Anti-slop rules

This page is generated from the code that enforces the rules, so it cannot drift from them: skills/helix/scripts/check-deliverable.py (the script gate), the vendored sloptimizer fixture, workflows/deliverables/slide-patterns.yml (limits), the Vale styles under .vale/styles/Helix, skills/helix/scripts/deck-qa.py (the visual gate), and skills/helix/scripts/render-deck.js. The narrative on Anti-slop says why each rule exists and how the passes are sequenced.

Severities: blocking stops the deliverable at the gate; warning is reported and left to judgment. Every title check is a suggestion in sloptimizer and a block here, because a deck title is read aloud in sequence and cannot carry a footnote.

Title and shape rules

Titles run through every rule marked title; a deck title is a slide title for an audience outside the team, so the slide title rules apply too. Bullets, card labels, captions, and verdicts run through the shape rules. Titles fail above 10 words and aim for 8 or fewer.

Titles in the fixture that pass every rule:

• Document discipline catches agent drift before review
• Most developers now ship agent-written code every day
• Agent code drifts from its specs and decisions
• HELIX traces every agent change to a governing document
• HELIX ships document templates and one alignment skill
• One alignment pass finds three affected specs before coding
• Alignment reviews audit documents instead of chat transcripts
• A healthy document set averages under 3 findings per run
• HELIX runs on the runtime and tracker you own
• Pilot HELIX on one project this quarter
• Approve the budget and name a recruiter by month end
• Year one costs $262,000 and breaks even in month 18
• The 10:30 standup moves to 9:00 on Mondays
• Q3 churn fell 12% after prebill review
• One typed table carries every transport
• Install from https://example.com/releases
• One alignment check found three drifted specs before coding
• Each document layer governs the next, from vision to code
• Use cases
• Five checks are built and one is in use
• Firm capabilities
• Overview

Phrase lists

Vendored from sloptimizer at commit a269347; tests/validate-headline-sync.sh fails when any list or the fixture differs from upstream.

Mannered phrases (regular expressions)

• \bearns? (?:its|their) keep\b
• \b(?:a|the|one) (?:dial|knob|lever) worth (?:turning|pulling)\b
• \b(?:dials|knobs|levers) (?:to|worth) (?:turn|pull|turning|pulling)\b
• \bpulls? (?:its|their|his|her) (?:own )?weight\b
• \bpunch(?:es)? above (?:its|their) weight\b
• \b(?:do|does|did|doing) (?:the|all the|most of the) heavy lifting\b
• \b(?:is|are|was|were) doing (?:a lot of|most of the|the real|all the) work\b
• \bmoves? the needle\b
• \blow-hanging fruit\b
• \btable stakes\b
• \bnorth star\b
• \bsilver bullet\b
• \bsecret sauce\b
• \bunder the hood\b
• \bdouble-edged sword\b
• \bcuts both ways\b
• \ba tale of two\b
• \bthe lion(?:'|’)s share\b
• \bboils? down to\b
• \bthe elephant in the room\b
• \bthe beating heart of\b
• \ba breath of fresh air\b
• \bthrough the lens of\b
• \bat the intersection of\b
• \bfirst-class citizen\b
• \bin lockstep\b
• \bwears? (?:two|many|several|multiple) hats\b
• \bpaints? a (?:clear |vivid |fuller |complete )?picture\b
• \bthe wheels (?:come|came|fall|fell) off\b
• \bload-bearing (?:assumption|claim|idea|sentence|word|phrase|question|decision|detail|premise|distinction)\b
• \bthe connective tissue (?:of|between)\b
• \bthe glue that holds\b
• \bthe plumbing (?:of|behind|underneath)\b
• \bthe scaffolding (?:of|for|around)\b
• \bthe engine (?:of|behind|driving)\b
• \bshine[sd]? a light on\b
• \bpeel(?:s|ing)? back the (?:layers|curtain|onion)\b
• \bthe tip of the iceberg\b
• \bthe missing piece of the puzzle\b
• \ba (?:seat|place) at the table\b
• \bat a crossroads\b
• \bthe (?:road|path) ahead\b
• \bfull circle\b

Invented status (regular expressions)

• \bportability reference\b
• \brepresentative workload\b
• \bworking hypothesis\b
• \bproposed contract\b
• \bcandidate,? (?:scope open|tbd|pending)\b
• \bscope (?:open|tbd|to be (?:defined|determined))\b
• \bfit (?:unproven|tbd|unclear)\b
• \bnot (?:yet )?committed\b
• \bdirectionally (?:correct|right|aligned)\b
• \bunder (?:exploration|consideration|evaluation|investigation)\b
• \bin flight\b
• \bto be validated\b
• \bsubject to (?:validation|confirmation|alignment)\b
• \bpending (?:alignment|validation|confirmation|decision)\b
• \baspirational\b
• \bnascent\b
• \blighthouse (?:project|use case|customer|initiative)\b
• \bpathfinder\b
• \bexemplar\b
• \bstraw ?man\b
• \bnaming tbd\b
• \btbd\b
• \bwip\b

Internal taxonomy codes (regular expressions)

• \b(?i:zone|plane|pillar|horizon|wave|workstream|swimlane|quadrant|lane|epic|theme)s? \d{1,2}\b
• \bP\d{1,2}(?:[ ,/]+P\d{1,2})+\b
• \b(?i:principle|pillar)s? P?\d{1,2}\b

Marketing register (regular expressions)

• \bleverag(?:e|es|ed|ing)\b
• \bdifferentiat(?:ed|ing|or|ors)\b
• \bcommoditi[sz](?:e|es|ed|ing|ation)\b
• \bbest[- ]of[- ]breed\b
• \benterprise[- ]grade\b
• \bfuture[- ]proof(?:ed|ing)?\b
• \bturnkey\b
• \bholistic(?:ally)?\b
• \bfrictionless\b
• \bnext[- ]gen(?:eration)?\b
• \bsynerg(?:y|ies|istic)\b
• \bvalue[- ]add(?:ed)?\b
• \bmission[- ]critical\b
• \bstate[- ]of[- ]the[- ]art\b
• \b(?:universal|unified|seamless|delightful) experience\b
• \bsingle (?:pane|source) of (?:glass|truth)\b
• \bgoverned (?:conversational|data|ai) access\b

Flattery (regular expressions)

• \byour best (?:teams?|people|engineers?|work|days?)\b
• \b(?:teams|people|leaders|companies) like yours?\b
• \bhold(?:s|ing)? (?:ourselves|yourself|yourselves|themselves) to\b
• \byou deserve\b
• \bthe (?:smartest|best|brightest) (?:teams|people|minds|engineers)\b
• \byou already (?:know|use|have|do|trust)\b
• \bworld[- ]class\b
• \bbest[- ]in[- ]class\b
• \bindustry[- ]leading\b
• \bthe (?:bar|standard) we (?:set|hold|keep)\b

Aphorism (regular expressions)

• \bis the new\b
• \bthe only \w+ that matters\b
• \bis everything\b
• \bmore than ever\b
• \bdone right\b
• \bis (?:a|the) (?:feature|superpower|multiplier|moat|journey|mindset)\b
• \bis (?:a|an) (?:nice-to-have|luxury)\b
• \b(?:wins|matters|counts)\s*[.!]?$
• \bat scale\s*[.!]?$
• \bthe hard way\b
• \bchanges everything\b
• \bhere to stay\b
• \bthe future of\b
• \bwelcome to\b
• ^that(?:'|’)?s what makes\b
• ^that is what makes\b
• ^(?:this|that) is (?:what|how|why) \w+ (?:works|matters|wins|scales|holds)\b
• \beverything else is (?:detail|plumbing|noise|downstream)\b

Container nouns

• capabilit(?:y
• ies)
• foundations?
• layers?
• overview
• landscape
• ecosystem
• frameworks?
• pillars?
• principles
• considerations
• enablers
• building blocks
• components
• dimensions
• themes
• elements
• areas
• aspects
• fundamentals
• essentials
• basics
• highlights
• context
• background
• approach
• philosophy
• vision
• stack
• platform
• architecture
• framing
• scope
• summary
• agenda
• introduction
• recap
• takeaways
• learnings
• observations
• reflections
• opportunities
• challenges
• implications
• next steps
• key points
• the ask
• deep[- ]dive
• overview and context

Listicle nouns

• things
• reasons
• ways
• lessons
• mistakes
• signs
• secrets
• tips
• takeaways
• truths
• myths
• ideas
• insights
• principles
• habits
• rules
• questions
• shifts
• changes
• factors
• points
• patterns
• steps
• keys
• pillars
• traps

Group nouns (universal claim)

• teams?
• people
• leaders
• engineers
• developers
• companies
• organi[sz]ations
• customers
• users
• buyers
• founders
• executives
• managers
• businesses
• enterprises
• startups

Group verbs (universal claim)

• switch
• win
• lose
• choose
• prefer
• want
• need
• trust
• buy
• adopt
• leave
• stay
• succeed
• fail
• care
• love
• hate
• ignore
• struggle
• expect
• demand
• know
• forget
• resist
• deserve

Inventory verbs

• with
• has
• have
• had
• offers?
• ships?
• includes?
• provides?
• contains?
• routes?
• spans?
• across
• covers?
• supports?
• brings?
• delivers?
• packs?
• features?
• comes with
• made (?:up )?of
• consists? of
• bundles?
• holds?
• carries
• carry
• adds?
• lists?
• boasts?
• totals?
• comprises?

Number words counted as a count

• \d[\d,]*
• a dozen
• dozens
• hundreds
• thousands
• (?:twenty
• thirty
• forty
• fifty
• sixty
• seventy
• eighty
• ninety)(?:-(?:one
• two
• three
• four
• five
• six
• seven
• eight
• nine))?
• eleven
• twelve
• thirteen
• fourteen
• fifteen
• sixteen
• seventeen
• eighteen
• nineteen
• two
• three
• four
• five
• six
• seven
• eight
• nine
• ten

Imperative verbs (imperative chain)

• add
• adopt
• align
• ask
• audit
• build
• buy
• call
• check
• choose
• close
• commit
• configure
• count
• cut
• decide
• define
• deploy
• design
• document
• draft
• drive
• edit
• find
• fix
• follow
• frame
• get
• give
• go
• grow
• hire
• hold
• install
• join
• keep
• launch
• lead
• learn
• let
• list
• make
• map
• measure
• merge
• move
• name
• open
• own
• pick
• plan
• publish
• push
• put
• read
• release
• remove
• review
• run
• scale
• see
• sell
• send
• set
• share
• ship
• show
• sign
• start
• stop
• take
• tell
• test
• track
• train
• try
• turn
• use
• validate
• verify
• watch
• write

Restatement

Within one slide, the title and every shape the layout draws are compared pairwise on content words (lowercase words of three or more letters, minus 66 stopwords). Two units with at least 4 content words each whose Jaccard overlap is 0.5 or higher are a restatement (warning). Bullets count only on patterns whose layout draws them (agenda, ask-next-steps, claim-evidence, quote, section-divider, statement); node labels in a figure (center, columns, layers, left, milestones, right, steps and the first cell of items, risks, rows, spokes, stats) skip the container-title rule.

Stopwords: a, all, an, and, any, are, as, at, be, been, being, but, by, can, did, do, does, each, every, for, from, had, has, have, he, her, his, how, if, in, into, is, it, its, no, not, of, on, one, or, our, she, so, than, that, the, their, then, these, they, this, those, three, to, two, was, we, were, what, when, which, who, will, with, you, your

Horizontal logic

Consecutive titles (title slide through the ask) must share at least one content word after light stemming: -ing is stripped from words over six letters, -ed over five, a trailing -s over four unless the word ends in -ss (-es after s, x, z, ch, sh), then a trailing -e over four letters; words under three letters and the title stopwords are ignored. A pair with no shared word is a horizontal_logic warning. The same stems decide whether a must-cover concept matches a covered group.

Title stopwords: a, after, all, an, and, any, are, as, at, back, be, been, before, but, by, can, each, every, for, from, here, how, if, in, into, is, it, its, just, less, more, most, much, no, not, now, of, on, once, one, only, or, our, out, over, own, per, so, than, that, the, their, then, there, these, they, this, those, to, under, up, very, was, we, were, what, when, while, who, will, with, you, your

Script gate checks

Every check check-deliverable.py can report, with its severity. A title that is a label (about us, agenda, appendix, background, conclusion, context, introduction, next steps, overview, problem, questions, recommendation, results, risks, roadmap, solution, sources, status, summary, team, thank you, timeline, update) or under three words fails title.claim.

Patterns the vocabulary, number, placeholder, and visual checks use:

• HELIX vocabulary (blocking in a title, body, or notes): \b(?:FR|US|FEAT|ADR|TD|SD|TP|PRD|DEL|CONTRACT|WS)-\d+|\bbeads?\b|\bratchets?\b|\bwork items?\b|\bacceptance criteri(?:a|on)\b|\bAC\d+\b|\bartifact graph\b|\b(?:discover|frame|build|deploy|iterate) activity\b|\bddx\b|\bstoryboard beats?\b|\bflow beats?\b|\bcandidate-briefing\b|\bkeep_when_short\b
• Jargon (warning): \b(?:concerns?|stop triggers?|autonomy levels?|quality floors?|ratchets?|framing|[\w-]+ modes?|the record|the profile|spikes?|project artifacts?|sibling profiles?)\b
• Placeholder (blocking): \[NEEDS CLARIFICATION|\[TODO\]|\bTBD\b|\[Fill in\]|<placeholder>|\[\.\.\.\]; bracketed phrase (warning): (?<!\[)\[(?:[A-Z][a-z]+)(?:[ /][A-Za-z]+)*\](?!\()
• A number in a body that must appear in the Sources table: (?<![\w.])(?:\$?\d[\d,]*(?:\.\d+)?\s?(?:%|k|K|M|B|x)?)(?![\w.]) (single digits excepted)
• Generic visuals (blocking, with anything under six words): chart, diagram, graph, image, n/a, none, photo, picture, screenshot, table

Pattern limits and density

From workflows/deliverables/slide-patterns.yml, the single owner of limits; exceeding one is a warning.

Density: title_words_target 8; title_words_max 10; words_per_content_slide_max 60; words_per_bullet_max 14; bullets_per_slide_max 5; consecutive_same_pattern_max 2; stat_callouts_per_section_max 1; table_or_comparison_every_n_slides 3; diagram_or_statement_per_n_content_slides 10; content_slides_max 12; slides_per_minute_of_talk 0.5

Prose lint (Vale, Helix styles)

Runs on the hand-authored site pages and on every deliverable script (just lint-prose). Errors block; warnings and suggestions are reported.

Helix.AISlop

error; existence. Avoid ‘%s’. Name the concrete mechanism, artifact, result, or constraint instead.

Tokens (16): \bdelve(?: into)?\b, \bleverage\b, \bseamless(?:ly)?\b, \brobust\b, \bpivotal\b, \bunderscores\b, \blandscape\b, \brealm\b, \butilize\b, \bgame[- ]changer\b, \bat its core\b, \bin conclusion\b, \bin summary\b, \bto summarize\b, \bunlock(?:s|ing)?\b, \bsupercharge(?:s|d)?\b

Helix.EmDash

error; existence. Avoid em dashes in prose. Use a comma, colon, parentheses, or a shorter sentence.

Tokens (1): —

Helix.Hedges

warning; existence. Review ‘%s’ — often a weak hedge. Keep only if it names a real contrast or limit.

Tokens (16): \bjust\b, \bvery\b, \breally\b, \bquite\b, \bsimply\b, \bactually\b, \bbasically\b, \bliterally\b, \bessentially\b, \bgenerally\b, \busually\b, \boften\b, \bsomewhat\b, \brather\b, \bclearly\b, \bobviously\b

Helix.PassiveVoice

warning; existence. Passive voice: ‘%s’. Prefer active where the actor matters.

Tokens (2): \b(?:am|is|are|was|were|be|been|being)\s+(?:\w+(?:ed|en))\b, \b(?:am|is|are|was|were|be|been|being)\s+(?:made|done|told|kept|known|taken|shown|seen|sent|put|set|left|read|paid|met|lost|hit|cut|bought|brought|caught|chosen|driven|fallen|forgotten|frozen|given|hidden|held|sold|spoken|stolen|swept|swung|thought|thrown|understood|won|worn|written|broken|built|burst|dealt|drawn|drunk|eaten|fed|felt|fought|found|forbidden|gotten|grown|heard|laid|laid|led|let|lit|paid|proven|risen|rung|run|said|seen|shaken|shed|shot|shrunk|shut|sung|sunk|spread|stood|stuck|sunk|sworn|taught|torn|told|trodden|undertaken|woken|wound)\b

Helix.SentenceLength

warning; existence. Long sentence (>30 words). Split or tighten if it does not earn the length.

Tokens (1): [A-Z][^.!?\n]*?(?:\s+\S+){30,}[^.!?\n]*[.!?]

Helix.Tics

warning; existence. Avoid ‘%s’ unless the sentence names the concrete contrast or consequence.

Tokens (7): \bhonest(?:ly)?\b, \bto be honest\b, \binteresting(?:ly)?\b, \bwhat stands out\b, \b(?:it is|it's|that is|that's)\s+worth\b, \bworth\s+(?:noting|saying|flagging|mentioning|remembering|reading|checking|exploring)\b, \b(?:real|actual|genuine|true)\s+(?:answer|approach|architecture|behavior|boundary|constraint|contract|default|design|gate|intent|mechanism|methodology|problem|reason|result|source|spec|story|takeaway|test|truth|value|version|workflow)\b

Helix.Wordiness

warning; substitution. Tighten ‘%s’ → ‘%s’.

Substitutions (36): in order to → to; in order for → so; due to the fact that → because; the fact that → that; in the event that → if; at this point in time → now; with regard to → about; with respect to → about; in regards to → about; a number of → some; the majority of → most; on a daily basis → daily; on a weekly basis → weekly; on a monthly basis → monthly; make use of → use; makes use of → uses; in spite of → despite; prior to → before; subsequent to → after; in conjunction with → with; in addition to → besides; it should be noted that → (delete); it is important to note that → (delete); it is worth noting that → (delete); please note that → (delete); it is the case that → (delete); as a matter of fact → (delete); needless to say → (delete); in essence → (delete); for the purpose of → for; for the purposes of → for; in the process of → (delete); has the ability to → can; have the ability to → can; is able to → can; are able to → can

Visual gate (deck-qa.py)

Reads every slide’s shapes from the file. Safe margin 0.5 in; readable floor 12.0 pt; autofit may shrink to 0.75 of the nominal size before a fit that depends on it becomes blocking. It also notes any typeface the deck names that the host lacks, rasterizes every slide when LibreOffice and pdftoppm are present, and builds a contact sheet for inspection.

What the renderer refuses to hide

render-deck.js writes the file so it can be inspected, then reports these and exits non-zero (problems) or reports and exits normally (warnings):

• problem: unit …: ‘…’ does not fit its box at …pt (autofit will shrink it below the floor)
• problem: unit …: … bullets do not fit at …pt
• problem: unit …: … table row(s) did not fit beside the bullets; use the table pattern
• problem: unit …: table row ‘…’ is taller than the slide body and was clamped
• problem: unit …: the Visual spec was cut at a period inside a field value; fields after it were read as prose
• problem: unit …: … table row(s) did not fit in 4 slides and were dropped
• warning: unit …: the ask band has no ‘ask:’ field, so it repeats the title; give the band the decision in the room’s terms
• problem: sources: … row(s) did not fit in 6 appendix slides and were dropped