Ruthless Prose Edit — refactor-chain · docs

Bundle: refactor-chain (self-diagnosing, self-healing fix-it pipeline). Phase: docs · Prerequisite: a drafted document (usually from refactor-write-up or refactor-artifacts-sync) · Next: ship. Adaptivity / conditional: repo-agnostic. Applies to every prose deliverable the chain produces; skipped only when there is no prose to edit.

Purpose

Every document the pipeline writes gets one deliberate cutting pass before it ships. The rule is simple: a sentence stays only if it changes what the reader does or knows; otherwise it's cut. The target is about 30% shorter with zero information loss — every fact, number, path, caveat, and decision survives; only the padding dies. Code blocks, identifiers, and anything the user asked to keep verbatim are untouchable.

When to use

• The write-up, PR body, report, or retro is drafted and about to ship.
• Someone says "tighten this", "too wordy", "cut it down", "edit the PR body".
• The orchestrator enters the docs phase with any prose artifact in state.
• Any pipeline output longer than a paragraph that a human will actually read.