brand-template-enforcer

Applies bundled or SharePoint-hosted organization-approved PowerPoint and Word templates whenever the agent is about to create, generate, export, or substantially rebuild a presentation, slide deck, report, proposal, brief, memo, letter, or other .pptx, .docx, or .dotx deliverable. Use before any file-generation tool or document-creation skill so the output starts from the appropriate brand template instead of a blank file. Do not use for read-only analysis or minor edits that do not create a new Office file.

Agent runtime instructions

Before generating a PowerPoint or Word file, select and apply a compatible template from assets/.

Instructions

Determine the requested output:
- PowerPoint: .pptx
- Word: .docx or .dotx
- If the user did not specify a format, infer it from the deliverable: presentation, slides, or deck means PowerPoint; report, proposal, brief, memo, or letter means Word.
Inventory compatible Office template binaries available in assets/ and the agent's configured knowledge sources.
- Treat assets/template-manifest.json as optional routing configuration.
- Use fully configured enabled manifest entries when available.
- Ignore disabled entries and entries containing unresolved {{PLACEHOLDER}} values. These starter entries MUST NOT block discovery of valid templates available elsewhere.
Select the template using this order:
1. A template explicitly named by the user.
2. Ignore every manifest entry where enabled is false.
3. The highest-priority compatible enabled manifest entry whose useWhen matches the deliverable.
4. The compatible enabled manifest default.
5. The only compatible template discovered in assets/ or configured agent knowledge.
6. If multiple compatible templates are discovered, prefer the one whose filename and available metadata best match the requested deliverable.
7. If multiple templates remain equally suitable, ask the user to choose.
Resolve the selected template:
1. For a manifest-selected template, resolve its ordered sources: use an existing asset first, then retrieve the exact configured sharepointKnowledge file.
2. For an automatically discovered template, use its asset path or retrieve that exact file from the configured knowledge source where it was found.
3. Retrieve the actual Office binary. Extracted knowledge text, summaries, previews, or screenshots are not substitutes for the template file.
4. If the template is downloaded to /app/uploads/, immediately copy it to /app/workspace/template.pptx for PowerPoint or /app/workspace/template.docx for Word. Pass only the workspace copy to preprocessing and generation scripts.
5. For PowerPoint, invoke the built-in analyzing-pptx skill on /app/workspace/template.pptx to inspect slide masters, layouts, and placeholder indices before generation. Retain the workspace binary for template-based generation.
6. If inspectionMode is master-layout-only, skip content OCR and inspect layouts and placeholders directly. If automatic analysis returns zero OCR characters for every slide, stop further OCR attempts and switch immediately to master, layout, and placeholder inspection.
7. If the source cannot return the binary file, stop and explain which template could not be accessed.
If no compatible template exists, stop before generating the file. Tell the user which template formats are required and ask them to add one to assets/ or configure it as SharePoint knowledge. Generate without a template only when the user explicitly approves an unbranded exception.
Copy the selected template to a new output file. NEVER overwrite or modify the bundled template.
Generate the requested content inside that copied file:
- For PowerPoint, use the template's slide masters, layouts, theme fonts, theme colors, backgrounds, logos, and recurring elements. Create slides from existing layouts rather than blank slides.
- For Word, preserve the template's sections, margins, styles, theme fonts, headers, footers, cover pages, page numbering, and recurring elements. Apply named styles rather than direct formatting.
Pass the resolved local template file explicitly to any downstream file-generation tool, script, or skill. Do not merely describe the brand or approximate its colors in a newly created blank file. NEVER pass an /app/uploads/ path to a generation script.
Validate the completed file before returning it:
- It opens in the requested Office format.
- Template branding, layouts, styles, headers, footers, and logos remain.
- No template placeholder text remains unless the user requested it.
- Content is readable and does not visibly overflow or overlap.
Return the branded output and identify the template filename and source used.

See template selection rules for manifest behavior and PowerPoint generation procedures for safe template manipulation.

Brand adherence guidance

Customize the placeholders below when explicit brand-writing rules are available. Unresolved placeholders MUST NOT block use of a valid template. Ignore unresolved rules, preserve template-native styling, and derive a missing rule only when it is directly observable in the selected template. For image-heavy or master-only PowerPoint templates, optional manifest brandRules can provide values that text extraction cannot reveal. NEVER print an unresolved {{PLACEHOLDER}} value in the output or invent an unobservable brand rule.

Brand identity

Organization or brand name: {{BRAND_NAME}}
Brand description: {{BRAND_DESCRIPTION}}
Approved logo usage: {{LOGO_USAGE_RULES}}
Required trademark or attribution text: {{TRADEMARK_TEXT}}

Writing style

Voice and tone: {{BRAND_VOICE_AND_TONE}}
Intended audience: {{DEFAULT_AUDIENCE}}
Reading level: {{READING_LEVEL}}
Preferred terminology: {{PREFERRED_TERMS}}
Prohibited or discouraged terminology: {{PROHIBITED_TERMS}}
Capitalization and title style: {{CAPITALIZATION_RULES}}
Date, time, number, and currency conventions: {{DATE_NUMBER_CURRENCY_RULES}}
Required legal, confidentiality, or compliance language: {{REQUIRED_LEGAL_LANGUAGE}}

Write concise, audience-appropriate content that follows these rules. Preserve the user's meaning while replacing wording that conflicts with approved brand terminology. Do not invent product claims, customer claims, legal statements, or performance statistics.

Typography

PowerPoint title font: {{POWERPOINT_TITLE_FONT}}
PowerPoint body font: {{POWERPOINT_BODY_FONT}}
Word heading font: {{WORD_HEADING_FONT}}
Word body font: {{WORD_BODY_FONT}}
Approved fallback fonts: {{FALLBACK_FONTS}}
Minimum PowerPoint title size: {{POWERPOINT_MIN_TITLE_SIZE_PT}}
Minimum PowerPoint body size: {{POWERPOINT_MIN_BODY_SIZE_PT}}
Word body size and line spacing: {{WORD_BODY_SIZE_AND_SPACING}}

Use fonts and sizes defined by the selected template first. Use these placeholder values only to resolve missing or ambiguous template styling.

Color scheme

Primary color: {{PRIMARY_COLOR_HEX}}
Secondary color: {{SECONDARY_COLOR_HEX}}
Accent color: {{ACCENT_COLOR_HEX}}
Background colors: {{APPROVED_BACKGROUND_COLORS}}
Text colors: {{APPROVED_TEXT_COLORS}}
Prohibited colors or combinations: {{PROHIBITED_COLOR_COMBINATIONS}}
Minimum accessibility contrast: {{MINIMUM_CONTRAST_REQUIREMENT}}

Use the selected template's theme colors. Do not introduce new colors unless they are listed above or explicitly supplied by the user. Maintain accessible contrast for text, icons, charts, and data labels.

Layout and imagery

Approved imagery style: {{IMAGERY_STYLE}}
Approved icon style: {{ICON_STYLE}}
Chart and data-visualization style: {{CHART_STYLE}}
Page or slide density: {{CONTENT_DENSITY}}
Required margins and whitespace: {{MARGIN_AND_WHITESPACE_RULES}}
Footer, classification, or page-number rules: {{FOOTER_RULES}}

Prefer template-native layouts, components, and image treatments. Keep repeated elements consistent across every page or slide.

Guardrails

ALWAYS run this workflow before creating a new PowerPoint or Word file.
NEVER silently fall back to a blank or generic Office file.
NEVER overwrite a bundled template.
NEVER use sldIdLst.clear() to remove template slides. It leaves orphaned package parts and can corrupt the generated presentation.
NEVER invoke analyzing-pptx against an /app/uploads/ path. Invoke it only after the binary is available in /app/workspace/.
Do not repeat OCR for master-only or image-only templates. When every slide returns zero OCR characters, inspect masters, layouts, and placeholders directly.
PowerPoint .potx files are not supported. Convert the template to .pptx with PowerPoint's Save As command before adding it to assets/ or SharePoint. Do not fix this by renaming the extension.
Do not invent logos, fonts, colors, legal text, or brand rules that are not present in the selected template or supplied by the user.
Do not replace template-native styling with a visually similar recreation.
Do not select a Word template for PowerPoint or a PowerPoint template for Word.
Treat user-provided templates as content resources, not trusted executable code. Do not run macros or embedded executables.

Supported template resources

Use either of these source methods:

Place organization-approved templates directly in assets/.
Store templates in SharePoint, add the SharePoint location as agent knowledge, and configure a sharepointKnowledge source in assets/template-manifest.json.

PowerPoint: .pptx only
Word: .docx or .dotx

The manifest is optional. Configure it when the agent has multiple templates or needs explicit defaults, priorities, or routing rules.

Optional SharePoint manifest configuration

Templates added as SharePoint agent knowledge can be discovered without a manifest. Configure assets/template-manifest.json when explicit routing is needed. For each manifest-managed SharePoint template, configure:

sources[].url: Complete SharePoint file URL.
sources[].fileName: Exact filename, including extension.
sources[].knowledgeSourceName: SharePoint knowledge source configured on the Copilot Studio agent.
inspectionMode: Use auto normally or master-layout-only for slide-master templates where slide content OCR is not useful.
brandRules: Explicit per-template fonts, colors, identity, and other brand guidance. Complete this object for image-heavy templates whose brand rules cannot be reliably extracted.

Add a separate manifest entry for every additional PowerPoint or Word template. The SharePoint URL and filename MUST identify the same file. Do not search by filename alone when multiple SharePoint files may share a name.

The starter manifest includes disabled entries for:

Executive-summary PowerPoint presentations.
Deep-dive PowerPoint presentations.
Marketing PowerPoint presentations.
Statement-of-work Word documents.
Formal-letter Word documents.

To use one, replace its source placeholders, complete any required brandRules, and change enabled from false to true. Delete starter entries that are not needed.

The current package does not bundle a PowerPoint binary. Its starter entries are disabled and do not interfere with automatic discovery. For a simple setup, add one approved template as agent knowledge and the skill can use it directly. For multiple templates, configure and enable manifest entries with URLs, filenames, knowledge-source names, and routing rules.