---
title: Which documents to add first
description: A short list of the documents worth making rules on day one, what to leave in memory, and how to tell the difference.
---

<span class="vy-eyebrow">Get started</span>

# Which documents to add first

A rule is a document your work has to respect. Most of what an agency writes
isn't that — it's evidence of what happened, which belongs in
[memory](/concepts/memory), where it's searchable but never binding.

The test: **if someone did the opposite of this document, would it be a
mistake?** If yes, it's a rule. If it would merely be *different*, it's memory.

## The first five

Start here. Most agencies have four of these already, in some form.

| Document | Category | Why it's first |
|---|---|---|
| **Rate card** | Pricing & rates | The most-quoted numbers you own, and the ones most often quoted wrong. Add it even if it's a single page. |
| **Terms of business, MSA or contract template** | Terms & commitments | Payment terms, notice, IP, liability. The things a proposal gets wrong quietly. |
| **Brand voice and tone guidelines** | Brand & voice | Also the one with words to avoid — the rule an AI draft breaks most often, and one Vythos can check for you. |
| **How you run a project** | How we work | Stages, revision rounds, what "done" means. Stops every freelancer inventing their own process. |
| **Who signs off on what** | Who decides | Spend limits and approval stages. Short, and it prevents the most expensive kind of mistake. |

Five documents is a working Playbook. You don't need more to feel the
difference.

## Then, for each client you work for

Client rules override your house defaults for that client, and only for that
client. Add them as you need them, not all at once.

- **Their brand guidelines**, if they gave you any — in *Brand & voice*,
  scoped to that client.
- **Their contract**, where the terms differ from yours — in *Terms &
  commitments*. This is what stops a proposal going out at your standard
  payment terms when that client negotiated different ones.
- **Anything they've told you never to do.** A line in an email is enough if
  you put it in a document.

See [Clients](/using-vythos/clients) for how to add one.

## What to leave in memory

Connect these as sources so they're searchable, but don't make them rules:

- **Proposals and pitches.** They record what you offered once, not what you
  charge.
- **Invoices.** A number in an invoice is a fact about one job.
- **Meeting notes and emails.** Useful context, frequently out of date.
- **Case studies and finished work.** Evidence, not instruction.
- **Briefs.** They describe a job, not your standards.

Vythos never promotes any of these to rules on its own — however much a
document looks like policy. An invoice states a number with great authority,
and it governs nothing.

## A few judgement calls

**A document that's half rule, half example.** Brand guidelines with a page of
sample copy are fine as a rule — the examples don't hurt. A proposal template
with your terms buried in it is better split: make the terms a document of
their own.

**A rate card per client.** Perfectly normal. Add the house rate card for every
client, then each negotiated one scoped to its client. The client one wins for
that client.

**A document nobody has updated in two years.** Add it if it's still true. If
you're not sure it's true, that uncertainty is exactly what your team is
already working with — and once it's a rule, the date it was last changed is
visible to everyone.

**A policy that lives in a Slack message.** Not yet a document. Paste it into a
one-page doc in Drive or Notion, then name it. It takes two minutes and it's
the only version of it that can be kept current.

## Size and shape

- **One document, one rule.** If a file covers pricing *and* your process,
  Vythos files it under one category. Splitting it into two documents gives you
  two rules that can be updated and retired separately.
- **Long documents are fine.** Vythos reads the whole file, tables included.
- **Scanned PDFs are not.** A PDF that's a photograph of a page has no text to
  read. Re-export it from the original, or retype the page that matters.
- **Naming matters a little.** A rule is titled from the document's first
  heading, or from the file's name if it has no heading. "Rate Card 2026"
  reads better in a list than "final_v3_ACTUAL".

Next: [The Playbook](/concepts/playbook) — what you've just built, and how
Vythos orders it.