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Scriptorium Scriptorium

Glossary

A one-page reference for terminology used across the scriptorium docs. Each entry is two to four sentences and links to the relevant concept page or knowledge note for the longer treatment. This page exists so the rest of the docs can link to a single definition; cross-references should point here rather than duplicating definitions inline.

Argumentative flow

Section titled “Argumentative flow”

The logical and structural coherence of a section’s prose — whether each paragraph’s topic position connects to prior context, whether the stress position carries new information, whether the argument arc is visible to the reader. The argumentative-flow skill operates on this property of a section under a preservation contract.

See: skills reference — argumentative-flow.

Core claim

Section titled “Core claim”

A load-bearing assertion the manuscript is arguing — what a reader of the abstract should walk away believing. Declared in MANUSCRIPT_STATE.yaml under core_claims. Critique skills test whether the prose actually supports each declared claim; transformation skills must preserve declared claims verbatim (none added, none dropped).

See: Schema reference, Start here — what scriptorium operates on.

Declared work / declared-work scope

Section titled “Declared work / declared-work scope”

What scriptorium operates on: prose the author has already written, or scaffolding the author has committed to in MANUSCRIPT_STATE.yaml (claims, weaknesses, terminology, audience, target venue). Scriptorium does not produce prose from blankness; the proposer role (Hayes 2012) stays with the author.

See: Declared-work scope, knowledge/conventions/declared-work-scope.

Design memo

Section titled “Design memo”

A standalone architectural decision record kept under docs/design/ (and rendered into the site by the docs preprocessor). Memos document why a design choice was made — what alternatives were considered, what evidence drove the decision, what would prompt revisiting. They are the longer-form companion to the knowledge layer.

EQUATOR Network

Section titled “EQUATOR Network”

The international network that maintains reporting-guideline checklists for health research — CONSORT (RCTs), STROBE (observational), PRISMA (systematic reviews), ARRIVE (animal research), TRIPOD / TRIPOD+AI (prediction models), STARD (diagnostic accuracy), CARE (case reports), COREQ (qualitative), CHEERS (economic evaluations), and their AI extensions (CONSORT-AI, SPIRIT-AI). reporting-guideline-fit infers which checklist applies to a manuscript; reporting-guideline-compliance runs the checklist against the prose.

See: https://www.equator-network.org/.

Guidance level

Section titled “Guidance level”

The author’s dial over how much detail and how many findings scriptorium surfaces per skill invocation. Schema enum at meta.guidance_level: terse (small handful, big-picture only), standard (focused list — the default), full (every finding above threshold, with rationale). Set the level to match the bandwidth you have for revisions, not the level that feels rigorous.

See: Guidance level, knowledge/conventions/guidance-level.

Knowledge note

Section titled “Knowledge note”

A standalone evidence-grounded document under knowledge/ that documents what the literature says about some aspect of scholarly writing or peer review. Each skill’s manifest.yaml lists the knowledge notes its design decisions ground in. The full structure of a knowledge note is documented in the knowledge layer README.

See: Knowledge layer.

MANUSCRIPT_STATE.yaml

Section titled “MANUSCRIPT_STATE.yaml”

The shared editorial-state file every scriptorium project carries. Lives at the root of the manuscript repository. Records what the manuscript is arguing (core_claims), the limitations already acknowledged (known_weaknesses), terminology.preferred / forbidden / synonyms, style (tone, voice, audience), constraints, the target_venue, the document_phase, and meta.guidance_level. Every skill reads it; only init writes it. It is a local file; nothing in scriptorium uploads or syncs it.

See: Schema reference, the worked example.

Preservation contract

Section titled “Preservation contract”

The explicit list of properties a transformation skill (argumentative-flow, compression) is required to preserve verbatim when it modifies prose: every citation key, every numerical value / p-value / confidence interval / unit, the declared terminology.preferred / forbidden / synonyms lists, declared core_claims, and the author’s hedging strength and stance markers. Any shift in hedging is reported as a per-edit note rather than absorbed silently. The contract is what scriptorium guarantees; sentence-level “voice preservation” is explicitly not.

See: Landing — voice preservation, the honest version, semantic-preservation.

Reviewer simulation lens

Section titled “Reviewer simulation lens”

One of four attentional perspectives reviewer-simulation applies to a manuscript: methodological skeptic, domain expert, translational/clinical, statistical. Each lens emits the same six-section structure (Major Critiques, Minor Critiques, Fatal Concerns, Enthusiasm Drivers, Suggested Revisions, Acceptance Risk). The term is lens, not persona. A lens is an attentional focus on what a reader of that disposition would notice; a persona implies impersonating a specific reviewer, which the skill does not do.

See: skills reference — reviewer-simulation, Case study for example output.

Skill

Section titled “Skill”

A single-responsibility unit of scriptorium functionality. Implemented as a directory under skills/ containing manifest.yaml (machine-readable metadata), SKILL.md (the prompt for Claude Code), prompt.md (the platform-neutral prompt), README.md (the human-readable contract), and examples/. Skills do not auto-invoke; the author chooses which one to run and when.

See: Skills reference for the catalog.

Skill category

Section titled “Skill category”

One of six categorical labels in a skill’s manifest.yaml:

  • critique — assesses prose; does not modify the manuscript. Emits structured findings.
  • validation — checks against an external standard (reporting guideline, authorship policy); does not modify.
  • normalization — enforces declared style and terminology; suggests edits, never auto-applies.
  • transformation — modifies prose under a preservation contract.
  • meta — orientation or explanation; no manuscript modification.
  • utility / onboarding — bootstrap; modifies only MANUSCRIPT_STATE.yaml (currently only init).

The category determines what the skill can produce and the guarantees that come with that production.

See: Skills reference — categorisation axes.

Workflow stage

Section titled “Workflow stage”

Where in the writing process scriptorium fits. The document_phase.current field in MANUSCRIPT_STATE.yaml records the stage (outline / draft / review / revision / submission / post-submission / accepted). Scriptorium occupies the translator and evaluator roles in Hayes’ 2012 cognitive-process model — most useful at draft through submission. The author owns the proposer role; outline and ideation are out of scope.

See: Workflow stage.

Section titled “Related”