Patriot University Substack Writer
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Patriot University Substack Writer

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Patriot University Substack Writer

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This skill governs content authored for Patriot University’s Substack newsletters. Substack is an email newsletter first, with a web archive and in-app feed second — that single fact drives every rule below. The skill owns the channel/format layer; it is voice-agnostic and composes a PU voice skill.

When This Skill Applies vs. patriot-editorial-framework

Content situation Governing skill Structure register
KB article / tracker / explainer published to patriot.university (web) patriot-editorial-framework (CAF) Web page, fact-first, Brief→Facts→Team’s Take
Any post for a PU Substack newsletter This skill Email-first, inbox-scannable, hook→argument/teaching→CTA

The CAF trigger is “we are creating an article”; the Substack phrase is a superset. **When “for Substack” is present, this skill wins** — do not apply the CAF web-page structure to an email post.

When NOT to Use

  • The content is destined for the patriot.university website (Echo KB or a WordPress Post) — use the

CAF / opinion path instead.

  • The task is a KB accountability profile, voting guide, or tracker entry.

Instructions

1. Pick the content type and compose the voice

There are exactly two voice registers (do not invent a third):

content_type Voice Compose this skill
opinion Peter’s personal first-person voice patriot-opinion-voice
coach-explainer Institutional PU voice (teaching “how we build it”) patriot-coach-voice

Load the composed voice skill and follow it for tone, argument/teaching structure, citation discipline, and guardrails. This skill layers Substack format on top of that voice — it never overrides it.

Newsletters: citizenanalyst is the primary newsletter (the default, and the initial publishing focus); patriotu is for ad hoc publishing of civic documents. The editor picks the newsletter per post in Compose — it is the publishing venue, independent of content_type (which sets the voice above).

2. Apply the Substack email-first craft rules

Every rule pairs a Substack best practice with how PU voice modulates it. These are non-negotiable format gates; the composed voice skill governs the prose itself.

  • Title = the email subject line. Write for the inbox, not for Google. Aim ~13–17 words,

first-person, specific, curiosity-forward — 3-word titles underperform. No misleading clickbait (Substack content policy). Name things plainly; no hype/superlatives.

  • Subtitle (dek) = the inbox/social preview. 6–10 words. Never restate the title (a restated

dek performs the same as none). Carry the SEO keyword here, not in the title.

  • Cover image is mandatory. The first/cover image is the social card and thumbnail; omitting it costs

most of the post’s reach. Spec: ≥1200×630 px, 14:10. In-body full-width images auto-crop to max 1:1 height. Alt text required. Respect the theme DESIGN.md banned-imagery rules.

  • Above the fold. The hook must land in sentence one (it competes in a crowded inbox). Place an early

subscribe CTA right after the intro.

  • Scannability. Short paragraphs (1–3 lines), H2/H3 subheads, lists, 1–2 pull quotes max, generous

whitespace, left-justified. Bold sparingly — one key phrase per section, not whole paragraphs. No emojis in long-form; almost never exclamation marks.

  • Length. Match to purpose. 1,000–2,000 words is the defensible default; <500 wins on per-word

efficiency; 2,000+ wins on raw reach. Don’t pad. Consistency (weekly) beats length and timing.

  • Email mechanics. Front-load the promise in the first ~30–40 chars of the title (mobile truncates

~37–70). Keep total HTML under ~102 KB (Gmail clips above it) — watch image-heavy posts.

  • Formatting Substack supports. H1/H2/H3, bold/italic/strikethrough, blockquote, callout block,

code block, dividers, footnotes, bulleted/numbered lists, links (Cmd+K), buttons, embeds. Drop caps are web-only (won’t appear in email) — never rely on them.

  • You cannot un-send an emailed post. The skill’s output is always a reviewed draft for paste,

never an auto-publish. Proofread-before-send is a hard gate.

  • Engagement (handled in the export checklist, not the prose). Subscribe CTA every post;

Recommendations on; share to Notes + external social on publish.

3. Structure the post by content type

Opinion (content_type: opinion) — follow patriot-opinion-voice‘s thesis-first arc, dressed for the inbox: cover image → title (subject) → dek (preview) → concrete hook (sentence one) → thesis by paragraph 3 → cited evidence/argument body with subheads → one steelmanned counter-argument → reflective close (question/forward-look, never a CTA bow) → then one light subscribe line → transparency footer.

Explainer (content_type: coach-explainer) — follow patriot-coach-voice‘s explainer skeleton (principle → why → how at reader altitude → worked example → honest limits → what this means for you → close + one CTA) and its public/internal boundary gate. Do not expose internal specifics.

4. Frontmatter contract

Substack drafts live inside the vault at knowledgebase/substack//.md and carry standard KB frontmatter plus a substack: block. publish_target: substack routes placement and triggers the keep-local rule (they never publish to WordPress).


---
slug: <kebab-case, == filename stem>
title: "<= Substack email subject line, ~13–17 words>"
status: draft            # draft | review | published (published = live on Substack after the human send)
publish_target: substack
last_updated: <YYYY-MM-DD>
audience: public
substack:
  newsletter: citizenanalyst        # citizenanalyst | patriotu
  subtitle: "<dek / inbox preview, 6–10 words, never restates the title>"
  cover_image: <path to ≥1200×630, 14:10 cover>
  cover_alt: "<required alt text>"
  content_type: opinion                # opinion | coach-explainer
  section: null
  paywall: false
  reading_time_min: <int>
opinion: true            # true only for content_type: opinion; false for coach-explainer
ai_disclosure: "Research and drafting assisted by AI; all facts verified by [editor]."
sources:
  - "<source anchor>"
---

5. Gate handoff

Because the draft lives inside the vault, it passes through the real PU pipeline — frontmatter validation, stream-residue/PII, citation gate, DCS floor, readability, quality-gate skills, and the knowledge graph — the same gates every KB doc passes. It is kept off the live WordPress site by the keep-local rule (pu_publish skips publish_target: substack). Run the Substack preflight before considering the draft done; do not export until it is clean.

6. Export (there is no Substack write API)

On a clean preflight, produce the paste-ready export — Substack-compatible HTML + a paste checklist — and hand it to the editor. The editor pastes into the correct newsletter, uploads the cover + alt text, adds the early and closing subscribe CTAs, sends a test email to self and reads it on a phone, runs an A/B title test if ≥200 subscribers, and on publish shares to Notes + external social. The human performs the irreversible send.

Guardrails

  • Inherit all guardrails of the composed voice skill (patriot-opinion-voice or patriot-coach-voice).
  • Never auto-publish — output is always a reviewed draft for paste (emailed posts can’t be un-sent).
  • No misleading clickbait titles (Substack content policy) — curiosity, not deception.
  • Cover image + alt text are mandatory; respect DESIGN.md banned-imagery rules.
  • AI transparency disclosure is mandatory per PU convention.

Relationship to Other Skills

  • Composes patriot-opinion-voice (personal voice) or patriot-coach-voice (institutional

explainer voice) — this skill never supplies voice itself.

  • Distinct from patriot-editorial-framework (CAF), which structures web content for

patriot.university, not email newsletters.

  • Cover images use the infographic-builder / Flux asset pipeline.

Full build context: docs/substack-writer-skill-plan.md.

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