magnus919_agent-skills/travel-guide/references/editorial-structure.md

Editorial Structure

Use this reference when selecting recommendations, drafting the trip thesis, or turning research into a readable dossier rather than a list.

The trip thesis

Open with one or two sentences that name the trip's actual premise. A thesis should combine destination, traveler, pace, and desired experience:

Seven days in Lisbon built around late mornings, one serious cultural anchor per day, and neighborhoods that can be crossed on foot without turning the holiday into a route-optimization exercise.

A thesis is not a slogan. It is a design constraint that explains why some good options are excluded.

Select anchors, not rankings

Choose a small set of experiences that give the trip shape. For every anchor, write:

• what it is — name the actual place, event, route, or activity;
• why it fits — the concrete connection to the travelers;
• best window — time of day, day of week, or season;
• cost and commitment — range, duration, reservation, or minimum spend;
• failure mode — crowd, weather, closure, energy, price, or uncertainty;
• source IDs — evidence for the current practical claims.

Do not give every candidate equal weight. Label an item as an anchor, optional branch, fallback, or skip. A guide that contains everything has made no choice.

Day architecture

A day should be useful at a glance and forgiving in practice. The default shape is:

1. Anchor — the one thing worth protecting;
2. Texture — a meal, market, street, neighborhood, shop, or ordinary-life detail that gives the day local character;
3. Pause — time, place, or activity that lets the travelers recover;
4. Alternative — a weather, energy, closure, or appetite branch;
5. Practical note — one transfer, booking, or timing fact that prevents friction.

Avoid hour-by-hour plans unless the traveler explicitly wants them. Preserve empty space. Explain what can be dropped first when the day runs late.

Required sections

A typical 6–10 page dossier contains:

1. cover;
2. the brief;
3. route and pace;
4. anchor experiences;
5. day cards;
6. make it special;
7. practical field notes;
8. skip list or failure modes;
9. sources and freshness.

Short trips may combine sections. Long trips may repeat day cards, but do not repeat the same prose template without adding a different decision or texture.

Make it special

The special section should contain one or two specific gestures that are not merely “visit a famous landmark.” Examples include a particular table, a route that joins two interests, a small object to look for, a local performance, a quiet hour after a crowded experience, or a deliberate ritual that belongs to these travelers.

The gesture must be feasible, sourced where needed, and optional. Do not create surprises that depend on access, money, health, or another person's consent.

Visual system

The default visual language is editorial rather than app-like:

• a full-bleed, darkened cover photograph;
• a route journey line on the cover (one dot per stop, dashed connector, night counts) when the route has two or more stops;
• a warm gold eyebrow and restrained red accent;
• large, left-aligned white title text;
• white content pages with generous margins;
• ghost section numbers and compact, scannable cards;
• a color-coded day strip right after the brief, one card per day, with the day's kind (arrive, city, excursion, coast) driving the card color;
• pace and budget meters in the brief when the trip model supplies them;
• a unified warm photo grade on anchor images so mixed-source photos read as one editorial set;
• a bottom-of-page footer per section: a content-derived field note (the first anchor's failure mode, the first day's alternative, the practical recheck item, or the first skip reason) when one exists, a next-section line, and a ghost route mark;
• dark table headers with clear column labels;
• short captions and visible image credits.

Use images to establish place and texture, not to imply that an image proves a recommendation. Keep body text selectable and readable in grayscale or with high-contrast settings. Every meaningful image needs useful alternative text. The day strip is a glanceable overview, not a schedule: it must never invent a timed plan that the day cards do not support. The section footer is the same kind of restraint: it repeats one line already in the model rather than adding new recommendations, and a section with nothing worth saying simply omits the field note.

Companion web page

The companion page uses the same content model but may add a sticky table of contents, responsive cards, expandable practical notes, and explicit source links. It should work without JavaScript, analytics, geolocation, or a login. Do not create a second editorial version that can drift from the PDF source.