skills/investment-banking/internal-support/style-guide-adapter/references/source-and-safety.md

# Source and Safety Rules

Use this reference when deciding what evidence to rely on and how to protect user artifacts.

## Style-source hierarchy

1. Current user instruction.
2. Official style guide, brand book, writing guide, compliance guide.
3. Approved template, master slide, document template, workbook template, memo shell.
4. Current artifact's existing master/theme/styles/formula semantics.
5. Final approved precedents from same institution/client/team/artifact type.
6. Draft or adjacent precedents.
7. User description.
8. Public brand material or web search.
9. Generic finance conventions.

## Data-source hierarchy

When style adaptation touches facts, numbers, market data, financials, claims, or sources, use the financial source hierarchy instead of style sources:

1. User-provided source files and explicit assumptions in the current task.
2. Connected apps and authoritative internal systems available to the user.
3. Company filings, official releases, transcripts, investor presentations, and source documents.
4. Licensed market-data / consensus / financial-data connectors.
5. Reputable public sources and web search.
6. Clearly labeled assumptions.

A precedent deck or memo can show formatting style, but it is not authoritative evidence for updating facts unless it is itself the source document for the current task.

## Non-deletion default

Unless the user explicitly requests deletion or replacement, do not remove:

- slides, pages, paragraphs, rows, columns, sheets, sections, appendices
- formulas, linked cells, named ranges, pivots, macros, external connections
- citations, footnotes, source lines, hyperlinks, comments, notes, tracked changes
- hidden slides/sheets, speaker notes, bookmarks, cross-references
- legal, regulatory, compliance, or disclosure language

When cleanup is needed, prefer moving to an appendix, flagging for review, or creating a marked-up copy rather than deleting.

## Safe assumptions

If style information is incomplete, make the smallest reasonable assumption:

- use current artifact conventions before importing external style
- preserve existing color semantics in financial models
- preserve official master/footer/source structures
- default to high contrast and readable typography
- use conservative finance prose over promotional prose
- state assumptions only where they matter

## Unsafe assumptions

Do not assume:

- a public logo/website palette is the same as the internal client deliverable style
- one slide/page defines the entire house style
- a draft file reflects final style
- visible formatting is intentional rather than a manual one-off
- a style adaptation permits changing facts, numbers, formulas, disclosures, or recommendations