Theme
Core concepts
Categories
Every rule is filed under exactly one of seven categories. The list is fixed — you can't add your own — because the categories do real work: they decide ranking, and they decide access. A freelancer can be given Brand & voice and not Pricing & rates only because those are different categories.
The seven
They're listed here strongest first. That ordering is the ranking Vythos uses when two rules at the same scope touch the same question.
| # | Category | What belongs in it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terms & commitments | Contracts, NDAs, IP and liability, data protection |
| 2 | Pricing & rates | Rate card, day rates, payment terms, minimum fees |
| 3 | How we work | Delivery standards, SOPs, quality checks, how work moves |
| 4 | Brand & voice | Brand voice, tone, positioning, words to use and avoid |
| 5 | Who decides | Who signs off on what, approval stages, escalation paths, spend limits |
| 6 | Strategy | Direction, priorities, the plan |
| 7 | Past decisions | Decisions already made, and why |
Scope ranks above category
A client rule in Brand & voice still beats a house rule in Terms & commitments, because scope is checked first. Category ordering decides between rules at the same scope. See Clients and scope.
Choosing between two that seem to fit
Most documents are obvious. These are the ones that aren't:
A rate card with payment terms in it → Pricing & rates. Money and the terms attached to money live together. Keep Terms & commitments for the contract itself.
A contract template → Terms & commitments, even though it contains prices. The document is a commitment; the prices in it are an example of one.
An approval SOP → Who decides if it's about who signs off, How we work if it's about the stages work passes through. If it's genuinely both, put it in Who decides: sign-off is the part that goes wrong expensively.
Brand guidelines with a words-to-avoid list → Brand & voice. That list is also the thing a draft check can test, so it's worth adding properly. See Values.
A positioning document → Brand & voice if it's about how you sound, Strategy if it's about where the business is going.
"We decided not to take crypto clients" → Past decisions, once it's written in a document.
Why the category matters beyond tidiness
- Access is per category. Each teammate gets a level for each one, from full access down to none. A category set to No access is never sent to that person — not in Ask, not to their AI tools.
- Ranking is per category. When an AI tool asks for context, rules arrive in this order, and the tool is told the order is meaningful.
- Values are per category. Vythos only looks for the kinds of figure that make sense for the category — payment terms in Pricing & rates, banned words in Brand & voice. See Values.
Changing a rule's category
Add the rule again from the same document and choose the other category. The old filing stands down and the new one takes over, keeping the rule's history — one document is always one rule.
Two rules in the same category
Perfectly normal: a rate card and a "minimum engagement" note can both sit in Pricing & rates. They only conflict if they state the same value differently, and in that case Vythos refuses to pick a winner and tells your tools the Playbook disagrees with itself. That's a prompt to retire one of them.
Next: Clients and scope.