Load: ../plan-campaign/references/channel-decision.md.
Inputs: brand type and distribution footprint (where the product is sold); buyer groups and demand read (research/audience/buyer-groups.md, research/market/demand.md); landscape and where competitors invest (research/competitors/landscape.md, competitor files, competitor_read roster); the economics box and per-leg minimums; creative capacity (which makers and how much volume; past creative in ads_creative_read); tracking state; email list size; learnings log; the founder's hours; channels already committed or off-limits; existing campaign concepts (campaign_read).
Do:
- Write every mandatory row, then the rows live for this brand type; one line "not relevant: " for conditional rows that are not.
- For each row answer the seven lenses in your head; write the deciding reason in plain words with a brand fact, the evidence, how sure you are in words, and, unless kept, what would change it.
- Prefer one or two channels done properly. A judgment-only Run becomes a Test. Novelty is never a reason. No default channel.
- Mark execution per leg: GooseWorks levers (Meta objects it creates or pushes into) or written instructions / human hands. Add founder hours per leg; if the total exceeds what the founder has, cut a leg and say which.
- Zero paid is allowed: state it in the paid rows with the numbers.
Output: the brief's ### Channel decisions section and founder-hours line.
Never: a row without a brand-fact reason; "doesn't fit our audience" without saying who the audience is and where they are.