Terminology

Validate Terminology

Check documentation for terminology consistency against approved terms.

Reference: [references/terminology-rules.md](references/terminology-rules.md) contains all approved terms, variants to avoid, and formatting rules.

Terminology Checking Process

Step 1: Load Approved Terms

Read [references/terminology-rules.md](references/terminology-rules.md) to get:

• Product and feature names (exact capitalization)
• Technical terms (programming, infrastructure)
• Action verbs (preferred vs avoided)
• UI element terms
• Prohibited terms

Step 2: Extract Terms from Document

Identify all potentially controlled terms:

• Product/feature names
• Technical concepts
• UI element names
• Code identifiers mentioned in prose
• Action verbs in instructions

Step 3: Compare Against Approved List

For each term found:
  ├── Is it in the approved list?
  │     YES → Check for exact match (case, spacing)
  │     NO → Flag for review
  │
  └── Does it match a "variant to avoid"?
        YES → Flag as terminology violation
        NO → Continue

Step 4: Check Consistency Within Document

Even if a term isn't in the controlled list:

• Is it used consistently throughout?
• First usage should establish the pattern
• All subsequent uses should match

Step 5: Return Findings

Internally, create a terminology report with the following structure.

terminology_report:
  document: "path/to/file.md"

  violations:
    - term_found: "api-key"
      approved_term: "API key"
      rule_reference: "references/terminology-rules.md#technical-terms"
      locations: ["line 42", "line 87"]
      severity: error

  inconsistencies:
    - term: "config file"
      variants_found: ["config file", "configuration file"]
      locations:
        "config file": ["line 10"]
        "configuration file": ["line 45"]
      recommendation: "Use 'configuration file' consistently"
      severity: warning

  undefined_terms:
    - term: "webhook"
      first_use: "line 23"
      recommendation: "Add definition or link to glossary"
      severity: info

  summary:
    errors: 2
    warnings: 1
    info: 1
    compliant: false

Then present the report in a user-friendly way.

Enforcement Levels

| Level | Trigger | Action | |-------|---------|--------| | Error | Term contradicts references/terminology-rules.md | Must fix before publishing | | Warning | Term inconsistent within document | Should fix | | Info | Term not in controlled list | Verify intent |

Integration Points

• Rules reference: [references/terminology-rules.md](references/terminology-rules.md)

Common Checks

Quick validation patterns (full lists in [references/terminology-rules.md](references/terminology-rules.md):

# Check for common violations
Grep: "api-key|API Key|Api Key"     → Should be "API key"
Grep: "NodeJS|node\.js|Nodejs"      → Should be "Node.js"
Grep: "click here"                  → Should be descriptive link text
Grep: "blacklist|whitelist"         → Should be blocklist/allowlist

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: ekline-io
• Source: ekline-io/ekline-docs-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.