bold-label
An advisory by default: it explains, and blocks nothing, on list items or paragraphs of an agent reply that open with a bold label.
What it catches
List items or paragraphs of an agent reply that open with a bold label.
Dimension
structure: the reader has to reconstruct the order or the purpose. A finding is counted on
the dimension of its rule, the cost it names to the reader.
Why
A label turns each point into a field of a form, so the person reads the labels and rebuilds the sentences. Measured 2026-10-10 over 400 end-of-turn replies sampled from one machine's coding-agent sessions (101 projects, median 266 words): it fires on 121 (30.3%). Judged as review-reply, bold labels were the largest share of the 85 denials in 200 replies. It reports the first label and counts the rest. It advises: a long reply may need a label to be scanned. Firings are counted, not labeled.
Default decision
The code is PRF8020. The decision depends on the kind of text judged:
| Kind | Default |
|---|---|
agent-reply |
advise |
Changing it
A decisions table sets this rule to deny, advise or off, for everything judged
or for the files a glob matches. Proofread reads the table from the file its
-decisions flag names:
{
"rules": {"bold-label": "deny"},
"paths": {"blog/**": {"bold-label": "off"}}
}
rules applies to every file. A glob in paths applies to the files it matches, and the
last match wins. A rule set to off never reports.
Seeing it
A finding names the rule, its code and the decision that applies, and links here:
{"rule": "bold-label", "code": "PRF8020", "decision": "advise", "url": "https://eli.gladman.cc/magus/reference/proofread/bold-label/"}
proofread rules prints this entry with every other rule's.
See also
- All proofread rules - every rule, grouped by what it checks
- Writing rules - how the rules apply to this repository's pages and pull requests
- The findings contract - the fields every finding carries