Why Agents Should Check the Layout Catalog Before Writing

If an agent is already going to use advanced layout, there is one step I now recommend almost every time:

check the current layout catalog first.

Many later failures can be prevented right there.

Why this step matters so much

Advanced layout is not free-form styling.

It has explicit module names, fields, and usage boundaries.

If those have not been confirmed, agents writing from memory tend to create problems like:

• wrong module names
• modules that do not fit the content job
• malformed fields
• too many heavy modules in one piece

Those are not execution-stage problems.
They are planted at writing time.

The real benefit is boundary alignment

That is the deeper value of checking the catalog first.

If you run:

md2wechat layout list --json
md2wechat layout show hero --json

you are not getting inspiration.

You are getting boundaries:

• what modules exist right now
• what each one mainly serves
• when to use it
• when not to use it

That matters a lot for agents.

This is often faster than writing immediately

Some people think discovery is slower because it adds one step.

In practice, the opposite is often true.

If the agent chooses the wrong module set first, the rework shows up later as:

• body rewrites
• structure reshuffling
• syntax repair
• render debugging

One extra check early usually removes several repair steps later.

Especially for first-time tasks

If the piece is:

• a release post
• a tutorial
• a service page
• a long-form argument piece

it is almost always worth checking the catalog first.

These formats depend heavily on structure judgment.

Closing thought

When agents use advanced layout, the step that should not be skipped is often the simplest one:

look at the catalog first.

One less guess early makes the whole chain steadier later.

Continue with:

• Discovery-First Workflow
• Advanced Layout Recipes
• Why md2wechat Works Better as a Discovery-First Agent Workflow