Process Manual · Operations · Issue 017 May 2026 · Brighton
How it works.
The six procedures that take a brief from the customer's inbox to a working website with global hosting, in roughly twenty-five minutes — and the four operating principles that keep the standard up over time.
06 procedures~25 min cycle4 operating principlesin production
Optional: a timing preference (when ready / weeks / quarter)
Steps · in order4
Read the brief carefully
Parse register, scope, voice, and constraints
Identify gaps (key facts not yet supplied)
Acknowledge to customer inbox within minutes
Outputs3
Brief on the desk, classified by industry and register
Acknowledgement email — direct from a real inbox
Studio notes for any gaps to ask about post-draft
NoteVague briefs make calmer, more editorial sites. Specific briefs make tighter, more conversion-focused ones. Both work — say what you want and what you DON'T want.
Deploy to global delivery network with regional points of presence
Provision SSL with automatic renewal
Configure DDoS protection at the edge
Wire DNS — or assign a sites.themesmith.ai subdomain
Send live URL and credentials to customer inbox
Outputs3
Live site at the URL
Customer notified by email with studio access
Backups configured, monitoring active
NoteCustom domain transfer is guided from the studio after launch. Until then, the site lives at yourbusiness.sites.themesmith.ai.
P-05
Forge edits. After launch, by conversation.
cycle ~seconds per edit
Inputs3
Customer message in plain English
Current state of the site
Reference to the page or section to change
Steps · in order4
Parse intent and identify all affected sections
Propose the change with a clear diff
Wait for customer approval — Publish, Tweak, or Discard
Ship live, with rollback ready
Outputs3
Updated site
Audit log entry — every change traceable
Rollback available indefinitely
NoteEvery edit is reversible. No destructive operations. The customer never has to learn website-builder vocabulary.
P-06
Quietly improving. Growth engine, ongoing.
cycle continuous · Autopilot tier
Inputs3
Site telemetry (real engagement, not vanity metrics)
Customer's autonomy dial setting
Time-of-day and content cadence preferences
Steps · in order4
Watch for opportunities — call-to-action performance, content gaps, SEO
Draft an improvement
Queue for approval or ship per dial setting
Monitor the change for 48 hours after publish
Outputs3
Improvement live or queued
Daily activity log delivered to customer inbox
Customer can roll back at any point
NoteThe dial moves between suggestions only (you accept by hand) and full automation (we ship with safety nets). Your call, your pace.
end of procedures
§ Operating principles.
p. 07
If something needs longer, it gets longer. Quality before speed; the typical cycle is short enough that we don't need to compromise.
Every change is logged. Every change is reversible. No destructive operations, ever.
You can step in at any point. Pause, redirect, override. The platform is designed around customer override, not customer onboarding.
Outcomes over output. Real engagement, publishing cadence, operational reliability. Not feature count, not screenshots.
A. Comparison schedulealternative paths · for context
Path 01 · agency on retainer
An agency.
build time4–8 weeks
build cost£5,000+
ongoing£500–2,000/mo
edit cycleemail & wait
You meet, you scope, you wait, you pay. The site is good. The retainer is dear. Most small businesses can't afford the second part.
Path 02 · DIY tooling
A drag-and-drop builder.
build time2–7 days
cost£20–50/mo
your time4–6 hrs/week
resulttemplate-y
Cheap to start. Hours of tutorials. The site looks like every other small business that picked the same template.
Path 03 · this manual
Themesmith.
build time~25 minutes
cost£15–129/mo
your timenone required
resultcustom every time
You write a paragraph. We build it for you, host it, tend it. Edits by conversation. The site improves on its own at the pace you set.
A paragraph, and a Tuesday afternoon.
That's the whole manual. You write a paragraph; we run procedures P-01 through P-04 over the next twenty-five minutes; you get the URL by email; we tend it from there.