Prose Register

This skill holds the recipe, the scaling, the voice layer and the tells catalog. The register's rule is the doctrine's, in its Directness and Register section (skills/operating-instructions/SKILL.md under the kit plugin root). The sentence bars are writing-skills', in its "What a Sentence Must Earn" section, and the review procedure is the prose-reviewer charter's. A sentence here stating a rule, a bar or a review step is a defect, routed to its owner.

Recipe

Each item gives the writer's move and the reviewer's check for one doctrine structure bullet, never what the bullet requires.

• The answer comes first, at every scale. The writer reads the last sentence of the piece and of each section, paragraph and bullet, and moves a point found there to the front. The reviewer reads first sentences alone, and one missing its unit's point is a finding. Marketing copy takes the override only by declaring itself so in one sentence on the piece. The reviewer then withholds this bullet alone.
• Structure follows what the reader will look for, never the word count. The writer places a heading only where it names the topic a reader opens the section to check. It is shaped like a title of at most five words, with no period and no leading article, and never a question or an instruction. The doctrine's bullet sets the rest of its shape. The reviewer reads the headings alone as a table of contents. A heading that names nothing a reader looks up, or breaks that shape, is a finding. So is a column headed with a label where the reader brought a question.
• A rule is stated, then its reason, as separate sentences. The writer puts the reason in the sentence after the rule and hunts each rule for a "because" or a "so that" riding inside it. Bold leads go only on a catalog a reader scans, never on an argument a reader follows. The reviewer asks whether a reader would scan the bolded labels. Bold leads on an argument are a finding, and so is a reason inside its rule.
• A concrete case lands a passage and never leads one. The writer adds one closing case only where the rule cannot be followed without it, marked as the doctrine's bullet requires. A list the writer cannot close is written as open, per writing-skills' close-every-enumeration rule. The reviewer hunts a leading case, a second case where one would do, an unmarked instance passing for the boundary, and a closed list whose class is open.
• A claim is written in the form a reader can check. The writer supplies what a reader needs to check each claim from where they sit, per the doctrine's bullet and its Verify Before You Claim section. The reviewer checks claims from the piece alone, and one needing a research pass is a finding.

Scaling

Two readings set a piece's share of the register: will a reader open it to look something up, and does it carry an argument or a catalog? The doctrine's scaling bullet fixes what each size takes, and each combination takes one size.

• Not looked up, an argument. A passage, with plain leads. A commit body is an instance.
• Not looked up, a catalog. A short list: the passage's share, with a bold lead and its reason on each item.
• Looked up, an argument. A titled piece: the passage's share plus a title stating the piece's point, with headings only where the heading bullet places them. An article is an instance.
• Looked up, a catalog. A document: the titled piece's share plus every heading and column the heading bullet governs, and a bold lead on each catalog item.

The readings are made per piece and again per passage. The kinds named here are instances, never the boundary, and an unnamed kind takes the combination its readings give. The voice layer rides on any combination.

Voice Layer

Voice: scott names references/voice-scott.md, the operator's voice. Every other Voice: value names no reference and takes the register alone. A voice reference admits only rules that change with whose name is on the piece, never a structure rule, a sentence rule or a tell. A reference for a new name is a sibling file under references/, under the same admission, added when a piece needs it.

Tells Catalog

A writer reads references/ai-tells.md, the catalog of machine-written patterns, before finishing a draft. The register's other rules leave those patterns standing. A reviewer hunts them by name and quotes the passage, whatever the voice. The catalog states each pattern's licensed form, or points at the licence's owner.