wa-prompt-editorial-fix

name	wa-prompt-editorial-fix
description	Edit $PROJECT_ROOT/prompts/*.md to fix LLM-spawned behavior surfaced by a campaign — minimal-diff PR against origin/main, no lore dumps, no content deletion. Use when the user reports "the AI keeps doing X" / "spawning Y" / "using Z archetype" / "ignoring setting lore" and you have evidence the issue is prompt-discipline, not code.

Your Project — Prompt editorial fix

When to use

User surfaces a behavior issue ("auditors keep spawning", "AI keeps calling it a mage tower", "NPCs all talk like modern cops") that the LLM produces during gameplay turns. Evidence class:

• Wiki / campaign log shows the unwanted behavior recurring across turns
• grep -rn against $PROJECT_ROOT/prompts/ does NOT find the offending archetype as a literal prompt string
• Existing examples in the prompts file that LOOK like the issue are actually canonical in-world payloads (e.g. caius_auditor_arrival is the in-world Reaper / Prince Caius, not a generic archetype)

That combination means: the LLM is inventing the archetype, not following prompt text. Fix is prompt discipline, not a code guard. Adding backend enforcement is forbidden by .claude/skills/root-cause-first/SKILL.md unless the user explicitly approves it.

Procedure

1. Confirm the symptom class. grep -rn <term> $PROJECT_ROOT/prompts/. If hits are mostly audit-trail JSON schema (audit_events, audit_flags, dice_audit_events) or single in-world example payloads, the term is a symptom the LLM produced, not prompt content. Stop and treat as prompt-discipline territory.

2. Find the right rule neighborhood. NPC-spawning rules live in $PROJECT_ROOT/prompts/living_world_instruction.md under ## Lore-Appropriate Enemy Detection (rules #1–#4: Trigger Whitelist, Escalation Ladder, Name the Mechanism, Forbid Impossible Detection). A new anti-archetype rule belongs as rule #5 in that section, not as a new top-level section.

3. Write the rule as a numbered addition, not a new file. Match the existing tone (short, declarative, with named examples from the active setting). Reference canonical lore factions/characters so the LLM has concrete substitutes (Harpers, Zhentarim, Flaming Fist, City Watch, Night's Watch, Red Wizard of Thay, Sith, Corps of Discovery — whatever fits the active campaign family). DO NOT add a new file or a long lore appendix. New file creation requires explicit justification per your-project.com/AGENTS.md File Protocol.

4. Leave existing in-world example payloads alone. A literal caius_auditor_arrival in an example payload is NOT a generic archetype — it's a named in-world NPC (Prince Caius, the Reaper). The new rule must not "clean up" such references; doing so would break canonical examples and inflate the diff.

5. Branch from origin/main per .cursor/rules/pr-branch-from-main.mdc. Use git worktree add -b fix/<topic>-<short-name> $HOME/projects/_wt-<topic> origin/main. Verify with git log --oneline origin/main..HEAD that only your commit is on the branch before pushing.

6. Commit message format: fix(prompts): <one-line summary>. Body explains symptom + fix + why existing example payloads were left alone.

7. PR body honesty about /es evidence. Per your-project.com/AGENTS.md ## Evidence for mvp_site Production Changes, prompt-only edits that change model-side behavior technically require /es. For +1–10 line editorial fixes with no test harness exercising the spawn path, state honestly in the PR body: "no real-server capture; +N line natural-language instruction; no harness asserts on spawned NPC identity." Offer to spin up a before/after capture if the user wants one. Do NOT fabricate evidence.

8. Push and open PR. git push -u origin HEAD + gh pr create --base main --head <branch> --title ... --body .... Title MUST be a markdown link [#<N>](https://github.com/...pull/<N>) if you reference a PR number per .cursor/rules/pr-hyperlink.mdc.

Pitfalls

• Don't add backend enforcement. root-cause-first discipline forbids server-side guards for what is fundamentally a prompt-instruction gap. Adding a regex ban on "auditor" / "inquisitor" would block legitimate canonical NPCs and is exactly the anti-pattern.
• Don't delete content to "make space". The user said "don't delete content to make space". Editorial additions only.
• Don't create a new file unless absolutely necessary. If the rule belongs in an existing section, add it there. New prompt files break the Gemini implicit-cache structure referenced in your-project.com/AGENTS.md "Prompt Duplication & Compression".
• Don't write a lore dump. Two lines of named-faction examples is enough. The LLM already has the canonical knowledge; it just needs permission to use it instead of inventing.
• Don't open the PR on a non-main branch. If you started work on prXXXX-<topic> (someone else's PR branch), git checkout -- the unrelated file and start a fresh worktree off origin/main. Pushing onto someone else's PR head is the 2026-07-14 incident class (never-push-onto-someone-elses-pr-head).
• Don't claim evidence you didn't produce. Per proof-before-claim SOUL.md COMMIT, "want me to run a capture before merging?" is a valid offer but do NOT mark the PR complete-with-evidence.

Verification

After pushing:

1. gh pr view <N> --json additions,deletions,changedFiles,baseRefName,headRefName → confirm +N/-0, 1 file, base=main.
2. git log --oneline origin/main..HEAD in the worktree → confirm only your commit is present.
3. git status --short in your original worktree → confirm you left no stray edits behind (git checkout -- <file> if needed).

Reference

• 2026-07-24 audit/inquisitor fix — PR #8562 (worked example: +2 lines, rule #5 in living_world_instruction.md, no /es capture offered honestly)