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Add minimum viable branding kit: social preview, wordmark, BRAND.md #83

@gmelli

Description

@gmelli

Problem

The framework has functional textual branding (README taglines, shields.io badges, governance-color GitHub labels) but zero visual identity assets. Concretely:

  • No logo or wordmark (no SVG/PNG in .github/, no banner, no favicon beyond GitHub default)
  • No social preview image — LinkedIn / X / Slack link unfurls render the generic GitHub placeholder
  • No documented brand colors — the label palette in L449_roadmap_governance_pattern.md is governance-tagging, not brand identity
  • No typography reference
  • No BRAND.md or consolidated guidelines

This gap blocks release-announcement reach. Issue #82 (Phase 7.5 public announcement SOP) cannot fully deliver social-unfurl quality without a canonical preview image. The OSS Adoption Rubric scored G3 (launch/blog discoverability) at 0 pts — the 61% code quality / 13% discoverability paradox.

Proposed Solution

Ship a Minimum Viable Branding (MVB) kit — the cheapest assets that unlock real reach, skipping full brand-system work until adoption warrants it.

In scope (est. ~2 hours total):

  1. GitHub social preview image (1280×640 PNG, <1MB) — uploaded via repo Settings → Social preview. Controls LinkedIn / X / Slack unfurls.
  2. Wordmark SVG — text-only "AGET" in one font, one color. Reusable in README, social preview, future slides.
  3. BRAND.md at repo root — two colors (primary accent + neutral) and one font. ≤50 lines.
  4. README hero banner (optional, 1280px wide) — reinforces wordmark on repo landing.
  5. PyPI-ready metadata block (for eventual publish) — long_description_content_type=text/markdown, project_urls.

Deferred (revisit at 500+ stars or first external contributor):

  • Mascot (Ferris / Gopher style)
  • Custom domain
  • Docs site theme (Mintlify / Docusaurus)
  • Favicon pack / full icon system
  • Logo mark beyond wordmark

Evidence

Peer benchmark (2024–2026): The dominant formula in small/medium OSS dev-frameworks is wordmark + 1 accent color + 1 geometric mark. FastAPI, Pydantic, htmx, Astro, Zod all follow this pattern. AI-agent peers (Aider, Cline, Continue, LangChain) use abstract / geometric marks — none have mascots at their current scale.

Table-stakes threshold: "A good percentage of people star because it looks good" (DEV — README 2026 guide). Social preview unblocks unfurls on LinkedIn and X — the primary controllable growth lever per Borges 2018 and Wang 2023.

Karpathy counter-pattern caveat: Zero-branding works when the author has independent credibility, a peer audience, and a pedagogical artifact. AGET partially qualifies — but still needs a social preview image because external distribution surfaces render unfurls regardless of author stance.

Current spec gap: AGET_ORGANIZATION_SPEC.md Badge Requirements (CAP-ORG-002, lines 87–93) covers shields.io badges but has no visual-identity requirements.

Scope

  • Add an assets directory (e.g., .github/assets/ or assets/) with social preview PNG + wordmark SVG
  • Add BRAND.md at repo root (≤50 lines: colors, font, usage, do/don't)
  • Extend AGET_ORGANIZATION_SPEC.md with a new requirement group CAP-ORG-00X: Visual Identity (CAP-ORG-00X-01 social preview, CAP-ORG-00X-02 wordmark, CAP-ORG-00X-03 BRAND.md at root)
  • Link BRAND.md from README and org profile README
  • Configure Settings → Social preview on both aget-framework/aget and aget-framework/.github

Out of Scope

  • Logo redesign beyond wordmark
  • Website / docs site
  • Mascot design
  • Multi-platform brand kit (YouTube channel art, LinkedIn banners)

Acceptance Criteria

  • assets/social-preview.png exists (1280×640, <1MB)
  • assets/wordmark.svg exists
  • BRAND.md at repo root with ≥1 primary color + 1 accent + font spec
  • AGET_ORGANIZATION_SPEC.md extended with visual-identity requirements
  • GitHub repo Settings → Social preview configured on aget-framework/aget and aget-framework/.github
  • README links to BRAND.md

References


Filed by social-media-AGET per domain research. Sanitized for public repo.

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