davesnx Post draft
Finish a draft the way grilling stress-tests a plan: map the gaps, ask
the author only what only the author knows, write each answer into the
post. Read VOICE.md at the repository root and the draft. Use the voice
guide's relevant examples in context, not as a formula for every post.
Gaps
Read the draft, its SKILLS block, and everything it links. A gap is a place where the reader is owed something the draft does not give. Find every one:
- A sentence that breaks off, an
xxx, a TODO checkbox, a[Q:], a "TBD" description. - Missing context, explanation, or a consequence needed by this post's reader. Judge the whole passage, not a fixed set of paragraphs or sections.
- A claim whose support is missing or too weak for its scope. Evidence can appear elsewhere in the post or in a linked source.
- A title or heading that promises something the passage does not address. A question is valid when it serves the post.
- Missing attribution or a link the reader needs to identify or check a person, project, or source.
Sort each gap into a fact or a decision. A fact lives in the environment: the repository, the linked issue, the benchmark script, the git history of the project the post is about. Find it yourself; use a sub-agent when independent research can run in parallel. A decision lives in the author's head: what happened, what it cost, what he would do differently, which of two stances he holds. Only decisions go to the author.
Done when every gap is listed with its location, its type, and, for a fact, where you will look.
Rounds
Work the decisions in rounds. The frontier is every decision whose prerequisites are settled. Ask the whole frontier at once, numbered:
**Q1** - **<gap, with the line or heading it sits under>**: <what the reader is owed there, and the question that gets it>
Guess: <a tentative answer for him to confirm or correct, using only known context>
Include a guess only when known context supports one; otherwise ask the question without inventing an experience or stance. A guess gives him something to correct instead of a blank. Say once that shorthand, links, and a pasted terminal session are welcome answers. Ask in prose, never with a form: the answers are anecdotes and numbers, not options.
Each round's answers reshape the gap list. A "no" opens new questions. A link opens a fact to look up. Recompute the frontier and ask again.
The interview is complete when no material gap needs an author answer. If an answer or source remains unavailable, pause with explicit outstanding questions and the source or author input needed. An empty frontier alone does not mean the draft is complete: unresolved facts can still block it.
Writing
After each answered round, write the answered gaps into the draft at the spot each belongs, and nowhere else, without asking for separate permission to write. Write the supported parts even if other answers remain unavailable.
- Use the answer's own nouns and verbs, with enough context and evidence for the reader. Choose sentence and paragraph structure for this passage. Remove verbal hesitation only when it carries no meaning. Preserve qualifications about uncertainty, scope, or frequency, such as "might", "in my case", and "usually".
- Check each addition against its confirmed answer or source and the relevant VOICE.md examples. Keep source authors' experiences and opinions separate from his.
- Keep unavailable evidence explicit with
[Q: ...], stating what is missing and where to obtain it. A promised answer is not evidence. - Update the SKILLS block:
state:to stub, outline, partial or full-draft;next:to the first open gap, or to the sanding pass once none remain.
Show him the written passages, not the whole file.
Partial work is done for now when supported additions are written, unresolved
gaps remain explicit, and the SKILLS block reads state: partial with next:
pointing to the first outstanding question or evidence needed.
Set state: full-draft only when material gaps are resolved, the post meets
its reader promise, and no unfinished text or unanswered [Q:] remains.
Then set next: unslop with its references/author-patterns.md, then the blog-post reader test. A supported uncertain or mixed result can be complete;
do not manufacture a conclusion to close the draft.
Rules
- Facts are yours to find. Decisions are his to make. Ask nothing you can look up.
- A guess stays labelled a guess until he confirms it. Only confirmed answers and found facts enter the draft.
- Prose is written after a round is answered, never before.