Editorial Workflow Standard

Applies to all new drafts.

Required draft structure

• SEO title style: clear subject + specific angle (avoid clickbait; 55–70 chars preferred).
• Excerpt is required (1–2 sentences, plain language).
• Use H2 section structure for scannability (minimum 3 H2s for standard features).
• Featured image is required before publish.
• Inline images are required (at least 1 for short posts, 2+ for longer posts).
• All images must include descriptive alt text (entity + action/context).

AI/LLM-friendly writing guidance

• Open with a clear 1–2 sentence summary of what happened and why it matters.
• Use factual structure: what, when, where, who, why, what’s next.
• Name key entities consistently (people, organizations, places, programs).
• Include an update date/time line near top for evolving stories.
• Keep claims attributed and verifiable; avoid unsupported numbers.

Pre-publish checklist

• Title, excerpt, H2s, featured image, inline images, alt text all present.
• Links and category assignment verified.
• Last updated timestamp included where relevant.

Image Relevance QA Pipeline (Default)

Slots required per article: 1 featured + 2 inline.

1. Generate 5 candidates per slot (featured, inline_1, inline_2).
2. Validate each candidate against required/forbidden scene rules and realism-only style.
3. Auto-reject any failed candidate and log exact failure reason.
4. Keep top 2 finalists per slot by QA score.
5. Present finalists before applying unless autoApprove=true is explicitly set.

Default QA Rubric

• Relevance score (0-1, weight 0.45): scene matches article topic and slot intent (featured overview, early inline support, mid inline support).
• Constraint compliance (pass/fail, hard gate): required concepts present; forbidden concepts absent.
• Realism score (0-1, weight 0.35): photo-journal/editorial realism; reject illustration/cartoon/CGI look.
• Composition/utility score (0-1, weight 0.20): clear subject, usable crop at 1200×675, not visually noisy.

Default Thresholds

• Minimum relevance: 0.80
• Minimum realism: 0.85
• Forbidden concept allowance: 0.00 (strict zero)
• Minimum weighted overall score: 0.82
• Dimension requirement: 1200×675 final output for each selected image

Required rejection log fields

• slot
• candidate source/id/url
• failed rule(s)
• reason text
• timestamp (UTC)

Default forbidden concepts list

kitchen, food, indoor dining, office, abstract illustration, cartoons.

Image Sourcing Policy (Default)

• Primary sources (in order): Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay.
• Fallback source: Google Images, only if no primary-source candidates pass QA thresholds.
• Quality requirements: high relevance to article/slot, realistic editorial style only, normalized to 1200×675 output.
• Licensing preference: prefer license-safe sources whenever available.
• Logging requirement: record source URL and source type for every selected image.