document-haness/.agents/skills/rewriting-technical-prose-naturally/references/protected-content.md

Protected Content

Editorial work must preserve these exactly unless the source itself is being corrected with new evidence:

• numeric values and signs;
• dates and times;
• versions;
• units;
• commands and command arguments;
• code and configuration;
• file/module/class/method names when used as identifiers;
• URLs and paths;
• HTTP status/error codes;
• test names and assertions;
• observed terminal/browser output;
• direct quotations;
• decision/question status;
• distinctions between observed fact, inference, assumption, unknown, and recommendation.

Meaning-preservation checks

After editing, compare original and revised record and ask:

1. Did any condition (when, only if, environment, topology, dataset) disappear?
2. Did can/may become does/will?
3. Did a local/test observation become a production/general claim?
4. Did an unresolved question sound answered?
5. Did a proposed decision sound adopted?
6. Did a measured value lose its measurement context?
7. Did a failure/limitation disappear because it made the paragraph less tidy?
8. Did the rewrite invent a motivation or personal history?

If yes, restore the lost distinction before further stylistic changes.