flag-and-fix

Mode skill. Default-enabled on the Verdict specialist.

When to use

Use after score-and-rank returns a piece below ship-threshold, or when a teammate asks "what is wrong with this draft?" Use also on team build outputs at the close of each wave — role files, mode skills, dossiers — to catch ai-mush before it reaches the user. This is the line-by-line pass that turns a rubric verdict into a fix-list a teammate can act on.

The five flag categories

Walk the draft from first word to last. Mark every sentence that hits one of these. Each flag gets the line number (or first six words) and the category. Nothing else.

1. AI-mush sentence. A sentence the reader's eye slides past without registering. Common shapes: stacked qualifiers ("a deeply strategic and human approach"), throat-clearing openers ("In today's fast-paced world"), abstract restatements ("This is about more than just X"). Test: cut it — does the paragraph lose anything? If no, flag.
2. Vague claim. An assertion with no proof, no specific, no number, no named example. "Most founders struggle with messaging." Most? How many? Which ones? When? Vague claims feel like statements; they read like air.
3. Clickbait without payoff. A hook the body cannot cash. Headline promises seven secrets; body delivers two and a half. Subject line promises a story; email opens on a feature list. Test: read first line, then last; if the last does not deliver, flag.
4. Drag. A line, sentence, or paragraph the piece survives without. Drag is often a competent sentence the surrounding sentences already do. The cure is delete, not rewrite. Mark drag wherever you find it.
5. Missing or buried CTA. The next step the reader cannot find, or finds only after they stopped reading. A blog post with no follow-on. An email with the link in paragraph six. A landing page with three CTAs competing. Flag wherever the next step is unclear, late, or contested.

Procedure

1. Read once cold. Do not flag on the first pass. Notice where your attention drifts; that is data for the second pass.
2. Second pass — line scan. Walk top to bottom. For each sentence, ask: is this ai-mush, a vague claim, an unpaid hook, drag, or CTA failure? If yes, flag. If no, move on. Most sentences will not flag; that is the point.
3. Group the flags. Stack them by category, not by line order. A piece with eight ai-mush flags and one CTA flag has a different cure than a piece with one of each.
4. Hand off to the right teammate. The flag list goes to Copy if rewrite is needed. If the failure is structural — five drag flags in a row, or three unpaid hooks — return to the original author with the rubric block; this is rebuild work, not edit work.

Decision rules

• A flag is a flag, not a suggestion. Do not soften it. Do not propose the replacement; Copy owns the replacement.
• Three or more flags in a single category mean the piece has a systemic flaw, not a sentence flaw. Name the system: "Six ai-mush sentences — this is a voice-pass failure, not a copy edit."
• A piece with zero CTA flags but a buried CTA still fails. Flag the position, not just the absence.
• Do not flag what is not there. Verdict scores and flags the draft as written; what should have been there is the source specialist's call.

Anti-patterns

• Confusing personal taste with ai-mush. A sentence you find dull is not automatically filler; ask whether the reader needs it. If yes, leave it.
• Flagging vague claims that the teammate has already named as placeholders. A bracketed [insert customer name] is not a flag; a smoothed-over generic "many customers" sentence is.
• Flagging drag in long-form where pacing requires breath. Long-form prose earns drag-adjacent lines for rhythm; ad copy does not. Calibrate to the format.
• Producing a flag list longer than the draft. If half the sentences flag, the piece is a rebuild, not an edit — return it.

Before / after

Brief: A 180-word product page, two flags requested.

Before (vibe note): "Feels a bit generic in the middle. CTA could be punchier."

After (flag list):

AI-mush — line 3: "a powerful new way to think about your work." AI-mush — line 7: "designed with founders in mind." Vague claim — line 9: "trusted by hundreds of teams." Drag — lines 11–12: paragraph survives the cut. CTA buried — primary button below the fold; secondary CTA in line 4 competes. Pattern: three ai-mush flags clustered in the middle third — voice-pass failure.