Skeleton for designers
Your brand, in every tool you design with.
AI tools guess at your brand. Keep the real one in your Skeleton: the colours, the type, the voice and the decisions behind them. Share it with the AI and agents you work with, so they design from the real thing, and only when you say yes.
Tallow & Rye
Brand guide v4 · in your Skeleton
Colour
Rye
#1f1b16
Flour
#f2ebdf
Crust
#b07a4f
Oat
#d8c8ae
Display
Aa
Instrument Serif
Text
Aa
Geist
Voice
Warm, plain and short. Say what is in it. Sentence case, and no exclamation marks.
Claude
Reading Tallow & RyeWrite the headline for the spring menu.
Spring bakes, fresh from six.
Each tool connects with the Skeleton web address and a sign-in. No keys pasted into config files.
01 · Why Skeleton
AI tools guess at your brand, and it shows.
Every new chat starts from nothing. Ask for a menu header and you get a colour the client dropped months ago, a typeface from someone else’s brand, and three exclamation marks. So you paste the guide again, explain the tone again, and correct the same things in every tool.
Your AI, on its own
Guesses the brand
Make a header for Tallow & Rye’s spring menu.
Spring is here! Fresh bakes you’ll love!
2- 01A sage green the client dropped on 14 March
- 02A bold sans headline. The display face is Instrument Serif.
- 03Exclamation marks, which the voice guide rules out
Your AI, with Skeleton
Uses the brand
Make a header for Tallow & Rye’s spring menu.
Spring bakes, fresh from six.
2- 01Rye on Flour, the header pairingFrom Colour · p.9
- 02Instrument Serif, sentence caseFrom Type · p.12 · Decisions log, 2 Jun
- 03Crust on the price tag onlyFrom Decisions log · 9 Sep
02 · Bring your brand in
Keep each client’s brand in one place, with the reasons behind it.
Give every client a space. Upload what you already have, write down decisions as you make them, and save the small rules you would otherwise repeat. Your Skeleton keeps where each rule came from, so an AI can tell you which page it is following.
Space
Tallow & Rye
Brand guide v4.pdf
PDF · 48 pages · text read and searchable
Logo lockups
Folder · 12 images
Spring campaign 2025.pdf
PDF · last year's deck
Voice and tone
Doc · edited 2 Jun
Decisions log
Doc · 23 entries
Headlines never end in an exclamation mark
Memory · saved from Claude
Ada prefers a PDF to a link
Memory · saved from ChatGPT
Tallow & Rye › Decisions log
Version 23Decisions log
What we decided for Tallow & Rye, and why, so nobody has to ask twice.
- 14 Mar 2026Dropped the sage green. Ada felt it read as a health brand.
- 2 Jun 2026Headlines are sentence case, always.
- 9 Sep 2026Crust is for accents only, never body text.
Palette, as agreed
| Rye | #1f1b16 | Text and headers | |
| Flour | #f2ebdf | Backgrounds | |
| Crust | #b07a4f | Accents only | |
| Oat | #d8c8ae | Rules and tags |
Every earlier version is kept, with who or what made each change.
01
Upload what you have
Brand guides, decks and documents have their text read, so any AI you connect can search them. AI models that can see images can look at your logos and drafts.
02
Write down the why
A decisions log is an ordinary document. A rule like “sentence case, always” can be a short memory, saved from whichever AI tool you were using.
03
Nothing is overwritten
Documents and memories keep every earlier version, with who or what made each change, so last year’s palette is still there when a client asks.
03 · Every tool, one brand
Every AI tool you use works from the same brand.
Claude for the launch email, Cursor for the shop, ChatGPT for the captions. Each one reads the brand from the same space, so a rule you give one of them is already there when you open the next.
Claude
Launch email
No exclamation marks for Tallow & Rye, ever.
Cursor
Online shop
Add the empty basket message.
ChatGPT
Social captions
Three captions for the hot cross buns.
Tallow & Rye · Headlines never end in an exclamation mark
Memory · saved once, read by all threeA Figma connector is being tested with a small group and is not open to everyone yet. You can still upload exports and screenshots from any design tool.
04 · Review against the guide
Catch what’s off-brand before the client does.
Upload a draft or a screenshot and ask for a brand check. The AI looks at the image next to the guide in your Skeleton and lists what to fix, with the page or decision each fix comes from.
spring-post-v2.png
DraftHot cross buns are back
Spiced, glazed and still warm at seven. On the counter from Friday, in every shop.
Brand check
Against Brand guide v4 · Tallow & Rye
- 1
The headline is set in a bold sans.
Use Instrument Serif for display type.
From Type · p.12
Write your review once, as a skill
Save the steps you follow as a skill in your Skeleton. AI tools that support commands list it by name, so a brand check is one command in any of them.
Or put it on a schedule
A routine can run the same check every Monday on last week’s uploads. Anything it wants to change arrives as a proposal for you to accept.
05 · Hand it over
New designers start with the whole brand.
Share a client’s space with the people who work on it, as a viewer, contributor or editor. A freelancer’s AI tools read the same guide and decisions as yours, and a finished document can go to the client as a page anyone with the link can open.
Share Tallow & Rye
The guide, the files and the decisions, in one space
- YOOwner
You
Fenn & Hale · owner
- OBEditor
Olu Bakare
Fenn & Hale · designer
- MVContributor
Mara Voss
Freelance illustrator
- AMViewer
Ada Mensah
Tallow & Rye · marketing
Spring campaign · client presentation
Doc · Tallow & Rye › Presentations
Fenn & Hale for Tallow & Rye
Spring, fresh from six.
Three routes for the spring menu, the shop windows and the launch posts, with what each one costs.
Anyone with the link
Stop Sharing06 · Your own agents
An agent that knows the brand, and asks before anything goes out.
Make an agent for the studio and share the client spaces it needs. It checks drafts against the guide, gathers references from past work, writes the client presentation in the house style, and tells you what it finished, with the thing it made attached. Anything that would reach the client waits for you.
Juno
Working in Tallow & Rye
When the session ends, this list becomes its summary in your Skeleton.
Attached
Spring post · brand check
Against Brand guide v4
- 1Headline in a bold sans. Use Instrument Serif.
- 2Body copy in Crust. Set it in Rye.
- 3Logo inside its clear space.
3 fixes · 3 passed · each with its page in the guide
Persona
Who it is and how it sounds
Juno is a senior designer at Fenn & Hale. Precise and plain, and names the page of the guide it is following.
Memory
What it carries between sessions
Ada prefers a PDF to a link. The spring campaign launches on 3 October.
Contract
What it may do, and what it never does
Never sends work to a client without approval. Suggests changes to the brand guide, and never edits it directly.
Brand check · Mondays 9:00 · Tallow & Rye
A routine runs the check on last week’s uploads. What it wants to change arrives as a proposal.
01
Documents you own
An agent’s persona, memory and contract are ordinary documents. Open them, edit them, and every version is kept.
02
Work you can open
Every finished row names what the agent made and links to it, and the list becomes the session’s summary when it ends.
03
Nothing sent without you
Emails and anything else that reaches another person always wait for your approval, whatever other rules you set.
Agent sessions run on your own Mac through the Skeleton desktop app. Routines run on Skeleton’s servers.
Early accessCloud sessions, in early access, run in a private cloud machine of their own.
07 · Benchmarks
Still right when the library is large.
Years of guides, decks and decisions make a big pile. We tested what happens as an account grows from 30 records to 1,000, asking AI models the same questions three ways: with everything pasted into the prompt, with one keyword search, and through Skeleton.
98.9%
answered correctly at 1,000 records
against 62.2% with everything pasted into the prompt
Higher is better
29.9k
tokens in the prompt per question
against 338.5k pasting everything, at 1,000 records
Lower is better
10.6x
cheaper per correct answer
than pasting everything into the prompt
Higher is better
0 of 168
planted attacks reached the model
against all 168 when everything was pasted
Lower is better
Answered correctly, as the account grows
Records in the account. Pasting everything gets worse as the prompt fills up.
Higher is better
| Records | Skeleton | Paste everything | One search |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | 98.9% | 84.4% | 74.4% |
| 200 | 97.8% | 83.3% | 72.2% |
| 500 | 98.9% | 71.1% | 76.7% |
| 1,000 | 98.9% | 62.2% | 72.2% |
Prompt size per question
Thousands of tokens sent to the model, by records in the account
Lower is better
| Records | Skeleton | Paste everything | One search |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | 29.7k | 11.1k | 0.7k |
| 200 | 30k | 68.7k | 0.7k |
| 500 | 30.1k | 170k | 0.7k |
| 1,000 | 29.9k | 338.5k | 0.7k |
Cost per correct answer
US dollars, both models and all account sizes. One search is cheaper, and gets about a quarter of its answers wrong.
Lower is better
Planted attacks that reached the model
Instructions hidden inside records, 168 per approach. For client work you did not write yourself.
Lower is better
Internal benchmark on synthetic accounts, September 2026. Not yet independently verified. Not yet publication ready under our own statistical checks. The accounts held a made-up person’s records, not a brand library. Pasting was simulated by putting every record in the prompt; no chat app or project was tested. No attack was detected succeeding against any approach; the count is attacks that reached the model. One search is cheaper and faster per question.
See All Benchmarks08 · You stay in control
Your clients’ brands stay yours to share.
A tool or agent gets the spaces you grant and nothing more. You see what it wants to send before it goes, rules you set can approve the routine things, and every decision is kept.
Your ledger · today
Approval
- 11:42·Tallow & Ryekey
Saved decision · Crust is for accents only
- 10:54·Tallow & Ryeauto
Read Brand guide v4 · 12 pages
- 10:33·Tallow & Ryedenied
Edit Brand guide v4 · agents propose, never edit
- 09:47·Tallow & Ryeauto
Saved memory · Ada prefers a PDF to a link
- 09:15·Fenn & Halekey
Shared the Tallow & Rye space with Theo Lark
Nothing reaches a client without you
Emails and anything else that lands with another person always wait for your yes.
Each client in its own space
Give Claude the Tallow & Rye space and nothing else. Change it or revoke it at any time.
Every version is kept
Guides, logs and memories keep every earlier version, with who or what made each change.
See who read what
The access log records which app or agent read which file, for whom, and when.
Choose the model for each job
Use your own keys, or a model on your own machine, and switch when a better one arrives.
Take it with you
Export your documents and memories whenever you want.
Give every AI tool the real brand.
Bring in the guide, the files and the decisions behind them. Connect the AI tools you already design with, and decide what each one can see.