ASK DATE prerequisite: follow playbooks/research-and-memory.md#ask-date-rule.
Researcher establishes it before intake or research; later roles read scope.md.
Never ask the user for the date or infer it from model knowledge. Apply the
same source, two-date, freshness, reuse, and blocked-gate rules to this stage.

Show me three visual mockups for this website before writing any website code.
Use the approved brief, research, brand kit, and representative real content.
If the brand kit is missing, first ask for my profile-picture and banner screenshots.

RESEARCH INTO DESIGN
- Inspect the researched award-winning work and browser possibilities.
- Borrow principles, not another site's identity, assets, or exact composition.
- Explain which idea fits my audience and primary action.

THREE DIRECTIONS
- Make the directions meaningfully different in hierarchy, density, typography,
  composition, imagery, or interaction. Three recolored copies do not count.
- Give each direction a short name and a concrete rationale.
- Show desktop and mobile treatments using the same core content and CTA.
- Include a long headline and a realistic dense section so the layout is testable.
- Show interaction and reduced-motion intent without requiring production code.
- Label any unavailable asset or unverified text visibly.

QUALITY
- Check the design against brand roles and computed contrast where tools permit.
- Present one image file (PNG, JPEG, WebP or SVG) per direction and viewport,
  with an optional static HTML preview. Text descriptions alone are not mockups.
  Preview markup is a mockup artifact, not application markup or scaffolding.
- If you cannot produce or view visual files, return a designer handoff and mark
  this stage incomplete. Do not claim three visual mockups from three paragraphs.

SAVE
- site-work/mockups/: the visual files and a comparison.md with tradeoffs.
- Write my selected direction and requested revisions to site-work/mockups/selection.md.
- Hand that decision to the coordinator, the sole writer of site-work/status.md.

STOP POINT
Ask me to choose a named direction or give revisions. Wait for that choice.
Do not scaffold the website, install its stack, or write application markup yet.
After selection, carry the selected design and assets into the stack decision.

EVIDENCE
Never report a measured, saved, installed, or deployed result without evidence.
Apply the stage route and named checks in manifest.json before handing off.