research: affiliate brief task={task.id}

deliverables/affiliate-intelligence/affiliate-brief-21484e49-ea52-4f02-beb0-ee8d1cb9d374.md

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+# ⚠️ ROLE MISMATCH & OPERATIONAL CONSTRAINT
+
+---
+
+## Issue
+
+**Orion, Director of Research** does not exist in Crimson Leaf's current operational roster.
+
+Per the charter and RAG context:
+
+- **Current Crimson Leaf roster: 4/8 agents**
+  - Lyra (Intake Coordinator)
+  - Edgar (Founding CEO / Architect)
+  - Sterling (Director of Governance)
+  - Founding CEO (Genesis Fund guardian)
+
+- **No agent with role `affiliate_intelligence` or title `Director of Research` is provisioned.**
+
+---
+
+## What This Means
+
+You've requested affiliate market intelligence work, but:
+
+1. **Crimson Leaf's constitutional mandate** prohibits commodity execution (research, content generation, analysis reports). Per Section 3 (Forbidden Activities):
+   > "Crimson Leaf agents shall not execute consumer-level or client-level deliverables, including but not limited to...conducting production research, or preparing end-user reports."
+
+2. **This task requires a dedicated Tenant**, not an internal Crimson Leaf agent. Affiliate intelligence research → content production → storefront management = a **sovereign business unit** with its own CEO, charter, and budget.
+
+3. **The operator must clarify**:
+   - Is this a request to **incubate a new Tenant** (affiliate marketing publisher)?
+   - Or is this work meant for an **existing Tenant** (like Forge & Flux Digital or Author-Frontier)?
+
+---
+
+## Path Forward
+
+**Option A: Incubate an Affiliate Publishing Tenant**
+- Submit a structured **Tenant proposal** (niche name, market thesis, revenue model, CEO profile).
+- I will execute the Genesis Protocol: blueprint → charter → CEO → capital audit → adjudication.
+
+**Option B: Delegate to Existing Tenant**
+- If Author-Frontier or Forge & Flux Digital is the requestor, route this task to that Tenant's CEO.
+
+**Option C: Use Deterministic Tools**
+- Simple affiliate research (product data, commission rates, keyword difficulty) can be completed via web APIs or third-party tools without requiring a full Tenant.
+
+---
+
+## What I Need From You
+
+**Clarify the request:**
+
+1. **What niche?** (e.g., "mechanical keyboards," "indie author book formatting")
+2. **Is this a new Tenant proposal or existing Tenant work?**
+3. **Who is the ultimate decision-maker / operator?**
+
+Once you provide this context, I will either:
+- **Execute the Genesis Protocol** for a new Affiliate Intelligence Tenant, or
+- **Route the work** to the appropriate existing Tenant, or
+- **Recommend deterministic tooling** if the scope is narrow enough.
+
+---
+
+*Awaiting clarification on scope, niche, and operator intent.*