short-reply-heading
An advisory by default: it explains, and blocks nothing, on a heading in an agent reply under 300 words.
What it catches
A heading in an agent reply under 300 words.
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 reply that short reads in one screen, and a heading there splits it into a page the person has to navigate. Measured 2026-10-10 over the 400 replies: 64 carry a heading, and it fires on 17 (4.3%) whose prose runs under 300 words. It advises: a heading can still mark the one decision the person owes.
Default decision
The code is PRF8025. 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": {"short-reply-heading": "deny"},
"paths": {"blog/**": {"short-reply-heading": "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": "short-reply-heading", "code": "PRF8025", "decision": "advise", "url": "https://eli.gladman.cc/magus/reference/proofread/short-reply-heading/"}
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