compact-line

A rule that is off by default: it reports a compact line over 21 words that joins clauses with a semicolon or a comma and a conjunction once a decisions table turns it on.

What it catches

A compact line over 21 words that joins clauses with a semicolon or a comma and a conjunction.

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

The floor is one fact per line. IFScale (Jaroslawicz et al., arXiv 2507.11538) found the best model follows 68% of 500 instructions, and an instruction packed beside another on one line is the easier one to miss. A line counts as more than one fact when it runs long and joins clauses; the length is the 90th percentile of the prose line lengths of the skills magus ships once rewritten to the floor, a code span counted as one word. The measurements are in the machine-text research (research-machine-text.md in the proofread roadmap).

Default decision

The code is PRF7014. The decision depends on the kind of text judged:

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": {"compact-line": "deny"},
  "paths": {"blog/**": {"compact-line": "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": "compact-line", "code": "PRF7014", "decision": "off", "url": "https://eli.gladman.cc/magus/reference/proofread/compact-line/"}

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