosen path.
The flow hands off to Brand Crafter at Stage 1 of the agent's eight stages.