Documentation Writing Standards

Documentation Writing Standards is an instructions file for GitHub Copilot from raydeStar/sir-thaddeus. It costs 421 tokens per session, scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A set of writing rules for user-facing documentation in the Sir Thaddeus repository. It covers clear language, accurate claims, tone, structure, and platform descriptions.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when writing or editing READMEs, guides, quick starts, and other documentation for the repository.
Why use it?
It reduces unclear, exaggerated, or unsupported statements in documentation. It also keeps documents consistent across contributors.

Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add instructions/raydestar/sir-thaddeus/documentation-standards
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/raydeStar/sir-thaddeus

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for Documentation Writing Standards

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/raydestar/sir-thaddeus/documentation-standards.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/raydestar/sir-thaddeus/documentation-standards)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/raydestar/sir-thaddeus/documentation-standards"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/raydestar/sir-thaddeus/documentation-standards.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 421 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 421 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00421 $0.00421
Opus 5 $0.00211 $0.00211
Sonnet 5 $0.00084 $0.00084
Haiku 4.5 $0.00042 $0.00042

Measured 4d ago against content hash fab2540a249d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

Documentation Writing Standards scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 4d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.github/instructions/documentation-standards.instructions.md · 58 lines

What it actually says

Documentation Writing Standards

These rules apply to every agent editing user-facing documentation in this repository — not just the readme-specialist. They ensure a consistent voice, accurate claims, and a trustworthy first impression.

Voice and Tone

  • Write clearly and simply. Prefer short paragraphs.
  • Use a calm, confident tone — not breathless, not timid.
  • Favor concrete language over abstractions.
  • Avoid hype-heavy startup language and pitch-deck phrasing.

Accuracy

  • Match the repo's actual capabilities. Do not claim unverified features.
  • Preserve accurate links, commands, filenames, and doc references.
  • If a claim cannot be verified from the codebase, soften the wording or flag it.

Platform Claims

  • Verified support → "runs on."
  • Intended but untested → "designed for" or "built for."
  • Single-platform today → state that plainly.

Structure

  • Keep the top of any README sparse and scannable.
  • Explain what the product is in plain language before architecture.
  • Put advanced technical material below the fold (use <details> where appropriate).
  • Quick Start sections: 5 steps max, practical, no preamble.

Privacy and Trust Language

Sir Thaddeus is a local-first AI copilot. Its positioning centers on user control, explicit permissions, visible actions, and privacy. When editing docs:

  • Make privacy and control easy to understand.
  • Do not overstate security or privacy guarantees.
  • Prefer honest, specific language over impressive-sounding generalities.

Priority Order

When multiple improvements compete, choose in this order:

  1. Accuracy
  2. Clarity
  3. First-time user comprehension
  4. Trustworthiness
  5. Brevity
  6. Elegance
Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 4d ago First seen · 58 lines · 421 tokens per session scan A fab2540a249d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

Documentation Writing Standards is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository raydeStar/sir-thaddeus (13 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 421 tokens to every session, about $0.0021 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.