Warning that gives no action
warning-without-actionon by default (info)Japanese / English
A Warning that names a risk but not what the reader should do
Example
How to fix
Add what the reader does to avoid the risk to the same paragraph ("Export today's orders first", "Do not unplug the drive while it runs").
Why it matters
A warning that only names a risk ("Warning: the restore replaces the current database.") alarms the reader without saying how to avoid it. A warning in a manual says what happens and what the reader does to prevent it (export first, do not unplug the drive). A paragraph that opens with Warning, Caution or Danger is reported when none of its sentences tells the reader what to do: no "do not", "make sure", "must" and no sentence that opens with its verb ("Export today's orders first").
What it does not flag
Only paragraphs opening with Warning, Caution or Danger standing alone ("Warning:", "**Caution**", "> [!WARNING]") are read. A GitHub alert (> [!WARNING]) is read to the end of its block quote. Warnings inside list items, notes, tips and "Important" paragraphs, words that merely start with the label ("Warnings are logged"), and warnings with any sentence that gives an action (do not, make sure, must, or a sentence opening with its verb) are not reported. Technical documents, manuals and blogs only.
Turning it off or relaxing it
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).
| strict | warning |
|---|---|
| normal | info |
| relaxed | info |
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
Message
This warning names a risk but not what the reader should do
This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/warning-without-action.yaml