ste-audit

name	ste-audit
type	Skill
title	ASD-STE100 Compliance Audit
description	Audit technical documentation for compliance with ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English (STE) rules. Evaluates sentence length limits, passive voice, complex verb tenses, noun stacks (>3), unapproved vocabulary, and missing warning placements. Produces a detailed STE Audit Report with actionable fixes. Use when reviewing existing documentation, PRs, or user guides for STE compliance.
tags	["ste","asd-ste100","audit","linter","compliance","documentation"]
status	verified
generated	2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z
sources	["https://www.asd-ste100.org/"]
resource	https://github.com/dandye/ste-writing-style
personas	["technical-writer","documentation-engineer","qa-engineer"]

STE Audit & Compliance Skill

This skill performs a comprehensive compliance audit of technical documentation against ASD-STE100 (Simplified Technical English) grammar rules and controlled vocabulary.

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Inputs

• TARGET_FILE or DOCUMENT_PATH: The path to the markdown or text file to audit.
• PROJECT_DICTIONARY: (Optional) Path to .ste-dictionary.yaml or ste-dictionary.json (defaults to .ste-dictionary.yaml in repo root if present).

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Workflow

Step 1: Resolve Controlled Vocabulary

1. Read the target document's YAML frontmatter (if present) for an ste_vocabulary block.
2. Read the project dictionary (.ste-dictionary.yaml or ste-dictionary.json) if available.
3. Load the core ASD-STE100 dictionary (references/ste-general-dictionary.md from ste-writing-style).
4. Construct the effective approved vocabulary list for the audit.

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Step 2: Perform Rule-by-Rule Compliance Checks

Scan the document sentence by sentence and evaluate against the 7 primary compliance checks:

1. Sentence Length Check:

   • Instructional Sentences: Flag any sentence exceeding 20 words.
   • Descriptive Sentences: Flag any sentence exceeding 25 words.

2. Unapproved Vocabulary & Part of Speech Check:

   • Flag words not listed in the core STE dictionary, project dictionary, or document frontmatter.
   • Flag approved words used in forbidden parts of speech (e.g. access as a verb, impact as a verb).

3. Passive Voice Check:

   • Flag passive verb constructions in procedural steps (e.g. is executed by, must be turned by).
   • Note passive voice in descriptive text and suggest active voice alternatives.

4. Verb Tense & Aspect Check:

   • Flag non-simple tenses: progressive (is running), perfect (has completed), and unapproved modal verbs (, , , ).