prose-style-checker

Check files against the active prose style rules and return violations in the docs-style-checker finding schema.

When to invoke

• From /document (Jira mode) Phase 6.4 — dispatched inside docs-style-checker as the complementary semantic pass alongside the repo's primary linter.
• From /epics Phase 6.2 — as the primary style checker for Epic drafts (vault-internal, no repo linter). Also from /create-prd, /update-prd, and /release-notes.
• From /prose-review-pr and /prose-review-docs in this plugin.
• From any command that writes planning documents (PRDs, ARDs, and similar).

Inputs

files:        [<absolute paths of files to check>]
doc_type:     epic | prd | ard | product-docs | general
rules_path:   <optional absolute path to an overlay rules directory — overrides
               discovery in step 1>

doc_type affects severity calibration (see step 5). Default: general.

Procedure

1. Resolve the active rule set

This is the plugin's overlay mechanism. It has exactly one overlay source and one baseline. Every miss at every step is a silent, non-blocking fall-through — never an error, never a gate, never a prompt.

Step 1a — baseline (always loaded).

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/

Read all eight files: terminology.md, word-list.md, voice-and-tone.md, grammar.md, formatting.md, ui-interactions.md, accessibility.md, top-10-tips.md. This is the only step whose failure is an error — with no baseline and no overlay there is nothing to check against.

Step 1b — find the overlay source. Take the FIRST of these that resolves. Stop at the first hit; do not merge two overlays.

Order	Source	Resolves when
1	rules_path input, when the caller supplied one	the path is a readable directory containing ≥1 .md file
2	<repo-root>/.prose-style/rules/	the directory exists, is readable, and contains ≥1 .md file
3	$PROSE_STYLE_PATH	the variable is set and names a readable directory containing ≥1 .md file
4	(none)	always — the baseline alone is the active rule set