The Build Pipeline

/sonic-build runs a full authority-site build as 8 stages. Each stage uses specific skills, produces an artifact, and requires sign-off before the next begins. This is the backbone of the whole system.

Stage 0 - Project parameters

Sonic collects four things:

1. Niche / business type (HVAC, mold remediation, dumpster rental, and so on).
2. Target location (city, state, region).
3. Approximate page count (50, 100, 200, 330+).
4. Where to build: a sandbox (instant local WordPress, no server) or a live site (your real host plus an Application Password).

If you choose a live site with no WordPress access yet, Sonic walks you through setup and tests the connection. Either way, the target must be reachable before Stage 1.

Stage 1 - Brand Philosophy 🧭

Skill: brand-philosophy. Five rounds of discovery questions, no skipping. Output: BRAND-BRIEF.md at the project root. You review and lock it in before anything is designed.

Stage 2 - Visual Identity 🎨

Skill: visual-identity. Reads the brand brief, then decides colors, typography, and image style rather than asking you to spec them. Output: STYLE-GUIDE.md, referenced by every downstream skill. Sign off before continuing.

Stage 2.5 - Motion Design 🎬 (optional, on by default)

Skill: sonic-motion. Five short questions about motion mood, scope, scroll behavior, and which elements animate. The default library is anime.js (~7KB gzipped, Lighthouse-safe, respects prefers-reduced-motion). Output: MOTION-PROFILE.md. Pick "no motion" and the profile still saves with motion_enabled: false so Stage 3 gets an explicit signal and skips the animation library entirely.

Stage 3 - Custom Theme + Homepage ⚡

Skills: frontend-design + wordpress-pro. Reads the style guide for visuals, the brand brief for voice, and the motion profile for animation. Builds a custom WordPress theme (or Elementor / block-based, whichever fits the brand), ships the homepage, generates the hero image with website-image-gen, and deploys via the WP REST API. Sign off on the homepage here, before hundreds of pages inherit it.

Stage 3.5 - Sonic Boom 💥 (on by default)

Skill: sonic-boom. The Stage 3 homepage is functional. Sonic Boom is what makes it convert. It applies a 6-section scroll-telling architecture, CRO-tested patterns, an anti-generic-AI checklist, niche-specific conversion patterns, mobile-first mechanics (sticky CTAs, click-to-call, multi-step forms), and purposeful microinteractions. Outputs an updated homepage, SONIC-BOOM-DESIGN-NOTES.md, and a GA4 tracking-events spec. The patterns set here propagate to Stage 4 and Stage 5. See the full Sonic Boom page.

Stage 4 - Service Page Template 📄

Skills: frontend-design + wordpress-pro + website-image-gen + Sonic Boom patterns. Builds ONE complete service page on the new theme, inheriting the 6-section scroll arc. This single page is the template for the next 99 and sets the bar for everything that follows. Sign off here.

Stage 5 - Bulk Generation 🚀

Skills: aka-wireframe-wp + programmatic-seo + website-image-gen + wordpress-pro. Now it scales:

1. aka-wireframe-wp plans the full page hierarchy and internal links.
2. programmatic-seo generates copy variants in the brand voice.
3. website-image-gen generates images per page from the style guide.
4. wordpress-pro deploys via REST API, 10 pages at a time, with progress updates.

Images are saved locally before WP upload as a backup. Progress is reported every 10 pages.

Stage 6 - SEO + Accessibility QA 🔍 (never skip)

Two skills run in order.

6a. seo-qa scans every page for duplicate H1s, titles, and meta descriptions; missing meta tags; schema markup (LocalBusiness, Service); image alt text and internal link health. It generates sitemap.xml. Output: SEO-QA-REPORT.md.

6b. accessibility-qa scans for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance: missing alt text, broken heading hierarchy, missing form labels, missing skip-to-content and focus styles, color-contrast failures (4.5:1 body, 3:1 large text), and keyboard issues. Output: ACCESSIBILITY-QA-REPORT.md. For healthcare, legal, government, and education clients it also generates a WCAG-COMPLIANCE-STATEMENT.md for the footer.

Fixes are applied via the WP REST API with your confirmation, the site is re-scanned, and the sitemap is submitted to Google Search Console. Sign off on both reports to close the project.

Final report

After Stage 6, Sonic reports total pages built, total images generated, a sample of 5 live URLs, any errors or skipped pages, estimated image-gen cost, and recommended next actions (sitemap submit, internal-linking pass, search-console verification).

The order is the product

The pipeline only works run top to bottom. The Hard Rules page lists exactly which stages can never be skipped and why.