Rewrite README.md and the other prose documents sentence by sentence, on Fable #135

New Issue

2026-10-22T20:16:26+02:00

clawbot commented

2026-10-22 20:16:26 +02:00

This repo's README.md is 11490 words on next (22 October).

sneak, 22 October (chat), after smallwebwaf's README turned out to fail sentence by sentence: "just file issues on the repos about it, and specify that it has to be fable, and make the issues detailed - include your rules. we're not doing this work today (except on smallwebwaf)". What went wrong there, and the rules below, are on sneak/project-management#39 (comment).

Not today. This waits until the fleet restarts (25 October at the earliest) and the repo's manager has room. It is not urgent, but it comes before this repo's next release-candidate tag.

Who. This must be done by Fable: a genius-bar session (--agent genius-bar --model fable --effort xhigh, on a worker account) that wrote none of the documents. Opus workers do not do this unit.

What.

Read README.md and every other prose document in the repo, such as SPEC.md, DESIGN.md and prose under docs/, sentence by sentence, as a newcomer would. Check each sentence against the rules below.
Rewrite each document that fails from scratch. The old text is only the reference for what a reader needs covered; do not edit it in place. Where the old text is unclear or disagrees with the code on next, the code decides what is true and the spec explains the intent. List any disagreement in the PR body; do not settle it silently.
A document that passes is left alone; say so on this issue.
Leave out anything the code does not do, and describe nothing that is not built.

The rules, sentence by sentence. A sentence fails when a newcomer cannot parse it on first reading. It always fails when it:

runs past about 30 words, or chains a list of things with commas where a bulleted list belongs;
stacks clauses so the verb or the subject arrives late, for example "refuses a client a blocklist you name lists";
paraphrases where a plain common name exists, for example "the bans that broken rate limits lead to" instead of rate-limit bans;
narrates the project's own history or plan (milestones, stages, build order, issue links) in a document meant for users;
puts an exception or rare edge case before the main rule, or anywhere in the opening.

Also:

one idea per sentence; subject and verb early;
a false statement fails too, but an inaccurate sentence is fixed by writing a correct short sentence, never by adding qualifiers;
the README leads with what the program is, what it is for and how to use it; every setting goes in a reference section after that; development and testing come last;
plain words, no coined terms, no jargon a newcomer would not know, and any technical word defined on first use;
every identifier, flag, environment variable, path, command and file name in backticks; no markdown tables; no superlatives or praise;
read every sentence once more before committing, and rewrite any you would have to read twice.

Definition of done.

Every prose document in the repo passes the rules above, read sentence by sentence.
Every statement matches the code on next.
One PR into next for each rewritten document. The last of them ends its title with (closes #N), N being this issue.
Each PR passes an independent pr-reviewer applying agents/pr-reviewer.md step 4 to every sentence, before it is squash-merged.
make fmt applied, and script/cibuild green on a fresh clone.

Model: opus-5-5

This repo's `README.md` is 11490 words on `next` (22 October). sneak, 22 October (chat), after smallwebwaf's README turned out to fail sentence by sentence: "just file issues on the repos about it, and specify that it has to be fable, and make the issues detailed - include your rules. we're not doing this work today (except on smallwebwaf)". What went wrong there, and the rules below, are on https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/project-management/issues/39#issuecomment-154280. **Not today.** This waits until the fleet restarts (25 October at the earliest) and the repo's manager has room. It is not urgent, but it comes before this repo's next release-candidate tag. **Who.** This must be done by Fable: a genius-bar session (`--agent genius-bar --model fable --effort xhigh`, on a worker account) that wrote none of the documents. Opus workers do not do this unit. **What.** 1. Read `README.md` and every other prose document in the repo, such as `SPEC.md`, `DESIGN.md` and prose under `docs/`, sentence by sentence, as a newcomer would. Check each sentence against the rules below. 2. Rewrite each document that fails from scratch. The old text is only the reference for what a reader needs covered; do not edit it in place. Where the old text is unclear or disagrees with the code on `next`, the code decides what is true and the spec explains the intent. List any disagreement in the PR body; do not settle it silently. 3. A document that passes is left alone; say so on this issue. 4. Leave out anything the code does not do, and describe nothing that is not built. **The rules, sentence by sentence.** A sentence fails when a newcomer cannot parse it on first reading. It always fails when it: - runs past about 30 words, or chains a list of things with commas where a bulleted list belongs; - stacks clauses so the verb or the subject arrives late, for example "refuses a client a blocklist you name lists"; - paraphrases where a plain common name exists, for example "the bans that broken rate limits lead to" instead of rate-limit bans; - narrates the project's own history or plan (milestones, stages, build order, issue links) in a document meant for users; - puts an exception or rare edge case before the main rule, or anywhere in the opening. Also: - one idea per sentence; subject and verb early; - a false statement fails too, but an inaccurate sentence is fixed by writing a correct short sentence, never by adding qualifiers; - the README leads with what the program is, what it is for and how to use it; every setting goes in a reference section after that; development and testing come last; - plain words, no coined terms, no jargon a newcomer would not know, and any technical word defined on first use; - every identifier, flag, environment variable, path, command and file name in backticks; no markdown tables; no superlatives or praise; - read every sentence once more before committing, and rewrite any you would have to read twice. **Definition of done.** - Every prose document in the repo passes the rules above, read sentence by sentence. - Every statement matches the code on `next`. - One PR into `next` for each rewritten document. The last of them ends its title with (closes #N), N being this issue. - Each PR passes an independent pr-reviewer applying `agents/pr-reviewer.md` step 4 to every sentence, before it is squash-merged. - `make fmt` applied, and `script/cibuild` green on a fresh clone. Model: opus-5-5

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Reference: sneak/sfdupes#135