# Style Prose

> Text formatting conventions for markdown and prose files. Use when writing or editing any .md, .txt, .adoc, or .rst file, including AGENTS.md, SKILL.md files, and documentation in docs/.

- Skill: `agglayer/style-prose` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add agglayer/style-prose`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/agglayer/style-prose/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Docs & Writing
- Author: agglayer (https://skillmd.com/u/agglayer)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/agglayer/style-prose

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When writing or editing text files (markdown, plain text, etc.),
use **Semantic Line Breaks** ([sembr.org](https://sembr.org/)).

## Rules

- **Line length**: aim for 80-100 characters per line.
  This is the primary constraint; the rules below serve it.
- Add a line break after each sentence (after `.`, `!`, or `?`).
- Break at a clause boundary when a line would otherwise exceed ~100 characters.
- Do **not** micro-split: short clauses, enumerations, and closely related
  phrases should stay on the same line when they fit within the target length.
- Break before enumerated or itemized lists.
- Do not break within hyphenated words.
- Allow longer lines for URLs, code spans, or markup.

## Why

Semantic line breaks make diffs cleaner:
editing one clause changes only one line, not the entire paragraph.
The rendered output is unaffected.

## Scope

Apply to all prose in markup files (markdown, rst, adoc, plain text).
Do **not** apply to code blocks, YAML frontmatter,
or structured data inside these files.