What is a brand, to an API?
A brand is its identity, guidance and files. Lookup APIs return part of the identity, DAM APIs return files, and agentic brand APIs return all three per task.
Last updated 2026-11-10
To an API, a brand is three things: an identity, guidance for using it, and the files that carry it. Most brand APIs return one of them.
| Part | What it is | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | What the brand looks like and is called | Name, logo, colours, typefaces |
| Guidance | How to use the brand, written down | Voice, visual rules, words to use and avoid, claims that need approval |
| Files | The approved material itself | Logo files, product photos, font files, templates |
Which APIs return which part?
- Lookup APIs return the public face of the identity: the logo, colours and sometimes font names a company shows on its website. They don't know the rules behind it.
- DAM APIs return files a company has stored and approved, with metadata such as rights and expiry. Some also hold guideline pages; your code still decides which rules apply to a task.
- Agentic brand APIs return identity, guidance and files together, chosen for one task, and check the finished work against the brand.
Why does the difference matter?
A logo is enough to show a company in a list. It is not enough for an agent writing that company's launch email: the agent also needs the voice, the claims it may make, the product photos it may use and the font to set the headline in. The directory marks each product on the same five items (logos, colours, fonts, guidance and files) so the difference is visible at a glance.