# Volt — Voice & Tone

Precise, not precious · Fast by default · Calm under load · Builder-to-builder · Confidently minimal

## Personality

- **Funny ↔ Serious:** leans serious (+1) — Volt sits on critical build and deploy paths, so the voice should be steady and serious, with little room for jokes.
- **Formal ↔ Casual:** leans casual (+1) — Volt should sound developer-native and direct, using contractions and plain language without becoming chatty.
- **Respectful ↔ Irreverent:** respectful (-2) — The audience is technical and often under delivery pressure; Volt should respect their time, systems, and expertise.
- **Enthusiastic ↔ Matter-of-fact:** leans matter-of-fact (+1) — Volt can be confident about speed and reliability, but the strongest tone is factual and proof-led rather than excited.

## Traits

- **Precise, not precious** — Use exact technical language without dressing it up. Prefer concrete nouns, active verbs, and clear system behavior over metaphors or hype.
  - Why: Volt sells build and deploy primitives to developers and infrastructure teams. Its audience needs to know what happens, when, and why—not be persuaded with vague claims.
  - e.g. "Deploys start in under 2 seconds and stream logs as each step runs."
- **Fast by default** — Write with momentum. Keep sentences short, lead with outcomes, and remove anything that slows comprehension.
  - Why: Speed is central to Volt’s product promise. The voice should feel as efficient as the platform: low-latency, direct, and easy to act on.
  - e.g. "Push code. Volt builds it, caches what it can, and ships the release."
- **Calm under load** — Sound steady, especially when something fails. Explain status, impact, and next steps without panic, blame, or over-apology.
  - Why: Build and deploy infrastructure sits on critical paths. Developers trust platforms that communicate incidents and errors with clarity and control.
  - e.g. "The deploy failed because the health check timed out. No traffic was shifted. Review the logs or retry the deploy."
- **Builder-to-builder** — Speak like an experienced engineer helping another engineer: practical, respectful, and low-ego.
  - Why: Volt’s buyers and users are technical. The brand earns credibility by being useful, not flashy, and by assuming the reader is competent.
  - e.g. "Use branch rules to decide which commits build, deploy, or wait for approval."
- **Confidently minimal** — Make strong claims only when they are specific and supportable. Avoid inflated language; let the product’s performance carry the message.
  - Why: Developer infrastructure brands lose trust when they overpromise. Volt should sound confident because it is reliable, not because it is loud.
  - e.g. "Reliable builds. Predictable deploys. Primitives your team can build on."

## Tone by context

- **Homepage and marketing pages:** Lead with the core outcome: fast, reliable builds and deploys. Use compact, high-confidence lines. Avoid broad transformation language like “revolutionize your workflow.”
- **Product onboarding:** Be direct and sequenced. Tell developers what to connect, what Volt will do next, and how long it should take. Reduce uncertainty with clear labels and expected outcomes.
- **Success states:** Acknowledge progress without confetti-level enthusiasm. Confirm what happened and provide the next useful action.
- **Errors and failed builds:** Stay calm and diagnostic. Name the failed step, explain the likely cause when known, state whether anything changed in production, and offer a next action.
- **Incident or status updates:** Be transparent and timestamped. Prioritize impact, scope, mitigation, and next update. Do not soften or obscure reliability issues.
- **Documentation:** Use plain technical language, short examples, and exact command names. Assume competence, but do not assume prior knowledge of Volt-specific concepts.
- **Enterprise or procurement:** Become slightly more formal and assurance-led. Emphasize reliability, controls, auditability, support, and integration with existing engineering systems.

## Messaging

**Audience:** Developers, platform engineers, DevOps teams, and engineering leaders who need faster, more reliable build and deploy infrastructure without maintaining brittle internal tooling.
**Value:** Volt gives engineering teams fast, reliable build and deploy primitives they can use to ship production software with less waiting and less operational drag.

- **Fast execution** — Volt reduces idle time across the software delivery path with quick starts, smart caching, incremental work, and low-latency feedback.
- **Reliable delivery** — Builds and deploys are predictable, observable, and safe by design, with clear logs, health checks, rollbacks, and production-aware controls.
- **Composable primitives** — Volt provides build and deploy foundations teams can assemble around their workflows instead of forcing a rigid, all-in-one release process.
- **Developer clarity** — The platform makes state visible at every step, so teams know what ran, what changed, what failed, and what to do next.

## Lexicon

**Use:** `build`, `deploy`, `release`, `pipeline`, `primitive`, `cache`, `artifact`, `environment`, `rollback`, `logs`, `health check`, `preview`, `branch`, `commit`, `fast by default`, `reliable under load`, `ship safely`, `predictable deploys`, `production-ready`, `low-latency`, `incremental`, `deterministic`, `traceable`, `connect your repo`, `configure once`, `run the build`, `promote to production`
**Avoid:** `revolutionary`, `game-changing`, `magical`, `effortless`, `blazing fast`, `supercharge`, `10x your team`, `seamless synergy`, `cloud-native innovation platform`, `deploy like a ninja`, `oopsie`, `uh-oh`, `something went wrong`, `just`, `simply`, `obviously`, `easy button`, `no more problems`, `never fails`, `guaranteed instant`

## Mechanics

- **Capitalization:** Sentence case for headings, buttons, navigation, and UI labels. Use title case only for proper nouns, plan names, and formal document titles.
- **Contractions:** yes
- **Emoji:** Never in product UI, docs, incident updates, or enterprise messaging. Rarely acceptable in social posts if it does not reduce technical credibility.
- **Reading level:** Grade 8–10 for marketing and UI; technical documentation may be higher when precision requires it.

## Boilerplate

- **Short:** Volt is a developer-infrastructure platform for fast, reliable builds and deploys.
- **Medium:** Volt gives engineering teams fast, reliable build and deploy primitives for production software. Developers can connect their repositories, run predictable builds, deploy with clear controls, and see exactly what happened at every step—without maintaining brittle delivery infrastructure.
- **Long:** Volt is a developer-infrastructure platform delivering fast, reliable build and deploy primitives. Built for developers, platform engineers, and DevOps teams, Volt helps teams move from commit to production with less waiting and more confidence. The platform provides quick builds, observable deploys, clear logs, health checks, rollback paths, and composable workflows that fit existing engineering systems. With Volt, teams can ship production software on infrastructure that is fast by default, reliable under load, and clear when it matters.

## Voice in action

**Homepage hero**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| primary-cta | Start your first deploy | Get started now | The on-voice version is concrete and tied to Volt’s core action; the generic version could belong to any SaaS product. |
| hero-headline | Build and deploy without the wait | The modern platform for high-performing engineering teams | Volt should lead with the delivery outcome, not broad category language. |

**Product onboarding**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| empty-state | Connect a repository to run your first Volt build. | You don’t have any projects yet. Create one to get started. | The on-voice version uses Volt’s domain language and tells the developer what will happen next. |
| success | Repository connected. Volt will build new commits on this branch. | Great! Your repository has been successfully connected. | The on-voice version confirms the system behavior, not just the completion of a setup step. |

**Build failure**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| error | Build failed at `install_dependencies`. The package registry returned a 503. Retry the build or check registry status. | We couldn’t complete your build. Please try again later. | Volt should be diagnostic and actionable when infrastructure work fails. |

**Deploy blocked**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| error | Deploy blocked. Production requires approval from a release owner. | You don’t have permission to perform this action. | The on-voice version explains the release rule and next dependency; the generic version is vague and user-blaming. |

**Deploy success**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| success | Deployed `main` to production. 3 instances are healthy. | Success! Your app is live and ready to go. | Volt’s version gives production-relevant confirmation instead of generic celebration. |

**Documentation**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| hero-headline | Configure branch-based deploys | Take control of your deployment workflow | Docs should name the task directly instead of using marketing phrasing. |
| notification | Set `deploy_on_push` to `false` to require manual promotion. | If you prefer, you can disable automatic deployments in your settings. | The on-voice version is exact and implementation-ready. |

**Incident update**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| notification | Build queues are delayed in us-east-1. Existing deploys are unaffected. Next update in 15 minutes. | Some users may be experiencing slower than usual performance. Our team is investigating. | Volt should state scope, impact, and timing instead of relying on standard status-page language. |

**Pricing page**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| hero-headline | Scale builds and deploys as your team grows | Flexible plans for every stage of your journey | The on-voice version ties pricing to infrastructure scale; the generic version is common SaaS filler. |

**Enterprise sales**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| primary-cta | Talk to an infrastructure specialist | Contact sales | The on-voice CTA signals technical relevance and is more specific than the default enterprise CTA. |
