# GUIDE.documents — one-pagers, memos, and living documents

**The law for how a Relay document is composed — page chrome, versioning, and the
per-viewer watermark standard.** Covers one-pagers, memos, letters, and every gated
living document (the investor package pages are the reference implementation).

*Added 2026-08-07 with `GUIDE.presentations.md`, from the investor-package build.*

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## Where this sits

Material comes from `relay-app/DESIGN.md` + `packages/ui/tokens.css`; copy gates come
from `briefs/BRIEF.emblematic-headlines.md` §Hard constraints (Relay never RelayCTX ·
claim · no *memory* / *persistence* / *continuity* · "protection in progress" ·
outcome-level disclosure). This document owns the composition: what makes a page or a
PDF read as a Relay document, and what every gated document must carry.

## 1 · Document anatomy

Top to bottom, every document — page or file:

1. **Header** — the wordmark (**Relay**, Outfit 600, −0.02em) and, when useful, a mono
   eyebrow naming the document type ("One-pager", "Memo", "Round status"). On site
   surfaces the site chrome is the header; don't repeat the wordmark in the body.
2. **Title** — Cormorant Garamond italic display. One per document (Single Display Rule).
3. **Viewer stamp** — gated documents only: the `#viewer-stamp` element directly under
   the title (see §3). Ungated documents omit it.
4. **Body** — Outfit, 1.6–1.7 leading. Structured data (Codes, dates, figures in tables)
   in JetBrains Mono. Callouts as flat surface blocks (0.5px border, 8px radius) — no
   side-stripes, no shadows.
5. **Contact block** — name · role · entity · email, with mailto links.
6. **Foot** — the version line (`**Version:** vN · **Last verified:** YYYY-MM-DD`) and
   the confidential line (*Confidential — Relay Context Inc. Do not distribute without
   consent.*) in that order. Ungated public documents may drop the confidential line;
   nothing drops the version line.

## 2 · Living documents and versioning

A Relay document's primary form is a **maintained page**, not a file — versioned,
current as of the stamp it carries, and (when gated) stamped to its viewer. Rules:

- **The maintenance comment.** Every governed page opens with an HTML comment block
  stating: `placement` (which branch/surface it belongs to and where it must never go),
  `altitude` (the disclosure + vocabulary gates in force), `living` (the no-downloads
  posture where it applies), `versioning` (what bumps the stamp), and `sync` (the
  source of truth for every figure, and the change-together rule). See
  `relay-resources` `docs/investor/index.md` for the canonical form.
- **Bump on every copy change.** The version line is the reader's freshness contract; a
  stale number on a governed page is worse than no number.
- **Figures are curated copies.** A governed page never reads from an internal system;
  every figure names its source of record, and changes land here in the same pass as
  the source.

## 3 · The per-viewer watermark standard

Every **gated** document page carries both marks. Reference implementation:
`relay-resources/docs/assets/javascripts/investor-watermark.js`.

| | Standard |
|---|---|
| Identity source | Cloudflare Access, `GET /cdn-cgi/access/get-identity` (same-origin, `credentials: include`) on any Access-gated host |
| Header stamp | `#viewer-stamp` element: `Prepared for <email> · <YYYY-MM-DD>`; mono, ~0.72rem, muted |
| Tiled watermark | Repeating SVG tile 720×260: `<email> · Confidential — Relay Context Inc. · <date>`, JetBrains Mono 15px, fill `rgba(13,148,136,0.09)`, rotated −24° |
| Overlay | `position: fixed; inset: 0`, `pointer-events: none`, `aria-hidden="true"`, above content |
| Print | The watermark prints: `print-color-adjust: exact` — a printed page is still stamped |
| Fallback | No identity (local preview, misconfigured gate): stamp reads `Confidential · <date>`, watermark drops the email — **fail to "Confidential", never to blank** |
| Inclusion | Per page: `<script src="../assets/javascripts/investor-watermark.js"></script>` at the foot |

The watermark is **attribution and deterrent, not protection** — protection is the
Access app in front of the page. Never treat a stamp as a reason to relax a gate, and
never put content on a stamped page that its gate wouldn't cover anyway.

## 4 · Documents as files — letterhead

When a document must exist as a file, the same position as presentations
(`GUIDE.presentations.md` §7): **PDF rendered from the same HTML, brand fonts embedded**
(all three families are OFL; embedding is unrestricted). No .docx leaves the company
unless a counterparty's process requires it, and then alongside the PDF of record.

Letterhead chrome for the PDF: wordmark top-left · document-type eyebrow top-right
(mono) · title display · body per §1 · foot with the version line, the confidential
line, and the entity line (**Relay Context Inc.**). If the file is prepared for a named
recipient, the header stamp and tiled watermark render into the PDF at generation time —
same format as §3, identity supplied by the generator instead of Access.

## 5 · Do / Don't

**Do**

- Open every governed page with the maintenance comment block, and keep placement rules
  in it honest (a finance page that must never merge to `main` says so at its own top).
- Keep gated pages' search posture correct: founder-only and per-recipient pages carry
  `search: exclude: true` — a shared search index leaks across a narrower gate.
- Copy the apex line and headline-ladder lines verbatim where they're used — they're
  governed (RCTX-282), not raw material.

**Don't**

- Don't add download copies of a living gated document — the posture is deliberate;
  reversing it is a decision, not a convenience.
- Don't duplicate a canonical figure onto a second page — link to the page that owns it.
- Don't ship a gated page without the viewer stamp + watermark script, and don't ship
  any document without the version line.
- Don't put the viewer's name into copy ("Dear …") on living pages — the stamp carries
  the identity; the copy stays maintainable.

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*Companion: `GUIDE.presentations.md` · reference implementations: `relay-resources`
`docs/investor/` (investor branch) — package landing, one-pager, Round Status,
Introduction deck.*