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Continuous validation: brand, compliance, continuity, design system

Most teams think of Stunt Double as flow verification: can a user sign up, can they check out. The same machinery enforces standards. An actor that can read every page like a customer can also read every page like a brand editor, a compliance reviewer, or a design-system maintainer, and unlike those humans, it can do it on every deploy.

Who this is for: brand and content teams, legal and compliance owners, design-system maintainers, and PMs responsible for keeping many surfaces coherent.

The guardian pattern

Every validation workflow follows the same three steps, and the MCP prompts (check_brand, check_design_system, check_compliance, check_continuity) encode them:

  1. Codify the standard as actor knowledge. Store the rules on a dedicated reviewer actor (brand and tone guidelines, design tokens and component rules, the list of regulatory requirements). Stored knowledge is what makes audits repeatable: every future run enforces the same standard, not whatever was in the prompt that day.
  2. Assert the standard with observable checks. Each rule becomes a checklist check a reader could verify on the rendered page. Phrase checks in terms of what is visible, not how it is implemented.
  3. Automate the re-run. A standard that is checked once decays. Wire the checklists into a workflow: schedule (weekly brand sweep), deploy trigger (compliance on every release), or Figma events (design-system audit when the library is published).

Brand and tone of voice

Give the reviewer actor your voice rules and let it read the site the way a customer does:

  • "Headlines use sentence case."
  • "Copy addresses the reader as you, never the user."
  • "Error messages state what happened and offer a next step."
  • "No unexplained jargon on pricing or onboarding pages."

Findings come back grouped by page with the offending copy quoted as evidence and a suggested rewrite in the correct voice. Because the rules live on the actor, a rebrand is one knowledge update away from being enforced everywhere.

Design-system adherence

Actors see the rendered product the way a user does, so checks are phrased visually rather than in terms of code:

  • "Body text uses the product font stack; no serif fallbacks anywhere."
  • "Primary CTAs use the brand primary colour and sentence case."
  • "Form fields show a visible focus state."
  • "Empty states use the illustration style, not stock icons."

The natural trigger is a Figma event: when the design library is published or a file changes, the audit re-runs against staging and drift between the system and the shipped product surfaces within minutes. See the Figma guide for the connection setup.

Legal and compliance

Compliance checks exercise behaviour, not just presence:

  • "A cookie banner appears before any non-essential tracking, and the reject option works."
  • "Privacy policy and terms are reachable from every page footer."
  • "Prices include mandatory taxes, or state clearly that they do not."
  • "Required disclaimers appear adjacent to the claims they qualify."
  • "Marketing emails contain a working unsubscribe link" (actors have their own inboxes, so email flows are testable end to end).

Two framing rules keep this workflow honest: your team supplies which regimes apply (the actor never guesses jurisdictions), and results are evidence for counsel to review, presented as observations against the stated requirements rather than legal conclusions. Every finding carries the exact page content as evidence.

Continuity across surfaces

Pricing, terminology, feature names, and promises drift apart across the marketing site, the product, the docs, and emails, and customers are usually the first to notice. The continuity workflow runs mirrored checks per surface ("record the price, billing period, and plan names shown") plus cross-surface assertions ("the price at checkout matches the pricing page"), then reports a discrepancy table ranked by customer impact.

For promise-versus-product continuity, an interview beats a checklist: give a persona the task "the homepage says setup takes two minutes; sign up and see if that holds" and read the transcript.

Example actors and workflows

Each example below is a complete setup: the reviewer actor and its knowledge, the checklist that asserts the standard, and the workflow that re-runs it. Build them from the dashboard, or ask Claude to create them over MCP in one line, for example "Set up a weekly brand sweep on acme.com against these voice rules...". Swap the URLs, rules, and channels for your own.

Brand and tone of voice

Actor      Brand Guardian
           "A meticulous brand editor. Read every page as a first-time
            visitor and flag anything that breaks our voice."
Knowledge  Voice and tone guidelines
           - Headlines use sentence case, no trailing full stops.
           - Address the reader as "you"; never "the user".
           - No exclamation marks in product UI or buttons.
           - Errors say what happened, then the next step.
Checklist  Brand sweep: marketing pages   (run by Brand Guardian, url: acme.com)
           Instructions: Visit the homepage, pricing, and onboarding. Read each
             as a first-time visitor and judge the copy against your knowledge.
           Checks:
           - Every headline uses sentence case.
           - Copy addresses the reader as "you", never "the user".
           - No exclamation marks in buttons, labels, or errors.
           - Every error message states what happened and a next step.
Workflow   Weekly brand sweep
           Trigger: schedule "0 9 * * 1"   (Mondays, 9am)
           Steps:   run_checklist  ->  notification (#brand)

Design-system adherence

Actor      Design-System Guardian
           "A design-system maintainer. Judge the rendered product against our
            tokens and component rules; report what a user would see."
Knowledge  Design system rules
           - Body text: Inter; headings: Inter Display. No serif fallbacks.
           - Primary buttons: brand primary (#4F46E5), sentence case, 8px radius.
           - Inputs show a 2px focus ring in brand primary.
           - Empty states use the line-illustration set, never stock icons.
Checklist  DS adherence: core app   (run by Design-System Guardian, url: staging)
           Instructions: Walk the dashboard, a form, and one empty state.
           Checks:
           - Body and heading text use the product font stack, no serif fallback.
           - Primary CTAs use the brand primary colour and sentence case.
           - Focus states are visible on every input.
           - Empty states use the illustration style, not stock icons.
Workflow   DS drift check on library publish
           Trigger: figma_event   (library publish / file update)
           Steps:   run_checklist  ->  notification (#design-system)

Legal and compliance

Actor      Compliance Reviewer
           "A compliance analyst. Check the product against the requirements in
            your knowledge and report evidence for counsel; never draw legal
            conclusions and never assume a jurisdiction."
Knowledge  Applicable requirements (supplied by the team)
           - GDPR / ePrivacy: consent before non-essential cookies; reject works.
           - Privacy policy and terms reachable site-wide.
           - Displayed prices include GST or state that they exclude it.
           - Marketing emails carry a working unsubscribe link.
Checklist  Compliance sweep: acquisition   (run by Compliance Reviewer, url: acme.com)
           Instructions: Load the site fresh (no prior consent). Exercise the
             cookie banner, footer links, pricing, and a marketing email.
           Checks:
           - A cookie banner appears before any non-essential tracking fires.
           - The banner's reject option works and is honoured.
           - Privacy policy and terms are reachable from every page footer.
           - Displayed prices include GST or clearly state they exclude it.
           - The latest marketing email has a working unsubscribe link.
Workflow   Compliance gate on deploy
           Trigger: vercel_event   (production deploy succeeded)
           Steps:   run_checklist  ->  notification (#compliance + email counsel)

Continuity across surfaces

Actor      Continuity Reviewer
           "Compare what we say across surfaces. Record exact values; flag any
            surface that disagrees with the others."
Checklist  Pricing continuity: marketing   (run by Continuity Reviewer, url: acme.com/pricing)
           Checks:
           - Record the price, billing period, and plan names shown.
Checklist  Pricing continuity: checkout    (run by Continuity Reviewer, url: app.acme.com)
           Instructions: Start checkout for each plan.
           Checks:
           - The price and plan name at checkout match the pricing page.
           - Feature names match the marketing site (no renamed or dropped ones).
Workflow   Weekly continuity check
           Trigger: schedule "0 8 * * 1"
           Steps:   run_checklist (marketing) -> run_checklist (checkout)
                    -> notification (#growth)

For promise-versus-product continuity, an interview is a better fit than a checklist: attach a persona and give it the task "the homepage says setup takes two minutes; sign up and see if that holds", then read the transcript.

Where this fits in the other workflows

  • Codebases: run a compliance or brand audit against the preview deployment alongside change verification, so a PR that breaks a disclosure or ships off-brand copy is caught before merge. See the codebases guide.
  • Figma: a design-system audit on Figma events closes the loop between the library and production. See the Figma guide.
  • Claude: all four prompts are available from the prompt picker once the connector is added; "audit our site against the tone of voice guide" is a one-line ask. See the Claude design guide.

Tips

  • One standard per checklist. A brand sweep and a compliance sweep produce different reviewers' worth of findings; keep the failure signals separate.
  • Keep rules observable. "Feels premium" is not checkable; "no more than one font family per page" is.
  • Start with the standard you already argue about in review. The first audit usually pays for itself by ending a recurring debate with evidence.
  • Session recordings in the dashboard show exactly what the actor saw when it flagged a deviation, which settles disputes quickly.