Simplified Technical English: 110 findings to clear #163

.ste-budget in this repo is 110, seeded from this count when the check was adopted so CI is green today. This issue is the list to work down.

Some of this prose also feeds tunaos.org: sync-org-docs.mjs copies this repo's README and the top level of its docs/ tree into tuna-os/docs as docs/<slug>/, where the aggregator deliberately skips synced trees — a fix made there is reverted by the next sync. Nested paths such as docs/reports/ or docs/adr/ are not copied at all, so a good share of the findings below never reach the site.

Either way the prose is authored here, so here is where it gets fixed — which is the whole reason the check was moved out of the aggregator and into the source repos.

By rule

By file

Findings

The first 50 of 110, in file order. Run the linter locally (below) for the rest — the full list is long enough that pasting it here would bury the summary.

docs/USER_GUIDE.md

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:3 — STE 3.4: passive voice ("are regenerated"); say who or what does the action

  Screenshots on this page are regenerated automatically on every release by (the app's mode), so

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:9 — STE 3.2: sentence is 34 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  Launch Dualcut from your app menu and you get an unsaved New Project, scaffolded with a title sc

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:12 — STE 1.4: noun cluster of 4 words ("arrow lists recent ones"); use at most 3, and add prepositions

  Use Open for an existing project (the arrow lists recent ones), or pass a path on the command li

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:19 — STE 3.2: sentence is 46 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  One window, four regions: the Clips / Library / Templates / Code / Script tabs on the left, the

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:19 — STE 3.4: passive voice ("is selected"); say who or what does the action

  One window, four regions: the Clips / Library / Templates / Code / Script tabs on the left, the

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:32 — STE 3.2: sentence is 30 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  Import (header or the Library tab's empty state) adds media files to the project's library — or

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:32 — STE 1.5: "just" adds nothing; delete it

  Import (header or the Library tab's empty state) adds media files to the project's library — or

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:38 — STE 3.4: passive voice ("are automatically transcoded"); say who or what does the action

  Imported videos are automatically transcoded in the background into lightweight proxy media (960

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:40 — STE 3.2: sentence is 26 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  The preview and timeline scrub through these proxies for smooth playback even with 4K footage, while

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:51 — STE 4.1: "-ing" form ("selecting"); use a simple verb or a noun

  Ship your own by selecting clips and using Save as template.

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:58 — STE 3.2: sentence is 27 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  Edit it directly and press Apply JSON; the change is validated, undoable, and hot-reloads the prev

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:58 — STE 3.4: passive voice ("is validated"); say who or what does the action

  Edit it directly and press Apply JSON; the change is validated, undoable, and hot-reloads the prev

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:66 — STE 3.2: sentence is 28 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  Where Code shows the document, Script transforms it: write a TypeScript function , press *Run scr

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:69 — STE 4.1: "-ing" form ("renaming"); use a simple verb or a noun

  Useful for bulk operations — renaming scenes, retiming clips, generating layers from data.

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:69 — STE 4.1: "-ing" form ("retiming"); use a simple verb or a noun

  Useful for bulk operations — renaming scenes, retiming clips, generating layers from data.

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:69 — STE 4.1: "-ing" form ("generating"); use a simple verb or a noun

  Useful for bulk operations — renaming scenes, retiming clips, generating layers from data.

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:74 — STE 3.2: sentence is 37 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  Select a clip in the timeline, preview, or Inspect list to edit its timing, transform, and text; add

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:83 — STE 3.2: sentence is 29 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  Click a scene segment in the timeline ruler to edit its duration and the transition from the previou

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:94 — STE 3.2: sentence is 36 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  Pairs with two starter templates in the Templates tab: vertical-center-crop (scales and centers

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:98 — STE 1.5: "just" adds nothing; delete it

  Both are plain composition — transform math on ordinary video clips — so they work with any project,

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:105 — STE 3.2: sentence is 34 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  Space plays/pauses, Left/Right steps one frame, Home/End jumps to the start/end, S splits the select

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:107 — STE 4.1: "-ing" form ("showing"); use a simple verb or a noun

  The hamburger menu's Keyboard Shortcuts opens a reference showing whatever is currently bound — se

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:107 — STE 1.5: "currently" is not approved; use "now"

  The hamburger menu's Keyboard Shortcuts opens a reference showing whatever is currently bound — se

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:111 — STE 3.2: sentence is 42 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  Every shortcut is rebindable in Preferences → Keyboard Shortcuts: click any shortcut and press the

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:114 — STE 3.2: sentence is 37 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  Presets only remap the actions dualcut actually has — where an app's shortcut assumes a feature dual

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:114 — STE 1.5: "actually" adds nothing; delete it

  Presets only remap the actions dualcut actually has — where an app's shortcut assumes a feature dual

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:121 — STE 3.2: sentence is 113 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  The hamburger menu holds New Project, New Vertical Project (9:16), Save Project As…, *Generate

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:121 — STE 3.4: passive voice ("is greyed"); say who or what does the action

  The hamburger menu holds New Project, New Vertical Project (9:16), Save Project As…, *Generate

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:121 — STE 1.4: noun cluster of 4 words ("small English speech model"); use at most 3, and add prepositions

  The hamburger menu holds New Project, New Vertical Project (9:16), Save Project As…, *Generate

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:121 — STE 1.4: noun cluster of 4 words ("different ggml model path"); use at most 3, and add prepositions

  The hamburger menu holds New Project, New Vertical Project (9:16), Save Project As…, *Generate

• docs/USER_GUIDE.md:138 — STE 3.2: sentence is 32 words; the limit is 25 for descriptive text

  Everything above has a programmatic twin: the project file hot-reloads when edited on disk, an HTTP

docs/OBSERVABILITY.md

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:5 — STE 1.4: noun cluster of 6 words ("native Rust-based non-linear video editor engine"); use at most 3, and add prepositions

  is a native Rust-based non-linear video editor engine ( ) built on top of GStreamer ( , , , ), GT

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:9 — STE 1.4: noun cluster of 5 words ("HTTP Local Host File API"); use at most 3, and add prepositions

  HTTP Local Host File API ( ):

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:10 — STE 1.4: noun cluster of 4 words ("local HTTP API server"); use at most 3, and add prepositions

  exposes a lightweight, local HTTP API server ( ) bound exclusively to .

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:11 — STE 4.1: "-ing" form ("scripting"); use a simple verb or a noun

  Used for agent scripting, project inspect/edit ops ( , , ), and engine status checks ( ).

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:12 — STE 3.4: passive voice ("are performed"); say who or what does the action

  No external data transmission or remote network calls are performed by the API server.

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:14 — STE 4.1: "-ing" form ("Tracing"); use a simple verb or a noun

  Logging & Diagnostic Tracing:

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:16 — STE 4.1: "-ing" form ("formatting"); use a simple verb or a noun

  Rust standard library formatting and context chains propagate operational errors across pipeline c

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:16 — STE 4.1: "-ing" form ("loading"); use a simple verb or a noun

  Rust standard library formatting and context chains propagate operational errors across pipeline c

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:16 — STE 1.4: noun cluster of 5 words ("context chains propagate operational errors"); use at most 3, and add prepositions

  Rust standard library formatting and context chains propagate operational errors across pipeline c

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:19 — STE 3.4: passive voice ("is currently configured"); say who or what does the action

  No telemetry backend is currently configured or authorized for external data export.

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:19 — STE 1.5: "currently" is not approved; use "now"

  No telemetry backend is currently configured or authorized for external data export.

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:20 — STE 3.1: sentence is 23 words; the limit is 20 for instructions

  Standard telemetry policy prohibits introducing external metric exporters, OpenTelemetry SDK collect

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:20 — STE 3.4: passive voice ("been explicitly configured"); say who or what does the action

  Standard telemetry policy prohibits introducing external metric exporters, OpenTelemetry SDK collect

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:20 — STE 4.1: "-ing" form ("introducing"); use a simple verb or a noun

  Standard telemetry policy prohibits introducing external metric exporters, OpenTelemetry SDK collect

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:20 — STE 1.4: noun cluster of 4 words ("Standard telemetry policy prohibits"); use at most 3, and add prepositions

  Standard telemetry policy prohibits introducing external metric exporters, OpenTelemetry SDK collect

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:21 — STE 4.1: "-ing" form ("scoping"); use a simple verb or a noun

  Any future telemetry integration must maintain local-only scoping, strict attribute cardinality cont

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:21 — STE 1.4: noun cluster of 4 words ("strict attribute cardinality controls"); use at most 3, and add prepositions

  Any future telemetry integration must maintain local-only scoping, strict attribute cardinality cont

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:25 — STE 3.4: passive voice ("be designated"); say who or what does the action

  Should an operational backend be designated in the future, the following bounded instrumentation arc

• docs/OBSERVABILITY.md:25 — STE 3.4: passive voice ("is recommended"); say who or what does the action

  Should an operational backend be designated in the future, the following bounded instrumentation arc

Running it locally

mkdir -p /tmp/ste && cd /tmp/ste
for f in ste-lint.mjs ste-rules.mjs; do
  curl -fsSLO "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tuna-os/.github/main/.github/actions/ste-lint/$f"
done
cd - && node /tmp/ste/ste-lint.mjs            # full detail
node /tmp/ste/ste-lint.mjs --summary          # counts only
node /tmp/ste/ste-lint.mjs README.md          # one file

How to close this

The budget is a ratchet: lower .ste-budget whenever a batch of prose lands, never raise it to make a PR pass. Clear findings in whatever order suits — there is no need to do it in one pass, and partial progress is worth landing.

Not every finding must be rewritten. A file can opt out in its own text with a stated reason — the reason is what stops the opt-out list from becoming where prose goes to be forgotten. Published records (dated blog posts), documents quoted verbatim (the Contributor Covenant), and bibliographies reproducing others' titles are all legitimate opt-outs. Judgement calls about whether a rule improves a given sentence are for whoever knows the prose, not the linter.

The linter and its rules live in tuna-os/.github.