title: "Style guide — voice and tone" project: "editorial-ops" tags:

• style-guide
• brand
• writing date: 2026-04-07

Voice and tone

Voice — Calm expert neighbor: competent, plainspoken, never sneering at beginners.

Tone — Warm by default; more direct in error messages and security notes.

Principles

1. Lead with the user outcome, then the mechanism.
2. Prefer short sentences; one idea per line in UI copy.
3. Avoid hype adjectives (“revolutionary,” “game-changing”) unless tied to measurable proof.

Do / don’t

Words we like

• vault, index, export, plain Markdown

Words to use carefully

• AI — name the task (“summarize,” “extract tasks”) not the mystique.
• Local-first — define once per article for new readers.

Owner — editorial lead; review after major product positioning changes.