status: draft locale: en-US last_updated: 2026-03 contributors: [alexwill87]

Locale: en-US — United States (baseline)

This is the reference locale. All other locales document differences from this baseline. The playbook is written in EN-US — this file documents the implicit assumptions behind that default.

Regulatory context

Data privacy

• No federal data protection law equivalent to GDPR (as of 2026)
• State-level laws apply: CCPA (California), VCDPA (Virginia), others
• For most individual entrepreneurs: local OpenClaw deployment = minimal regulatory exposure
• Enterprise deployment: consult legal counsel on applicable state laws

Business context

• At-will employment standard — different implications for HR automations vs EU
• No mandatory "right to disconnect" — but best practice to respect boundaries

Local ecosystem

Common infrastructure

• AWS, Google Cloud, Azure — widely used
• GitHub — primary for repos and collaboration
• Cloudflare — DNS, CDN

Common business tools (strong OpenClaw skill support)

• Email: Gmail, Outlook
• Calendar: Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar
• CRM: Salesforce, HubSpot
• Accounting: QuickBooks, FreshBooks, Wave
• Communication: Slack, Teams, Discord
• Project management: Notion, Linear, Asana

Language specifics

Tone conventions

• Business communication is generally informal
• First-name basis from first contact is common
• Direct, action-oriented language preferred

Recommended models

• GPT-4o — strong EN-US, culturally attuned
• Claude Sonnet — consistent, professional tone
• Gemini Flash — fast, good for routine tasks

Known differences from other locales

This is the baseline. See individual locale files for differences: - fr-FR.md — France - fr-CA.md — Canada (French) — not yet created - en-GB.md — United Kingdom — not yet created

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