Playbook
Rules
The editorial rules every draft is graded against, where they come from, and how to add, reword, switch off or retire one.
The Playbook's Rules tab is the standard Scout writes to. Every draft is graded against these rules, and the review score on each draft reports how many it met as "Your playbook 86%". The line under the heading counts them: "24 in force, 3 turned off. Every draft is graded against these."
Rules are grouped by what they govern. Each carries its origin and its history.
Where rules come from
Three places, and each rule says which.
- The standard editorial rubric Scout starts every workspace with: accuracy, sourcing, structure, metadata.
- Your documents. Rules read from the brand guidelines, style guides and SOPs you gave Scout during setup or later under Add your knowledge. These carry a link to the source and the excerpt they were read from.
- Your edits. Patterns Scout noticed in how reviewers corrected drafts, proposed under Learned rules and accepted by a person.
The eight categories
| Category | Covers |
|---|---|
| Accuracy | What has to be true, and what has to be sourced. |
| Voice | How your writing sounds when it is working. |
| ICP and audience | Who the writing is for, and what they already know. |
| SEO and search | How a piece earns the search it is written for. |
| Structure | Shape, order and how a reader moves through a piece. |
| Metadata | Titles, slugs and descriptions. |
| Linking | Where a piece points, and why. |
| Your own rules | Rules specific to this workspace. |
What a rule card shows
- The rule itself, written as an instruction.
- Its category and severity. Severity decides what a failure does in review: a blocking rule stops a draft from being approved until the flag is dealt with; others raise a flag the reviewer weighs.
- Provenance: where it came from, with a link to the source document and the excerpt it was read from.
- Confidence, for rules Scout read or learned rather than was told.
- An on/off toggle. A rule that is off stays in the list but is not graded.
- Edit and delete.
- "N versions", a disclosure that opens every earlier wording: "v2 · in force · 12 March 2026 · Dana".
Adding and rewording
Add a rule opens a dialog with the guidance "Write it the way you would say it to a new writer on their first day." Its fields:
- Name.
- The rule, with the note "Specific enough that two reviewers would agree on whether a draft breaks it."
- Category and Severity.
- Evaluation mode: whether the rule is checked mechanically, by Scout reading the draft, or both.
Editing an existing rule opens the same dialog, headed Edit this rule, with the note "Rewording a rule keeps the old version. This becomes v3." Nothing is overwritten; the versions disclosure shows what changed and when.
Owners and admins can add, edit, toggle and delete rules. Everyone can read them.
How rules are used in review
On every draft, Scout checks each rule in force and raises a flag for each one the draft breaks. The review sidebar shows the result as two numbers, the generic rubric and Your playbook, and lists the flags under What Scout found. A reviewer applies a fix, dismisses the flag with a reason, or sends it back with the draft. Dismissing with a reason is how Scout learns a rule is being read too literally. See Flags, comments and sources.
If the tab is empty
"Your playbook is empty. Scout starts every workspace with a standard editorial rubric and adds the rules it reads from your own style guides. If neither has happened yet, finish onboarding or add the first rule yourself."