consistency-check

name	consistency-check
description	Audit a Word document for formatting inconsistencies, style violations, and structural issues. Use when the user asks to "review", "check", "audit", or "clean up" a document, or before finalising a document for delivery. Catches heading hierarchy violations, mixed formatting, orphaned content, and other quality issues.
metadata	{"author":"talk2view-word","version":"2.0"}
allowed-tools	get_document get_comments search_document

Consistency Check

When to use

• User asks to "review", "check", or "audit" the document
• User asks to "clean up" or "polish" a document
• Before the user sends or publishes a document
• After extensive editing to catch accumulated inconsistencies
• User asks "is this document ready?" or "does this look right?"

What to check

This skill defines a structured audit. Work through each check in order, collect all issues, then report them as a single list.

Check 1: Heading hierarchy

Rule: Heading levels must be sequential. No skipping (H1 → H3) or orphan headings.

Procedure:

get_document()

Scan the paragraph list for style fields containing Heading. Track the levels:

Good:                    Bad:
Heading1                 Heading1
  Heading2                   Heading3  ← skipped H2
    Heading3               Heading2
  Heading2                   Heading4  ← skipped H3

Report format: "Heading hierarchy: paragraph [index] is Heading3 but follows Heading1 (skipped Heading2)"

Check 2: Style consistency

Rule: Same-level content should use the same style. If most body text uses Normal, a paragraph using no style (or a different base style) is an inconsistency.

Procedure: From the get_document() results, tally styles:

• Count how many paragraphs use each style
• Flag outliers (e.g., 1 paragraph is "Normal" among 20 "NoSpacing" paragraphs)

Report format: "Style outlier: paragraph [index] uses 'NoSpacing' while all other body text uses 'Normal'"

Check 3: Empty paragraphs

Rule: Empty paragraphs (blank lines used for spacing) are almost always wrong. Spacing should be controlled through space_before and space_after on format_paragraph, not by inserting blank paragraphs.

Procedure: Scan the paragraph list for paragraphs where text is empty or whitespace-only.

Exception: A single empty paragraph at the very end of the document is normal.

Report format: "Empty paragraph at index [index] — use paragraph spacing instead of blank lines"

Check 4: Heading followed immediately by heading

Rule: A heading should be followed by body content, not another heading at the same or higher level. Two consecutive headings with no content between them suggest missing content or incorrect structure.

Procedure: Scan for adjacent paragraphs where both have heading styles.

Exception: A Heading1 followed by a Heading2 is acceptable (section → subsection).

Report format: "Missing content: Heading2 at index [index] is immediately followed by another Heading2 at index [index+1] with no body text between them"

Check 5: Inconsistent capitalisation in headings

Rule: Headings should use consistent capitalisation — either Title Case or Sentence case, not a mix.

Procedure: Check all heading paragraphs:

• Title Case: "Quarterly Business Review"
• Sentence case: "Quarterly business review"
• ALL CAPS: "QUARTERLY BUSINESS REVIEW"
• Mixed: problem

Determine the dominant pattern and flag deviations.

Report format: "Capitalisation: heading at index [index] uses sentence case while other headings use title case"

Check 6: Placeholder remnants

Rule: No template placeholders should remain in a finished document.

Procedure (wildcard-based, two calls cover most patterns):

// {{…}} style placeholders — one call covers every variant
search_document(query="\\{\\{*\\}\\}", match_wildcards=true)

// [INSERT …], [TODO …], [TBD …] style — bracketed placeholders
search_document(query="\\[*\\]", match_wildcards=true)

Word's wildcard syntax doesn't support | alternation, so unbracketed tokens (TODO, FIXME, TBD, XXX) each need their own literal search. Only run them if the bracketed searches missed anything:

search_document(query="TODO")
search_document(query="TBD")
search_document(query="FIXME")

Report format: "Placeholder found: '{{client_name}}' appears [count] times — was the template fully filled?"

Step-by-step: Run a full audit

1. Read the full document:

   get_document()
   

2. Run checks 1-5 against the paragraph list. Collect all issues into a list.

3. Run check 6 using search_document calls. Add any findings to the list.

4. Present the report to the user as a structured list:

   Document Audit — [N] issues found:
   
   Heading Hierarchy:
   - Paragraph 7: Heading3 follows Heading1 (skipped Heading2)
   
   Empty Paragraphs:
   - Paragraph 12: empty paragraph (use spacing instead)
   - Paragraph 13: empty paragraph (use spacing instead)
   
   Placeholders:
   - "{{date}}" found 2 times — template may not be fully filled
   
   Style Consistency:
   - No issues
   
   Heading Capitalisation:
   - No issues
   

5. Ask the user if they want you to fix any of the issues.

Fixing issues

If the user asks to fix the issues, apply fixes in reverse index order (highest index first) to avoid index shifting:

// Delete empty paragraphs — highest index first
delete_content(start_index=12, end_index=13)

// Fix heading hierarchy
format_paragraph(paragraph_index=7, style="Heading2")

// Fix placeholders
search_document(query="{{date}}", replace_with="March 15, 2026")

Note: After deleting paragraphs, indices shift. Call get_document() again before making further index-based changes.

Common mistakes

Mistake	Why it's wrong	Fix
Fixing issues without reporting first	User doesn't know what changed or why	Report first, then ask permission to fix
Fixing in forward index order	Insertions/deletions shift later indices	Fix in reverse order (highest index first)
Reporting style issues on headings	Headings use heading styles by design; they're not "inconsistent" with body text	Only compare like with like (body vs body, headings vs headings)
Missing placeholder search	Some placeholders use unusual patterns	Search for multiple patterns: {{, [INSERT, TODO, TBD, XXX
Over-reporting	50 minor issues overwhelms the user	Prioritise: heading hierarchy and placeholder issues first, cosmetic issues last