All rules

Prerequisite written after the steps

prerequisite-after-stepon by default (info)Japanese / English

"Before you begin" written after the numbered steps it should come before

Example

Flagged
# Restore 1. Open the console. 2. Select the backup. 3. Click **Start Restore**. Before you begin, stop the order service.
What chaff prints
7:1 This prerequisite comes after the steps it applies to
Fixed
# Restore Before you begin, stop the order service. 1. Open the console. 2. Select the backup. 3. Click **Start Restore**.
What chaff prints
no finding
chaff.yaml used for this example
genre: docs/manual

How to fix

Move the sentence before the steps, into a "Before you begin" section or right above the list.

Why it matters

When "Before you begin, stop the order service." comes after the numbered steps, the reader has done the steps by the time they read it. Prerequisites, permissions and preparation go before the steps. It happens when a sentence is added at the end or sections are reordered. A sentence opening with "Before you begin" or "Before you start" after a numbered procedure (three steps or more) in the same section is reported.

What it does not flag

Only sentences after a numbered procedure of three or more steps in the same section are read. A prerequisite before its steps, one for a later section's steps (written before those steps), a sentence naming one step ("Before step 4, split the file" or "Before you begin step 3"), and a procedure in a block quote or a code block are not reported. Technical documents, manuals and blogs only.

Turning it off or relaxing it

Silence this one spot (in the document)
<!-- stet: prerequisite-after-step — reason -->
Relax it for the team (the reason is kept as a comment in chaff.yaml)
npx chaffjs relax prerequisite-after-step --why "reason"
Turn it off for the team (chaff.yaml)
rules: prerequisite-after-step: off
Technical details
Layer
L3
Status
stable
Severity
info
Languages
Japanese and English
Suited to
technical, docs, blog, legal, academic, literature, speech

Levels

Set a level for this rule under rules in chaff.yaml. With nothing set, it runs at the level its genre gives it (see By genre below).

strictwarning
normalinfo
relaxedinfo

This rule has no limit to count to. A level sets how a finding is marked: relaxed keeps the finding and marks it a step lower.

By genre

Runs by default in
technical/spec, technical/readme, blog/tech, blog/essay, blog/owned-media, docs/manual, docs/faq, docs/glossary
Turned off by the genre in
legal/contract, legal/statute, legal/judgment, legal/patent, academic/paper, literature/fiction, literature/essay, literature/poetry, literature/play, speech/address, speech/transcript
Not suited to, and not run in
business/proposal, business/report, business/email, business/press-release, business/meeting-notes

Genres

Message

This prerequisite comes after the steps it applies to

This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/prerequisite-after-step.yaml