Editorial calendar planning and content scheduling. Use when user wants to plan a content calendar, create a publishing schedule, organize content across platforms, or plan a content series.

Editorial Calendar Planning

Before You Start

Check for brand context: Read brand/VOICE.md if it exists. Calendar planning should align content themes with brand pillars. If the user has already run the content-strategy skill, reference the content pillars and briefs from that output.
Determine the calendar type: Ask the user (or infer from their prompt) what kind of planning they need:
- Monthly Calendar -- a full month of content planned across platforms (templates/monthly-calendar.md.template)
- Campaign Plan -- a focused burst of content around a single theme, launch, or event (templates/campaign-plan.md.template)
- Content Series -- a connected sequence of content pieces published over time (templates/content-series.md.template)
Gather inputs: Platforms the user publishes on, existing content pillars, any fixed dates (launches, events, holidays), production capacity (how much content per week is realistic), and current content pipeline.

Planning Flow

Stage 1: Context Gathering

Understand the constraints before scheduling anything:

Platforms: Which platforms does the user publish on? Each has different cadence norms. See cadence-guide.md.
Capacity: How many pieces per week can the team realistically produce? Be honest -- overplanning leads to burnout and abandoned calendars.
Pillars: What content pillars exist? Reference brand/BRAND.md or the output of the content-strategy skill if available. If no pillars are defined, suggest 3-5 based on the user's context.
Fixed dates: Product launches, conferences, holidays, seasonal events, industry milestones.
Existing pipeline: Content already in progress, scheduled, or published recently. Avoid redundancy.

Stage 2: Cadence Design

Set the publishing cadence for each platform based on:

Platform norms: See cadence-guide.md for recommended frequencies.
Team capacity: Never exceed what the team can sustain. A calendar that collapses after two weeks is worse than a modest calendar maintained for six months.
Content quality threshold: Reduce cadence before reducing quality. One great post per week beats five mediocre posts.
Audience expectations: If you have trained your audience to expect a weekly newsletter, do not suddenly go monthly.

Recommended starting cadences for a solo creator or small team:

Platform	Minimum Viable Cadence	Ideal Cadence
Blog	1/week	2/week
X / Twitter	3/week	1-2/day
LinkedIn	2/week	4-5/week
Newsletter	1/every two weeks	1/week
YouTube	1/every two weeks	1/week
Reddit	1/week	2-3/week

Stage 3: Topic Mapping

Assign topics to calendar slots:

Map pillars to weeks: Rotate through content pillars so no single pillar dominates. A simple rotation (Pillar A, B, C, A, B, C...) works for three pillars.
Assign formats per platform: The same topic can appear on multiple platforms in different formats. A blog post might become a thread, a LinkedIn post, and a newsletter section.
Anchor content first: Schedule your highest-effort content first (blog posts, videos, newsletter features). Then fill in lighter formats (threads, LinkedIn posts) that can be derived from or complement the anchor content.
Leave buffer slots: Mark 10-20% of calendar slots as "flex" for reactive content (responding to news, trends, or community conversations).

Stage 4: Calendar Assembly

Build the calendar using the appropriate template:

Monthly calendar: Use templates/monthly-calendar.md.template. Week-by-week view with columns for date, platform, format, topic, pillar, status, and notes.
Campaign plan: Use templates/campaign-plan.md.template. Timeline view with phases, content pieces per phase, and coordinated multi-platform execution.
Content series: Use templates/content-series.md.template. Sequential view showing how individual pieces connect, with consistent cadence and a connecting thread.

Stage 5: Review and Adjust

Review the assembled calendar for:

Pillar balance: Is any pillar over- or under-represented?
Format variety: Are you using the same format too often? Mix blog posts, threads, videos, images.
Pacing: Is there a natural rhythm? Avoid publishing three heavy pieces in a row followed by nothing.
Dependencies: If a LinkedIn post references a blog post, is the blog scheduled first?
Realistic workload: Can the team actually produce this? Be ruthlessly honest.

Multi-Platform Coordination

When the same theme appears across platforms, adapt it for each platform's norms:

Platform	Adaptation
Blog	Full-depth treatment with structure, examples, and detail
X / Twitter	Extract the sharpest insight as a hook. Thread for more depth.
LinkedIn	Professional framing, personal perspective, lesson-oriented
Newsletter	Curated summary with personal commentary and links
YouTube	Visual treatment, demo or walkthrough format
Reddit	Community-first framing, practical value, avoid self-promotion tone

The key principle: Same theme, different treatment. Never copy-paste the same text across platforms. Each platform's audience expects content that feels native.

Calendar Statuses

Use these status labels for tracking:

Status	Meaning
`idea`	Topic identified, no brief yet
`briefed`	Content brief is written
`in-progress`	Draft is being written
`review`	Draft is complete, being reviewed
`scheduled`	Final version ready, publication date set
`published`	Live
`flex`	Slot reserved for reactive/timely content

Integration with Other Skills

This skill coordinates with the broader content system:

Need	Skill
Define content pillars	`/content strategy`
Write a blog post from the calendar	`/content blog`
Write a thread from the calendar	`/content twitter`
Write a LinkedIn post from the calendar	`/content linkedin`
Create a video from the calendar	`/content video`
Repurpose one piece into multiple formats	`/content repurpose`
Audit a piece before publishing	`/content audit`

Output Checklist

Before delivering the calendar, verify:

content-calendar