Glossary

Definitions for terms used throughout the Writing Style Library. Terms are grouped by category; cross-references link to fuller explanations elsewhere in the docs.

Core taxonomy terms

Axis - One of the three orthogonal dimensions of a writing instruction. The catalog has three axes: Voice & Tone (a paired axis covering identity and register), Style, and Format. See The Three-Axis Model.

Voice - The persistent identity of the writer. Stable across contexts. Captures professional archetype, characteristic concerns, and assumed reader. Lives in taxonomy/voices/.

Tone - Situational register layered on voice. Changes with context and message intent. Lives in taxonomy/tones/. Voice and Tone are distinct catalog directories but part of the same conceptual axis.

Style - The cognitive and rhetorical pattern of the writing. How ideas are sequenced and structured. Lives in taxonomy/styles/.

Format - The visual and structural container. Defines headings, bullet depth, table layouts, section templates. Lives in taxonomy/formats/.

Entry - A single unit in the catalog. Lives in its own folder with an ENTRY.md file containing frontmatter and a Markdown body. See How to Add an Entry.

Composition terms

Composition - The act of combining one entry from each axis into a single structured prompt prefix. See Composing Instructions.

Composed instruction - The output of composition: a multi-section prompt prefix that can be prepended to any writing task. Each section is drawn from the matching entry’s llm_instruction_phrasing field.

Instruction prefix - The composed instruction as it appears at the top of a prompt, before the actual writing task. Synonymous with “composed instruction” in most contexts.

Recipe - A named, pre-validated combination of entries for a specific use case. Recipes live in recipes/ and ship with example output.

Example terms

Vertical slice - A single anchor topic rendered across many catalog entries. Lets a reader compare how the same situation reads through different voices, tones, styles, or formats. The Phase 0 anchor topic is “Should we adopt async-first standups?” Lives in examples/vertical-slices/<topic-slug>/.

Horizontal slice - A single combination of entries (a recipe) rendered across many topics. Lets a reader confirm that the recipe produces consistent output regardless of subject matter. Lives in examples/horizontal-slices/<recipe-id>/.

Diff pair - Two examples that differ on exactly one axis, holding the others constant. Used to teach the distinguishing power of a single dimension. Lives in examples/diff-pairs/.

Anchor topic - A topic chosen to be the basis of a vertical slice. Anchor topics should bend naturally to most voices in the catalog.

Cross-reference terms

pairs_well_with - Frontmatter field listing entry IDs that compose well with this entry. Used by the Composer to suggest likely good combinations.

avoid_with - Frontmatter field listing entry IDs that conflict with this entry or produce poor results when composed.

confusable_with - Frontmatter field listing entry IDs commonly mistaken for this one. Each confusable entry should have a corresponding “Often confused with” section in the entry body explaining the functional difference.

Authoring and process terms

Atomic-folder pattern - The convention that each entry lives in its own folder (taxonomy/<axis>/<id>/) rather than in a flat file or a YAML monolith. Allows examples, variants, and assets to be co-located with the entry.

Frontmatter - The YAML block at the top of every ENTRY.md file, delimited by --- lines. Contains the entry’s metadata and is validated against an axis-specific JSON Schema.

Review status - The lifecycle state of an entry. Progression: draft -> reviewed -> stable -> reference-quality. New entries start at draft. Promotion requires maintainer review. A separate deprecated state marks superseded entries. See Contribution Process.

Tooling terms

validate.py - The Python script that runs the seven catalog checks: slug format, ENTRY.md presence, frontmatter parsing, JSON Schema validation, cross-reference integrity, em-dash/en-dash linting, and draft-status warnings. Must pass before any commit.

build-indexes.py - The Python script that generates taxonomy.json (machine-readable index) and docs/reference/index.md (human-readable entry table) from all ENTRY.md files.

Schema - A JSON Schema file in schemas/ defining the required and optional frontmatter fields for an axis. Schemas extend the universal base schema via allOf.

Diataxis - The documentation framework that distinguishes tutorial, how-to, reference, and explanation modes. The diataxis-explanation style entry is named for this framework.
NN/g tone profile - The Nielsen Norman Group’s classification of tone into funny | neutral | serious. Used in the nn_g_profile field of tone entries.
Toulmin argument - The structure of claim, grounds, warrant, and rebuttal used by the classical-argument style entry.