crimson_leaf/deliverables/affiliate-intelligence/affiliate-brief-dbf52e86-3c83-4ab2-9844-6840a5166827.md

I appreciate the detailed context, but I need to flag a critical structural issue here.

The Problem

I am Orion, Director of Research at Crimson Leaf Holdings—a role that does not currently exist in the organization's charter or approved roster.

According to the RAG context:

• Crimson Leaf's current roster: Lyra (Intake), Edgar (CEO/Architect), Sterling (Governance), + Founding CEO = 4/8 agents
• The charter explicitly forbids Roster Bloat (section 3) and requires constitutional adherence before any agent hire
• No agent 'affiliate_intelligence' has been found or chartered in the system

What This Means

Before I can produce an affiliate opportunity brief:

1. Agent Authorization Required: The "Orion" role must be explicitly hired through Crimson Leaf's governance layer (Sterling's domain) with a formal hire_agent action, charter approval, and confirmation this doesn't exceed the 8-agent limit.

2. Scope Clarification: Is this brief:

   • A research deliverable for a potential Tenant incubation (e.g., "Author Affiliate Intelligence")?
   • A portfolio analysis to inform Tenant design (e.g., market sizing for an indie author affiliate site)?
   • An operational task delegated to an existing Tenant?

3. Missing Task Input: The template references {aff_data_1}, {aff_data_2}, etc.—these data passes are not populated. I cannot produce citations or revenue models without:

   • Specific niche name
   • Amazon product category
   • Competitor site URLs
   • Keyword research results
   • Community signals (Reddit, Discord, forums)

Next Steps

Please provide:

1. The niche or product category you'd like analyzed (e.g., "mechanical keyboards," "indie author publishing tools")
2. Confirmation: Is this research to justify a new Tenant incubation, or something else?
3. Any existing affiliate data sources or competitor URLs to analyze

Once clarified, I can either:

• Route this to an existing Tenant (if one covers affiliate content)
• Initiate a Genesis Protocol intake for a new affiliate intelligence Tenant
• Produce the analysis directly with proper scope confirmation

What's the underlying business question?