RULE: Foundation research before article, article before marketing page. Never write the marketing page first.

Rule: All Candid Creative content for client work and Candid's own marketing follows the research-first sequence: Stage 1 (foundation research, atomic notes, fully sourced + confidence-labeled) → Stage 2 (synthesis outline) → Stage 3 (public article, derived) → Stage 4 (marketing page, linked to article). Never reverse the sequence — never start at Stage 4 and retrofit citations.

Why:

• Research-heavy content written backward from a marketing brief is still backward (Research brief: Research Before Pages — methodology for KB-backed websites (piece 14 of 15))
• The KB-as-RAG-corpus shift (2025-2026) means foundation research is now infrastructure for the writer's own AI assistant, not just a paper-trail
• Casey Newton April 2026 retreat (Casey Newton / Platformer retreat from daily cadence (April 2026): "More scoops, less aggregation and analysis" — AI commoditizes daily synthesis) is the strongest signal that AI commoditizes daily synthesis — original depth is the only durable advantage
• Confidence labels work only when applied at the research stage; retrofitting them after the marketing copy is written is editorial theater, not discipline

How to apply:

• Every client engagement starts with foundation research notes (atomic, sourced, dated, confidence-labeled) in a shared Obsidian vault or the Candid KB
• Articles are commissioned with explicit reference to the foundation notes they derive from — not from a topic brief
• Marketing pages link to articles; articles link to research notes; research notes link to primary sources. Credibility is one click deep, always.
• Diátaxis mode-check before drafting any public article (Diátaxis (Daniele Procida): four documentation types — tutorials, how-to, reference, explanation): tutorial / how-to / reference / explanation. Mixing modes inside one page is the most common content failure.