writing-complete-propositionslisted

# Writing complete propositions Write enough to preserve the obligation, then remove the repetition and decoration. Both halves are the job: this is not a one-way shortening pass, and **a smaller word count alone is not an improvement.** An obligation here means a precondition, postcondition, invariant, compatibility promise, or failure guarantee that a caller, callee, implementer, producer, or consumer relies on. That is the thing prose exists to carry, and the thing an edit can silently destroy. ## Inputs and scope - **Require an explicit scope.** If you were not given one, report what input is needed and stop. Do not infer a repository-wide scope and do not start an interview. - **Mode is separate from write authority.** Working automatically means not asking questions; it does not mean being allowed to edit. Confirm both. - **Exclusions go last** in any search, so a later include cannot re-admit them. Exclude vendored third-party code and any frozen archive. If the scope contains only excluded paths, report that no eligible files remain rather than widening it. - **Derivative artifacts are not prose targets.** Generated catalogs, recorded fixtures, and snapshots get fixed at their source and regenerated. ## Preserve the complete proposition Before editing, identify every proposition in the passage. Preserve each relevant one: - actor and action; - condition, timing, and ordering; - modality — must, may, never; - negative guarantee and exception; - ownership, side e