How to onboard a client brand into AI: an agency checklist

Leave onboarding with a usable task record

A folder alone does not identify the current logo, supported claims or what “warm” means. Fill this record as you work:

Client and brand reference:
Current sources and instructions for conflicts:
Reusable files and permitted use:
First task, audience and required copy:
Guidance and files supplied to the agent:
Output and checks performed:
Corrections made:
Unanswered questions and who can answer:
Any approval required by the client agreement:
How future brand changes will be reported:

Start with the first deliverable, then extend the setup for other formats.

Check how the material may be used

Before uploading:

• Read the client agreement for AI use, confidentiality, tools and disclosure.
• Identify the actual tools, plans and accounts handling sources and outputs.
• Confirm who may access the files and answer brand/product questions.
• Retain whatever client approval the account already requires.

Check account settings, not just product names. Anthropic’s commercial-data policy, for example, excludes default training on commercial inputs/outputs but describes feedback and opt-in exceptions. Sharing and memory settings matter too.

Collect sources for the work you are about to make

Ask only for what the upcoming task needs. Missing print colours need not stop an email; missing evidence for its main claim does.

In the US, FTC policy requires a reasonable basis for objective claims before publication. Leave unsupported claims unresolved and ask the client contact.

Turn conflicts into instructions

1. Read the sources together and identify conflicts, vague rules and missing files.
2. Ask whether each decision changes the brand or only this campaign.
3. Record the instruction beside the source it replaces.
4. Leave unanswered gaps explicit, with the work they affect.

The Markdown template helps turn answers into checkable rules.

Yumbun, a London bao brand, illustrates the source problem. Its menu-decoder Brief identified an older photograph’s prices and varieties as conflicting with the task’s supplied menu:

Rainbrand’s Brief also treated food photographs as visual references, not proof of current fillings, and flagged missing product imagery. Confirm operational facts with their current owner before publication.

Create and inspect the client's brand

Rainbrand maintains guidance and assets that connected agents use. Setup is self-serve:

1. Create an account, then connect Claude or ChatGPT.
2. Confirm the connected account and intended team. The quickstart says new brands default to the personal account; list and name the team when appropriate.
3. Upload local files, then add the client’s sources and resolved decisions.

Choose a team whose members may use this client’s material; shared agency access must not expose restricted files.

Confirm the connected Rainbrand account and the team specified in our intake record. Add [the client brand] using the attached current guide, resolved rules, original logo and font files, and approved product imagery. Follow the resolved rules where sources conflict. Keep campaign offers and dates with the task. When ready, show the brand name, identity and guidance for comparison with the intake notes.

Inspect the returned identity and guidance against intake. For mistakes, prepare an edit, inspect its proposal and refine, apply or discard it. Only applying changes the active brand.

Keep reusable approved assets in the Brand Library; leave retired files and experiments out. Campaign requests stay with the job.

Check the first upcoming task

Choose a real deliverable containing a detail that could reveal a setup problem: a renamed product, restricted claim or required asset.

Use [the client brand] from our intake record. Request a Rainbrand Brief for [the first deliverable], its audience and required copy. Use the approved product imagery and claim wording attached to this task. Show the guidance and selected assets before making the work, and identify any missing fact or file before continuing.

Read the Brief before production. Confirm the product, files and instructions, then make the work with the intended delivery tools.

Use Rainbrand Review on the finished work. For a graphic, submit its final image and expected copy; for pages or slides, capture each layout that needs checking. One image does not certify an entire deck.

Review returns findings; the agent’s tools make corrections. Repeat the affected check and retain unresolved findings alongside any required client approval.

Hand over what worked and what remains open

Complete the opening record with exact sources, files, Brief, output and corrections. Keep any required sign-off beside the file it approves.

Agree where future changes arrive. Apply lasting decisions to Rainbrand and request fresh Briefs; older Briefs and downloads stay unchanged, so identify active jobs needing an update.

Have the next person continue the task from the record. Their unanswered questions reveal gaps in the handoff. Managing many client brands covers keeping this useful across a roster.