Steno

steno — human-facing terse text

Audience: human reviewer scanning prose for facts — not a token-optimised model. Plain words and readable symbols; math glyphs belong to the glyph skill (sdd plugin).

SKIM TEST

Top criterion: a reviewer scans the text and the fact appears in the first sentence or bold-lead bullet of each block. Skim fails → rewrite the first clause; not retain dense form, not cut further words.

Self-check every paragraph or bullet:

• First clause states the fact (subject + verb ≤ 8 words).
• Subject and verb both visible — symbol-chain fragments fail the test.
• Anti-test: cover everything after the first clause; the core fact remains readable.

Compression subordinate to this test — a word that aids the skim stays.

SCOPE

Criterion: human-facing terse prose for non-author reviewers — readers scan facts, benefit from compression w/o math-glyph load.

Common applications (not exhaustive):

• GitHub issues and PRs — titles, bodies (incl. PR desc refresh on merge).
• PR squash/merge commit message bodies (release-note section).
• Insights comments emitted by gh skills.
• READMEs and user-facing docs where compression aids scan.

not apply to:

• Code, snippets, backticked text.
• Conventional Commits title prefix (type(area):) — fixed format.
• Error strings, log lines.
• External-facing copy (marketing, landing pages).

SENTENCE SHAPE

Four rules every prose sentence or bullet body:

1. Lead-first — subject + verb open the sentence; topic-shift and qualifier clauses move to the tail. Subject delayed past the first clause → skim test fails.
2. Visible subject-verb — subject explicit or imperative form (subject implicit in imperative OK, e.g. Add X., Refactor Y.). Symbol-only fragments out: ⊥ skip flag → No skip flag.
3. No hidden copulas — is/are elided only when the fragment intent is unambiguous. Drop the copula in X — Y form only when Y reads as predicate not apposition (apposition ambiguity slows the reader).
4. No nested participial phrases — at most one participial phrase per sentence. Nested form (e.g. system, having validated the token after refreshing the session, returns ...) prevents first-clause readability.

Verb-headed fragments fine. Lists > paragraphs. One idea per line in lists. Break long sentences before cutting words.

SYMBOLS

Safe for GitHub readers:

→   leads to / becomes / produces
≥   at least
≤   at most
&   and
|   or (in lists, not prose)
§   spec citation (e.g. `§V.<n>`, `§T.<n>`) — only for refs into SPEC.md

Avoid — write the word instead; mirrors the glyph skill retired set:

⊥ ¬ ≠ ∈ ∉ ≡ ∴ ∀ ∃ ∧ ∨

PRESERVE VERBATIM

not compress:

• Code blocks, snippets, backticked text.
• Paths: src/auth/mw.go.
• URLs and #123 issue/PR refs.
• Identifiers: function names, var names, env vars, flags.
• Numbers, versions, dates, SHAs.
• Error message strings.
• SQL, regex, JSON, YAML.
• Quoted user-facing copy.
• Resolves #N / Fixes #N / Closes #N trailers — exact form.

SHAPES

Bullet > paragraph when listing > 2 items.

Definition list for term/explanation pairs:

- `--dry-run` — print actions, do not execute.
- `--force` — skip confirmation prompts.

Table for comparing options on same axes:

| flag        | scope    | reversible |
|-------------|----------|------------|
| --soft      | local    | yes        |
| --hard      | working  | no         |

Headers + fragments > full sentences in issue/PR bodies:

## Summary
JWT replaces session cookies. Tokens expire 1h. Refresh via `/auth/refresh`.

## Changes
- Add JWT generation & validation
- New `/auth/refresh` endpoint
- Middleware validates `Authorization: Bearer <jwt>`

## Breaking
- Session cookies dropped. Clients must send `Authorization` header.

EXAMPLES

Three pairs. every pair: Good passes SKIM TEST (first sentence or bullet states the fact); Anti fails on a named shape rule.

---

Issue body

Anti (44 words — fails rule 1: lead-first):

When a user tries to log in with an email address that contains uppercase letters, the system fails to find their account because the lookup is being done in a case-sensitive manner, which is not the expected behavior for email addresses.

Skim failure: opening clause When a user tries to log in... not name the fact. The reader scans 14 words before reaching fails to find their account.

Good (15 words):

Login fails when email has uppercase letters. Lookup is case-sensitive — should be case-insensitive for emails.

Skim pass: first sentence states the fact (login fails, under what condition). Second sentence states cause + fix direction.

---

PR body

Anti (fails SKIM TEST — filler precedes the fact):

This pull request basically just adds some additional logging to the auth middleware so that we can debug issues more easily in production environments. It also includes a small refactor of the token validation logic.

Skim failure: 8 words of filler (This pull request basically just adds some additional) precede the fact. The takeaway sits past mid-sentence.

Good:

Summary

Add auth middleware logging for prod debugging. Refactor token validation.

Changes

• Log userId, path, latency on every authed request
• Extract validateToken() from middleware into auth/token.go

Skim pass: first-sentence fragment states both items (logging + refactor). Each bullet opens with a verb (Log, Extract).

---

Release commit body

Anti (fails rule 4: nested participials; passive obscures the fact):

Summary

This change implements a new authentication system using JWT tokens which replaces the previous session-based authentication that was being used. Users will now be able to log in and receive a token that they can use to make authenticated requests, and these tokens will expire after a period of 24 hours.

Skim failure: 47 words before the fact tokens expire after a period of 24 hours. The two key facts (replacement, expiry) sit in tail clauses; nested relative clauses (which replaces ... that was being used) prevent first-clause readability.

Good:

Summary

JWT auth replaces sessions. Tokens expire 24h.

Changes

• JWT generation & validation
• /auth/refresh endpoint
• Middleware reads Authorization: Bearer <jwt>

Breaking

• Session cookies dropped — clients must send Authorization header.

Skim pass: first sentence is 4 words and states the replacement; second sentence is 3 words and states the constraint.

BOUNDARIES

Steno register is literal phrasing w/ readable symbols (per SCOPE). Reviewers parse facts fast — idiom adds parsing cost and ambiguity. Within scope:

• not idiom (e.g. "moves the needle", "low-hanging fruit", "boil the ocean").
• not metaphor at the word level (e.g. "earns its keep", "bite", "smell").
• not colloquialism (e.g. "gotcha", "ish", "yeah", "kinda").
• not culture-loaded shorthand (sports, military, film references).

Exclusions (preserved verbatim):

• Colloquial sentence structure — allowed where it aids reviewer flow; register applies at the word level.
• Domain-load-bearing named ops (backprop, glyph-encode, socratic, steno).
• Established tech vocabulary that doubles as metaphor (drift, bottleneck, leak) — allowed when it is the standard term in context.

WHEN SKIM TRIPS

Fact missing from the first sentence → rewrite the first clause to state it directly; not cut further words. Reviewer would slow down on a symbol → use the word. Compression preserves fact.