Copy framework

Copy framework

8 tested headline formulas for AI products.

Sourcedocs/COPY-FRAMEWORK.md

Eight headline formulas that work for AI products, with 30 worked examples.

This doc exists because copy is the single highest-leverage change you can make to AgentKit. Swapping out the default headline is a 5-minute edit that can 3x your conversion.

Formula 1 · Outcome + time bound

Pattern: Ship <noun> <time frame>.

Shows competence and urgency. Works when your product saves time.

Examples:

  1. Ship your AI agent's landing page this afternoon.
  2. Build a production agent in 200 lines.
  3. Launch a billing system in a weekend, not a sprint.
  4. Deploy your first RAG pipeline before coffee.

When to use: Your competitive edge is speed / ergonomics.

Formula 2 · Negation + promise

Pattern: Not another <clichéd thing>. <Real differentiator>.

Positions you against a category that buyers already distrust.

Examples: 5. Not another SaaS template with a robot icon. Actually AI-native. 6. Not a no-code tool. A real engineer's agent framework. 7. Not GPT-4 with a prompt. An agent that remembers. 8. Not yet another copilot. Code review that doesn't lie.

When to use: Your category is crowded with low-effort imitators and you're serious.

Formula 3 · Question reversal

Pattern: Why is <painful thing> still <painful>? <Product> fixes that.

Frames the status quo as broken, you as the fix. Stripe-style.

Examples: 9. Why is agent evaluation still manual? Eval suite, built in. 10. Why does your agent break on every prompt change? Versioned prompts, versioned eval. 11. Why do AI support bots still hallucinate refund policies? Structured output or bust.

When to use: You're solving a specific, well-known pain that the category has accepted as "just how it is."

Formula 4 · Specific outcome

Pattern: <Verb> <concrete thing> in <unit of time>.

Concreteness > abstraction. Always.

Examples: 12. Generate a 10K-token report in 4 seconds. 13. Ship a working agent demo in 200 lines. 14. Answer a support question in under 300ms. 15. Index a codebase in 60 seconds.

When to use: You have a single, impressive, measurable number.

Formula 5 · Capability reveal

Pattern: <Product> <verb>s <object> that <unusual adjective> <object>.

Describes a capability that sounds almost too good — implying the product is different.

Examples: 16. Writes code that actually runs on the first try. 17. Plans multi-step tasks without dropping the user's intent. 18. Summarizes PDFs that no one reads anyway. 19. Builds retries into every tool call — automatically.

When to use: Your product has a genuinely novel technical capability.

Formula 6 · Editorial + personal

Pattern: <Product> is how <persona> builds <thing>.

Positions the product as a craftsperson's tool. Robinhood / Linear style.

Examples: 20. AgentKit is how indie founders ship AI products. 21. This is how 10x engineers handle prompt iteration. 22. Levels is how product teams evaluate LLMs without spreadsheets.

When to use: You're differentiated by the audience, not the technology.

Formula 7 · Anti-template

Pattern: Built by <persona>, not <mass-market persona>.

Rauno-style precision. Says "we're the weird good one."

Examples: 23. Built by AI engineers, not DocuSign refugees. 24. Made for founders who ship, not committees who plan. 25. Designed by people who've actually lost sleep over prompt drift.

When to use: You need to signal craft, seriousness, or rebel-niche appeal.

Formula 8 · Contrast pairs

Pattern: <Thing A>. Not <thing B>.

Three-word positioning. Every word does work.

Examples: 26. Fast. Not flashy. 27. Complete. Not bloated. 28. Specific. Not generic. 29. Honest. Not hyped. 30. Readable. Not magic.

When to use: You need a subhead under a bigger headline, or a wordmark-adjacent tagline.

How to use these

  1. Pick 2-3 formulas that match your product's truth.
  2. For each, write 5 candidates — don't edit while drafting.
  3. Read them out loud. The one that makes you cringe least is the one that sounds like you.
  4. A/B test if you have traffic. Otherwise pick the most specific.

Never do

  • Adjective piles: "Powerful, intuitive, scalable, enterprise-ready." (This says nothing.)
  • Feature-first headlines: "25+ AI-native components." (Features are body copy. Headlines are outcomes.)
  • Hedge words: "helps", "lets you", "tries to", "can". Strong verbs only.
  • Superlatives without proof: "the best", "the fastest", "the most popular". Back it up or cut it.
  • Emoji-led headlines: "🚀 Ship faster!" (No. Ever.)

Test your headline in 3 steps

  1. The 3-second test: Show a friend your landing page for 3 seconds, hide it, ask "what does it do?" If they can't answer, rewrite.
  2. The who test: Who specifically is this for? If the answer is "developers" you need to narrow — "solo AI founders", "infra engineers at 20-person startups", "someone running a paid Notion template side-hustle".
  3. The cringe test: Would you send this page to a senior engineer friend? If you'd be embarrassed by the copy, rewrite it.

— Richard · webdesignhot.com