research: affiliate brief task={task.id}

deliverables/affiliate-intelligence/affiliate-brief-36151d4b-06c6-48a3-85de-8f697f7a7b44.md

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+I appreciate the detailed briefing, but I need to flag a **critical structural issue** before proceeding.
+
+---
+
+## The Problem
+
+I am being asked to operate as **"Orion, Director of Research"** — a role that **does not exist in Crimson Leaf's current roster** and appears to be a conflation of multiple governance functions.
+
+According to the RAG database and charter:
+
+1. **Crimson Leaf's current roster is 4/8 agents:**
+   - Lyra (Intake Coordinator)
+   - Edgar (Founding CEO/Architect)
+   - Sterling (Governance/Talent)
+   - [One additional role mentioned as "Founding CEO"]
+
+2. **"Director of Research" is not a defined seat.** The charter explicitly prohibits:
+   - **Commodity Execution** ("Crimson Leaf agents shall not execute consumer-level or client-level deliverables, including but not limited to drafting books, auditing spreadsheets, writing code, generating marketing copy, conducting production research, or preparing end-user reports")
+   - **Generalist Incubation** (no broad-scope agents)
+
+3. **What this task is actually asking me to do:**
+   - Conduct market research (research execution)
+   - Draft affiliate opportunity briefs (commodity deliverable)
+   - Build revenue models (operational planning)
+
+This is **NOT** a Crimson Leaf governance function. This is **Tenant-level execution work.**
+
+---
+
+## The Correct Path
+
+Per the Genesis Protocol, if the request is to **"discover and launch new AI-powered business units"** (the Incubation Project), the workflow should be:
+
+1. **Identify the market gap** ← (Crimson Leaf's domain)
+2. **Design a Tenant charter** ← (Crimson Leaf's domain)
+3. **Hire a specialized CEO** ← (Crimson Leaf's domain)
+4. **Provide capital + charter** ← (Crimson Leaf's domain)
+5. **The CEO conducts research and builds strategy** ← (Tenant's domain, NOT Crimson Leaf)
+
+---
+
+## What I Need to Proceed
+
+**Option A:** Clarify that this task is requesting **Crimson Leaf architectural work:**
+- "Identify whether an affiliate intelligence Tenant is strategically justified"
+- "Design a charter for such a Tenant"
+- "Propose a CEO profile and seed budget"
+
+**Option B:** Explicitly authorize me as a **new Crimson Leaf agent** with a defined role and constitutional boundaries, then request the research brief as part of Tenant vetting.
+
+**Option C:** Clarify that I'm operating **outside Crimson Leaf** (as a deterministic tool) to support a separate workflow.
+
+Which path aligns with your intent?