v0.1 · 2026-04-30

Register

Register is the vocabulary band and grammatical convention of every Vaquum surface, fixed system-wide at one value. Professional carries everyday English with domain terms, no contractions, and no marketing vocabulary.

What register is

Register is the vocabulary band of every surface the firm produces. The single value the parameter takes is professional — the register of a well-edited research publication. Professional register is everyday English carrying domain terms, and the value forbids contractions, exclamations, rhetorical questions, and marketing vocabulary. The same register applies to a memo, a working paper, a research note, an alert, and a documentation page without softening.

One value, professional

The parameter takes exactly one value across the system, and the typed module rejects any other string at parse time. The fixed value carries an invariance: the same register applies to every surface, and the validator reads the source markdown and runs the same closed rule set against each. Tone, audience, and channel do not relax the value, because none of the three are parameters of the voice.

Sub-properties

Register declares 22 sub-properties in its typed source. Each names a distinct facet of the value — vocabulary band, contractions, capitalisation, currency, and references to the firm and reader. The sub-properties cover lexical choices, punctuation, capitalisation, numeric notation, and pronoun usage. Of the 22, 13 are backed by typed rules that run during validation, and the other nine remain specified in Voice-Addendum.md but are not yet backed by typed rules.

Typed rules

The exhibit below renders the 13 typed rules read directly from @vaquum/voice/parameters/register. Each row carries the sub-property the rule guards, the rule’s prose description, and the mechanism the validator uses to detect a violation. The rule set is closed and the validator reads it against every voice-bearing surface in the repository.

Mechanisms

The validator classifies every typed rule by mechanism, drawn from a closed set of four — regex, dictionary, parse, and editorial. A regex rule matches a pattern in the source text and emits a violation on each match. A dictionary rule loads a list of forbidden tokens — marketing vocabulary, intensifiers, hedging softeners — and reports any occurrence. A parse rule operates on the parsed structure of the document, detecting issues that span tokens. An editorial mechanism names a condition the validator cannot decide, and the rule routes to a reviewer.

How a violation reads

A register violation in source prose returns a typed report from the validator. The report names the rule that fired with an identifier such as register.contractions, points to the source section in Voice-Addendum.md, and carries the offending text span. Every report attaches one of three severity values drawn from a closed set: fail, flag, or editorial. A fail blocks the build; a flag surfaces in the validator output without blocking; an editorial result waits for review. The closed severity set holds the reading of every violation report uniform across surfaces.

Table 1. Register declares 13 typed rules — 5 regex, 6 dictionary, 2 parse — all at severity fail.

Sub-property	Description	Mechanism
contractions	no contractions ('s, n't, 're, 'll, 've, 'd, 'm)	regex
exclamations	no exclamation marks outside code blocks	regex
first-person	I, me, my, mine are forbidden as pronouns in body	regex
marketing-speak	marketing vocabulary is forbidden	dictionary
intensifiers	intensifiers are forbidden	dictionary
hedging-softeners	social hedging softeners are forbidden	dictionary
colloquialism-density	colloquialisms are forbidden	dictionary
references-to-the-firm	the firm is referenced as "the firm", "we", or proper noun	dictionary
references-to-the-reader	the reader is "the reader" or imperative, never "our users" or "you folks"	dictionary
currency	currency symbol before number is forbidden; use ISO code after amount	regex
times	12-hour time is forbidden; use 24-hour notation	regex
oxford-comma	list of three or more without serial comma is a failure	parse
capitalisation	sentence case for headings, ALL CAPS only for micro labels	parse

Source: Voice-Addendum.md § Register