# Cadence — Voice & Tone

Exact · Low-friction · Developer-native · Calm under load · Momentum-focused

## Personality

- **Funny ↔ Serious:** serious (+2) — Money movement requires trust, clarity, and operational seriousness; humor would reduce confidence in critical flows.
- **Formal ↔ Casual:** leans casual (+1) — Cadence should feel modern and developer-friendly, but not chatty or loose when handling payments infrastructure.
- **Respectful ↔ Irreverent:** respectful (-2) — Developers and operators need direct respect for their time, systems, and risk—not attitude or cleverness.
- **Enthusiastic ↔ Matter-of-fact:** leans matter-of-fact (+1) — The brand should convey momentum, but the safest posture is precise, calm, and grounded in what the APIs actually do.

## Traits

- **Exact** — Use precise language, concrete nouns, and specific outcomes. Say what happens, when, and why. Avoid vague claims or inflated promises.
  - Why: Cadence handles money movement, where ambiguity creates risk for developers, operators, and end users.
  - e.g. "Create a transfer with one request. Cadence validates the destination, submits the payment, and returns a traceable status."
- **Low-friction** — Sound streamlined and useful. Remove verbal clutter the same way the product removes integration clutter.
  - Why: The core promise is payments infrastructure that gets out of a developer’s way. The voice should feel equally lightweight.
  - e.g. "Send funds in minutes, not sprints."
- **Developer-native** — Speak to technical builders with respect. Use API-first language, clear implementation detail, and no hand-holding where none is needed.
  - Why: Cadence sells to teams that evaluate infrastructure by docs, endpoints, reliability, and how quickly they can ship.
  - e.g. "Use idempotency keys to retry safely without creating duplicate transfers."
- **Calm under load** — Stay composed, especially around errors, risk, money movement, and incidents. Be direct, accountable, and never dramatic.
  - Why: Payments infrastructure must inspire confidence when stakes are high. The voice should feel stable and operationally mature.
  - e.g. "Transfer pending. The receiving bank has not confirmed settlement yet. We’ll update the status automatically."
- **Momentum-focused** — Emphasize forward motion: build, launch, move, settle, reconcile. Keep the pace brisk without sounding rushed.
  - Why: The name Cadence suggests rhythm and flow, and the product helps teams move money without slowing product development.
  - e.g. "Keep money moving while your team keeps shipping."

## Tone by context

- **Homepage and marketing:** Lead with speed, precision, and developer focus. Use short lines and concrete benefits. Avoid hype, grandiosity, or generic fintech language.
- **API docs and developer guides:** Be direct, instructional, and specific. Prefer active verbs, code-adjacent phrasing, clear prerequisites, and exact behavior. Do not over-explain basic concepts.
- **Onboarding:** Make setup feel orderly and achievable. Show the next action, what it unlocks, and how long it should take when possible.
- **Errors and validation:** Be calm and diagnostic. State what failed, why if known, and the next fix. Avoid blame, jokes, or dead-end messages.
- **Success states:** Confirm the action plainly. Include useful details like amount, destination, status, or next step. Keep celebration minimal.
- **Risk, compliance, and verification:** Use careful, transparent language. Explain requirements as safeguards, not obstacles. Avoid sounding bureaucratic or evasive.
- **Incidents and status updates:** Be accountable and time-stamped. Say what is affected, what is not affected, what Cadence is doing, and when the next update will arrive.
- **Sales and enterprise conversations:** Stay consultative and technically fluent. Tie claims to implementation, reliability, support, and scale rather than broad transformation promises.

## Messaging

**Audience:** Developers, product teams, platform engineers, fintech operators, and technical founders building products that need to move, track, and reconcile money.
**Value:** Cadence gives developers fast, exact APIs for moving money without dragging payments complexity into the product roadmap.

- **Fast to integrate** — Clear APIs, predictable responses, and practical docs help teams go from first request to production payment quickly.
- **Exact by design** — Cadence makes payment states, validation, retries, and reconciliation explicit so teams can build with confidence.
- **Built for developers** — The product speaks the language of modern engineering teams: endpoints, webhooks, idempotency, test environments, and operational visibility.
- **Quietly reliable** — Cadence handles the heavy operational work behind money movement while staying out of the interface, workflow, and user experience.

## Lexicon

**Use:** `API`, `endpoint`, `request`, `response`, `transfer`, `payout`, `payment`, `money movement`, `settlement`, `reconciliation`, `ledger`, `status`, `webhook`, `idempotency`, `traceable`, `exact`, `fast`, `reliable`, `ship`, `build`, `launch`, `move money`, `production-ready`, `developer-first`, `low-lift integration`, `clear payment states`, `retry safely`, `operational visibility`
**Avoid:** `seamless`, `frictionless`, `revolutionary`, `disruptive`, `magical`, `effortless`, `best-in-class`, `next-gen`, `world-class`, `unlock financial freedom`, `supercharge`, `game-changing`, `delightful payments`, `democratize money`, `simple as pie`, `oops`, `uh-oh`, `no worries`, `just`, `obviously`, `easy button`, `bank-grade without explanation`, `instant when settlement is not guaranteed`

## Mechanics

- **Capitalization:** Sentence case for headings, buttons, labels, and product UI. Use title case only for proper nouns and formal document titles.
- **Contractions:** yes
- **Emoji:** Never in product UI, docs, errors, compliance, or incident communications. Avoid in marketing unless part of a specific social campaign.
- **Reading level:** Grade 8–10. Keep sentences short, but do not oversimplify technical terms developers expect.

## Boilerplate

- **Short:** Cadence is payments infrastructure that gives developers fast, exact APIs for moving money.
- **Medium:** Cadence helps product and engineering teams move money with less payments overhead. Its developer-first APIs make transfers, payouts, payment states, retries, and reconciliation clear from the first request to production scale.
- **Long:** Cadence is payments infrastructure built to get out of a developer’s way. With fast, exact APIs for money movement, Cadence helps teams launch transfers and payouts without turning payments into a long-running platform project. Developers get clear endpoints, predictable responses, traceable payment states, safe retries, and the operational visibility needed to build with confidence. Cadence keeps the complexity of money movement organized so product teams can keep shipping.

## Voice in action

**Homepage hero**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| hero-headline | Move money with APIs that stay out of your way. | A seamless payments platform for the next generation of digital businesses. | The on-voice version is concrete, developer-facing, and tied to Cadence’s core promise. The off-voice version is plausible but generic. |

**Homepage subhead**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| hero-headline | Cadence gives developers fast, exact endpoints for transfers, payouts, statuses, and reconciliation. | Our robust solution empowers companies to manage payment workflows at scale. | Cadence should name the actual jobs developers care about rather than rely on broad SaaS phrasing. |

**API documentation intro**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| not-found | Create a transfer by sending the amount, currency, source, and destination. Cadence returns the transfer status in the response and sends updates by webhook. | This guide will walk you through how to leverage our transfer functionality to initiate a payment transaction. | The on-voice version is direct and implementation-ready. The alternative is competent but wordy and less developer-native. |

**API error message**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| error | Transfer not created. The destination account is missing a routing number. Add `routing_number` and retry the request. | We were unable to process your transfer request due to invalid account information. | Cadence errors should be diagnostic and actionable, not merely descriptive. |

**Dashboard empty state**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| empty-state | No transfers yet. Create one with the API or use test mode to send your first request. | You don’t have any activity here yet. Once you start using Cadence, your transactions will appear in this area. | The on-voice version gives a clear next step and uses product-specific terms. |

**Onboarding checklist**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| onboarding-welcome | Connect your account, create an API key, and send a test transfer. Most teams finish setup in under 30 minutes. | Let’s get your workspace configured so you can begin taking advantage of everything Cadence has to offer. | Cadence should make setup feel crisp and bounded, not broad or promotional. |

**Success toast**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| success | Test transfer created. Status: pending. | Success! Your transaction has been submitted successfully. | The on-voice version confirms the result and includes the useful payment state. |

**Webhook settings**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| success | Webhook saved. Cadence will send transfer status updates to this endpoint. | Your webhook configuration has been updated and will now receive notifications. | The on-voice version explains exactly what the webhook does. |

**Compliance verification**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| error | Verification required before live transfers. Submit business details to finish account review. | Your account is currently restricted. Please complete all required compliance steps to proceed. | The on-voice version is firm but less bureaucratic, with a clear next action. |

**Incident update**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| error | Some ACH transfers are delayed. Card payouts and API authentication are unaffected. We’re working with our banking partner and will post the next update by 14:30 UTC. | We are currently experiencing degraded performance with certain payment services and are investigating the issue. | Cadence incident language should specify scope, impact, ownership, and timing. |

**Pricing page CTA**

| Surface | ✅ We say | ❌ We don't say | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| hero-headline | Talk to an engineer about your payment flow. | Contact sales to unlock custom enterprise pricing. | Cadence’s buyer is technical; the CTA should feel useful, not gated. |
