# Coding-report writing rubric — the house voice

Every line of user-facing copy in the coding report (component strings, LLM-written
sections, coaching, headlines) must pass this rubric. If a sentence fails, cut or rewrite it.

## The one rule: NO FLUFF

Fluff is any text that does not carry a fact, a number, a named thing, or a decision.
If you delete the sentence and the reader loses nothing concrete, it was fluff. Cut it.

Banned outright:
- Throat-clearing subtitles that restate the section title in prettier words
  ("the deliberate moves you make, and where the frontier is" → DELETE).
- Adjective stacks that assert quality without evidence ("genuinely strong, real,
  discriminating taste"). Show the instance instead.
- Hedge-and-flatter filler ("a real, developing sense", "a strong signal", "honestly").
- Meta-narration ("Here's the honest read:", "In a nutshell —", "Let's look at").
- Generic best-practice advice not tied to THIS person's data.

## Concrete or it doesn't ship

- Name the thing: the skill (`deep-research`), the project (Polymath Society), the
  session, the date, the number. Never "various tools" or "several sessions".
- Every quality claim must be anchored to a specific instance the person will recognize:
  "you reframed the grading rubric around load-bearing rungs on 06-12" beats
  "strong abstraction". The point is they think "oh — it actually saw that."
- Prefer one sharp example over three vague ones.

## Nothing important in grey

Grey (`text-faint`/`text-muted`) text is skimmed past and ignored. If it matters, it is
`text-ink` (black) and weighted. Grey is only for axis labels, units, and true asides.
Never put a real finding, a name, or a number in grey.

## Make them feel seen, don't flatter

Seen = you named something true and specific about how they work that they hadn't seen
articulated. Flattery = adjectives with no referent. Calibrate praise to what's load-bearing
and TRUE (see lib/agents/report/feel-seen-rubric.md), then point at the receipt.

## Mechanics

- Short. One idea per sentence. Cut every word that isn't doing work.
- Active voice, second person ("you"), present tense.
- A number beats a word; a named instance beats a number; the reader's own recognition
  beats both.
- Coaching tells them ONE concrete thing to do differently, drawn from their data — not a
  menu, not a platitude.