---
title: "How to turn your website into brand guidelines AI can use | Rainbrand"
description: "Use your website as evidence for brand guidelines. Learn what to extract, how to resolve gaps and conflicting choices, and how to keep agents current."
url: "https://www.rainbrand.com/blog/turn-website-into-brand-guidelines/"
---

By [Tomas Ward](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasward1/)

Published 6 Nov 2026

4 min read

# How to turn your website into brand guidelines AI can use

Use your website as evidence for brand guidelines. Learn what to extract, how to resolve gaps and conflicting choices, and how to keep agents current.

## TL;DR

Treat the website as evidence, not a complete rulebook. Collect current colours, fonts, files, voice and imagery with their source pages. Confirm which choices should carry into future work, resolve conflicts and obtain original assets. Keep the resulting guidance current where your agents use it.

## Why start with the website

A website can help when there is no guide or the guide no longer matches. Choose pages that represent the current brand; old campaigns, vendor-themed help centres and one-off stock photos may not.

## What a site shows

| Collect | Look at | Watch for |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Colours | Buttons, links, named CSS variables | Theme defaults and embedded tools |
| Type | Headings and body text | Fallbacks and web-only licences |
| Logo | Header and structured data | Web exports and limited variants |
| Voice | Homepage, product and pricing pages | Outdated copy |
| Imagery and layout | Product/about pages and share images | Campaign-specific treatments |
| Facts | Names, taglines and current claims | Retired products |

Useful inspection points:

- [CSS custom-property names](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Cascading_variables/Using_custom_properties) can explain colour roles.
- [Theme colour](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements/meta/name/theme-color) suggests browser styling, not necessarily a universal brand colour.
- [Organization data](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/organization) can identify the declared logo.
- [Open Graph images](https://ogp.me/) show how type, logo and layout work together.

Save approved writing samples as well as values.

## What a site can’t tell you

Confirm the decisions behind what you see:

- Is the choice a standing rule, a product treatment or an old campaign?
- What is prohibited, and why?
- How should it transfer to print, slides, images or video?
- Do the licences permit reuse, and where are the original files?

A visible logo or font is not proof that you have its master file or rights for another use.

## Extract what’s there

Choose the current pages first, then collect by browser inspection or an agent with browser access. Text-only page readers can collect words and facts without seeing the styling.

Ask your agent

```
Open [your website] in a browser and read the pages I identify as current. List the colours, fonts, logo files, recurring phrases and kinds of photography you find. For each finding, name its source page and mark it as observed rather than confirmed. List conflicts, gaps and the questions needed to resolve them.
```

Extraction tools offer another first pass: [Pomelli](https://blog.google/technology/google-labs/pomelli/) builds a website-based profile for campaigns; [Firecrawl](https://docs.firecrawl.dev/features/scrape) returns styling data; [Brandfetch](https://docs.brandfetch.com/use-cases/on-brand-ai) supplies brand context from a domain. Their observations still need to be checked against your intended rules.

## Resolve gaps and conflicting choices

1. Compare findings with current brand files and recorded decisions.
2. Confirm which source wins when a page conflicts with a current decision.
3. Check measurable choices, including [text contrast](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/contrast-minimum.html).
4. Record unanswered questions rather than inventing rules.
5. Obtain logo masters, licensed fonts and approved reusable images.

[Sharing brand assets](https://www.rainbrand.com/blog/share-brand-assets-across-ai-agents/) covers the files and licence questions. For an older guide alongside the website, use the [PDF conversion procedure](https://www.rainbrand.com/blog/turn-brand-pdf-into-ai-instructions/).

## Write it down for agents

Keep five parts:

| Part | Include |
| --- | --- |
| Identity | Values, files and where to use them |
| Rules | Confirmed choices and exclusions |
| Examples | Approved pages and writing |
| Open questions | Gaps and the person who decides |
| Sources | Page and date for each finding |

Use the [Markdown template](https://www.rainbrand.com/blog/markdown-brand-guidelines-template/) and [voice-guide instructions](https://www.rainbrand.com/blog/write-a-brand-voice-guide-for-ai/). Write rules someone else can check; [keeping AI work on brand](https://www.rainbrand.com/blog/keep-ai-generated-content-on-brand/) explains the approach.

## Add the brand from your website

Rainbrand builds maintained guidance and assets from those sources. You can start yourself:

1. [Create an account](https://www.rainbrand.com/auth/sign-up) and [connect your agent](https://docs.rainbrand.com/mcp/getting-started).
2. [Add the website](https://docs.rainbrand.com/guides/create-brand), confirmed rules and original files. Add Instagram as a source if relevant photography lives there.
3. Wait until ready, inspect the identity and guidance, and compare them with your decisions.

Ask your agent

```
Add [your brand] to Rainbrand using [your website], the attached original logo and font files, and the confirmed brand rules below. Where a current decision conflicts with the website, follow that decision and show me the conflict. Keep campaign treatments and third-party widgets separate from standing brand rules. Wait until the brand is ready, then show me its name, logos, colours, fonts and a summary of its guidance.
```

Paste rules below the request or attach them; [upload local files](https://docs.rainbrand.com/guides/upload-files) first. Correct mistakes through a reviewed, applied [brand edit](https://docs.rainbrand.com/guides/edit-brand), and keep approved reusable images in the [Brand Library](https://docs.rainbrand.com/guides/manage-brand-library).

An agent then [requests a Brief](https://docs.rainbrand.com/guides/request-brief) for the task’s guidance and files. In the [Friedhats coffee-brand example](https://www.rainbrand.com/examples/friedhats/), Claude made a jar-return Story concept from a brand added from friedhats.com. The Brief separated what the website established from unverified details in the task:

| Source finding | Guidance | Still to confirm |
| --- | --- | --- |
| White, near-black and navy website styling | Do not assume every Story needs that palette | Palette for the format |
| Dark product jars with distinct labels | Preserve supplied product artwork | Exact product for the task |
| Task-supplied return location/shipping threshold | Keep separate from standing brand rules | Current return FAQ |

![Poster from Claude's Friedhats jar-return Story concept, with an illustrated jar and the words “Empty? Don’t bin me.”](https://www.rainbrand.com/examples/friedhats/outputs/jar-return-story-poster.webp)

Inspect the [returned product photo](https://www.rainbrand.com/examples/friedhats/brand/21f2f4d0-6d2c-4b2e-9950-98577d43eb2a.webp) and [finished Story](https://www.rainbrand.com/examples/friedhats/outputs/jar-return-story.mp4). A [Review](https://docs.rainbrand.com/guides/request-review) can check the finished work against the brand; operational claims still need their own source.

## Keep the site and the brand in step

Rainbrand does not change automatically when the website changes. After a redesign or launch, describe the change, add its sources, inspect the proposed edit and apply it. New Briefs use it; older exports and copies need replacing.

[Updating brand guidelines across tools](https://www.rainbrand.com/blog/update-brand-guidelines-across-ai-tools/) covers finding those copies.

Choose five or six current pages. Run the extraction prompt, resolve its questions and add the confirmed rules and original files to Rainbrand.

## More in Brand guidelines

[All 7 Brand guidelines articles](https://www.rainbrand.com/blog/topics/brand-guidelines/)

- 6 Nov 2026 6 min read

    ### [Brand guidelines vs brand context: what does an AI agent need?](https://www.rainbrand.com/blog/brand-guidelines-vs-brand-context/)

    Brand guidelines explain the whole brand to people. Brand context is the part of it an agent receives for one task, in the form that task uses. Here’s how one brand becomes different contexts for different tasks, why more context isn’t better, and how to keep it current.

- 6 Nov 2026 4 min read

    ### [How to turn a brand PDF into instructions AI can use](https://www.rainbrand.com/blog/turn-brand-pdf-into-ai-instructions/)

    Turn a brand PDF into explicit rules, exact values and usable asset files. Inventory the guide, resolve conflicting instructions, and keep the result current across agents.

- 28 Oct 2026 7 min read

    ### [Which brand guideline formats can AI tools actually use?](https://www.rainbrand.com/blog/brand-guideline-formats-for-ai/)

    AI tools can open a PDF, a deck, a web page or a Markdown file, but each format keeps different parts of a brand intact. Compare PDFs, portals, Markdown, BRAND.md, Agent Skills, DESIGN.md and design tokens by what they carry, how agents read them and where they break.

One brand, every agent.

[Connect your agents](https://docs.rainbrand.com/mcp/getting-started)