Headlines

Generate headlines, article titles, social posts, and email subject lines from a brief or draft. Four phases: find the charge, generate volume across named moves, tighten survivors, output per format. Core rule: volume over polish -- breadth beats optimization because word-level features predict winners weakly.

Phase 1: FIND THE CHARGE

Identify the single most compelling tension or stake in the material.

1. Read the brief, draft, or topic statement in full.
2. List every tension candidate: surprise, reversal, cost, conflict, a number that changes the picture, a stake the reader holds.
3. Pick ONE -- the charge. Write it as one sentence naming who is affected and what is at stake.
4. Test: would a reader who saw only this sentence want the rest? A topic label ("Kubernetes networking") fails; a live tension ("DNS resolved yesterday, fails today, nothing changed") passes.

Gate: Charge is one sentence, names a specific tension, is true to source. A weak charge produces 20 weak headlines.

Phase 2: GENERATE VOLUME

Produce 15-25 candidate headlines spread across these ten named moves. Write fast; judge later.

The Ten Headline Moves

Move	Reflex	Example
Curiosity gap	Opens a question only reading can close	"The One-Line Nginx Default That Took Our API Down"
Specificity	Carries the concrete detail into the headline	"CoreDNS Returns NXDOMAIN for Internal Services After Upgrading to 1.31"
Stakes	Names what the reader loses or gains	"Your Postgres Backups May Be Silently Unrestorable"
Contrast	Two true things that should not coexist	"Local Build Passes, Cloudflare Deploy Fails -- Same Commit"
Question	Asks what the reader already wonders	"Is Your Standup Meeting Just a Status Email With Legs?"
How-to	Promises a capability, named precisely	"How to Cut Go CLI Startup From 400ms to 40ms"
Number	Count or measurement as the spine	"Three Config Lines That Halved Our CI Bill"
Voice-of-reader	Phrased in the reader's own words	"I Rotated the API Key and Production Still Worked. That's the Problem."
News peg	Anchored to a current event	"What the AWS Outage Reveals About Your Single-Region Bet"
Negative space	Leads with what is absent or refused	"The Test Suite Had No Test for the Thing That Broke"

Rules:

1. Cover at least 6 of the 10 moves. Tag each candidate with its move.
2. Keep every candidate anchored to the Phase 1 charge.
3. Pull concrete material from the brief: numbers, names, error messages, dates.

Gate: 15-25 candidates, each tagged, at least 6 moves represented. Fewer than 15 means the charge is under-mined -- return to the brief.

Phase 3: TIGHTEN

Select and sharpen 3-5 survivors.

1. Score every candidate 1-5 on: specificity, tension, accuracy to the brief. Sum the three.
2. Keep the top 3-5. Require move diversity -- two candidates from the same move compete for the same reader reflex; keep the stronger one.
3. Tighten each survivor:
   • Cut filler; front-load the charge into the first 3-4 words.
   • Replace any vague noun with the concrete one from the brief.
   • Verify every claim against the brief. The headline promises only what the content delivers.
4. Drop any survivor that needs a hedge to stay accurate. Promote the next by score.

Gate: 3-5 survivors, each accurate, each from a distinct move where possible.

Phase 4: OUTPUT PER FORMAT

Adapt survivors to the formats the task needs.

Format	Constraint	Adjustment
Article title	~60-70 chars; sentence case	Full charge; specificity over wordplay
Social post	Platform length; standalone	Add the stake or number; end with pull, not summary
Email subject line	~30-50 chars	Front-load the charge; cut articles and qualifiers first

Per-platform specs from content-engine (references/platform-specs.md) win on length when both apply.

Output format:

## Headline Options

**Charge**: [one-sentence charge]

### Article titles
1. "[title]" -- [move]
2. ...

### Social posts
1. "[post]"

### Subject lines
1. "[subject]"

**Recommendation**: [pick one, one sentence why]

Gate: Each requested format has 2+ options. Recommendation given with reasoning.

Integration

• writing: when the writing voice pipeline's hook scores below 8, the HOOK-GATE agent may run Phases 1-3 here against the article body to surface the concrete detail the opening should lead with.
• content-engine: supplies titles and subject lines for pipeline output; content-engine owns per-platform format specs.
• Standalone: usable directly on any brief, draft, or topic.

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
Brief has no tension	Input is a topic label or flat release notes	Ask for the one fact that surprised the author, the cost of the problem, or what changed. If none exists, produce plain utilitarian titles.
All candidates sound the same	Generation stayed in 1-2 moves	Walk the move catalog in order; force one candidate per unused move.
Accurate headlines feel flat	Charge is weak, not the wording	Return to Phase 1. Find a sharper tension or report that the brief needs a stronger finding.