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Name deferral as a register class #363

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7f9f0fa
Name the reply that hands the choice back
alanhc Sep 3, 2026
b1349a0
Ban deferral and self-report in prose
alanhc Sep 3, 2026
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8 changes: 8 additions & 0 deletions .claude/skills/elfuse-conventions/SKILL.md
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Expand Up @@ -380,6 +380,14 @@ addressed threads with "Resolve conversation"; a reply carries the
correction, the measurement, or nothing. A concise what and why belongs in
the commit body, not the thread.

A reply that hands the choice back is the same artifact in a politer form:

@cubic-dev-ai cubic-dev-ai Bot Sep 3, 2026

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P3: This guidance describes the rule with a metaphor and an uncheckable politeness comparison instead of naming the deferral directly. Replace it with a factual description such as “A reply that asks the reviewer to choose between measured alternatives is a deferral.”

Prompt for AI agents 
Check if this issue is valid — if so, understand the root cause and fix it. At .claude/skills/elfuse-conventions/SKILL.md, line 383:

<comment>This guidance describes the rule with a metaphor and an uncheckable politeness comparison instead of naming the deferral directly. Replace it with a factual description such as “A reply that asks the reviewer to choose between measured alternatives is a deferral.”</comment>

<file context>
@@ -380,6 +380,14 @@ addressed threads with "Resolve conversation"; a reply carries the
 correction, the measurement, or nothing. A concise what and why belongs in
 the commit body, not the thread.
 
+A reply that hands the choice back is the same artifact in a politer form:
+"If you would rather the source read uniformly one way or the other, say so
+and I will move the remaining three" asks the reviewer for an instruction
</file context>
Suggested change
A reply that hands the choice back is the same artifact in a politer form:
A reply that asks the reviewer to choose between measured alternatives is a deferral:

"If you would rather the source read uniformly one way or the other, say so
and I will move the remaining three" asks the reviewer for an instruction
rather than a technical answer ("Let's concentrate on real discussions!",
PR#350). A tradeoff you have measured is settled in the reply and carries
the measurement as its reason; what is still open is one question about the
code.

The body is intent plus reproduction and commands: for a bug, a minimal
reproduction with host macOS and SDK version, hardware, and `make check`
status (PR#21, PR#41); for a performance claim, A/B benchmarks on a named
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5 changes: 5 additions & 0 deletions .claude/skills/elfuse-conventions/references/prose-register.md
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Expand Up @@ -36,6 +36,11 @@ State the fact and stop:
- Effort and flattery: "carefully reviewed", "comprehensive", "thoroughly
tested", "Great catch", "You're absolutely right". Effort is not a
finding; name what ran and what it reported.
- Deferral and self-report: an offer to redo the work another way ("say so
and I will", "happy to split this"), an apology for a correction, or an
announcement of candor before a caveat that stands on its own ("worth
flagging rather than hiding"). State the decision and the reason that
settles it; a reviewer who disagrees says so without being invited.
- Formatting as emphasis in docs and PR text: bolded bullet-header runs
where a paragraph belongs, decorative rules, emoji.
- Machine artifacts, defects on sight: zero-width and bidi characters,
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