Review passes — Intrinsic Value

Four passes on every user-facing surface before ship. Not just high-traffic — all of them.

Pass	Lens	Question
1 — Segall	Focus	One job? One primary action? What can we remove entirely?
2 — Zinsser	Voice	Human? Clear? No clutter or pitch-deck?
3 — Strunk	Mechanics	Can I cut words? Active voice? One idea per sentence?
4 — Buffett	Trust	Candor on money, delete, sync, permissions?

Read WRITING_PHILOSOPHY.md first.

Order for new work: Segall → Zinsser → Strunk. Buffett when trust is on the line.

Surface taxonomy (all products)

Category	Examples
Navigation	Tab labels, section headers, back titles
Primary actions	Buttons, toolbar items, menus
Empty states	List zero, search miss, cold start
Explainers	Sheets, "Why this?", settings footers
Destructive	Delete, sign out, discard
Errors & sync	Alerts, banners, offline
Auth	Sign in, sign up, passkey, validation
Commerce	Trial, subscribe, pricing, FAQ
Marketing	Hero, principles, comparison, waitlist
Email	Transactional subject + body
Voice / Siri	Spoken confirmations (`VOICE_INTENTS.md`)
Meta	App Store, page `<title>`, OG description

Per-product inventory

Maintain a checklist in products/<app>-surfaces.md.

Columns:

Surface ID	Category	Location	Segall	Zinsser	Strunk	Buffett	Notes

Tasteful: products/tasteful-surfaces.md (canonical inventory; add Segall column on next audit refresh)

Pass 1 — Segall (focus)

Every surface: screen, sheet, email, landing section, onboarding step.

Rule	Check
One job	This surface answers one user question
One primary CTA	At most one loud action (`.glassProminent` / hero button)
Say no	Features explained only when the user opened that path
Start with the question	User intent before product vocabulary
Subtract first	Remove whole blocks before editing sentences

Segall questions:

If I remove this paragraph, does the screen still work?
Are two buttons both pretending to be primary?
Am I listing capabilities when the user came for one decision?

Pass 2 — Zinsser (voice)

Every string in: empty states, body copy, marketing paragraphs, settings footers.

Rule	Check
Read aloud	Kitchen-table test
No jargon stack	One technical term max
Positive form	"Add meals first" not "Nothing to suggest"
Product sheet	Matches `products/<app>.md`
No engagement bait	No guilt, false urgency

Pass 3 — Strunk (mechanics)

Every string that survived Segall: buttons, nav, alert titles, email subjects.

Rule	Check
Omit needless words	≥20% shorter?
Active voice	"Meal saved." not "has been saved"
No banned words	`COPY_STANDARDS.md`
Button budget	≤ 4 words when possible
Alert title budget	≤ 6 words
Title Case buttons	iOS primary actions (`patterns/PRIMARY_ACTION.md`)

Pass 4 — Buffett (trust)

Every string in: delete, sync, sign out, pricing, trial, permissions, email, legal adjacency.

Rule	Check
What happened	Plain language
What's safe	Local data, cancel path
Permanence	No false undo
Candor	Price, Apple refunds, who decides
`TRUST_COPY.md` shapes	Delete, sync, email

Workflow

Inventory — Add row for every surface (or batch by feature).
Draft — Write or fix copy in product repo.
Four passes — Mark columns ✅ in inventory.
Parity — iOS ↔ web-app ↔ marketing for same concept.
Ship gate — PR checklist: new strings passed all four.

PR checklist (paste in description)

## Copy
- [ ] Segall pass (one job, one primary CTA, subtract whole blocks)
- [ ] Zinsser pass (empty states, body)
- [ ] Strunk pass (buttons, nav, alert titles)
- [ ] Buffett pass (delete/sync/money if touched)
- [ ] Entity names (`ENTITY_NAMES.md` + product sheet)
- [ ] Inventory updated (`products/<app>-surfaces.md`) if new surface

Cursor / agent

Read voice/WRITING_PHILOSOPHY.md
Read voice/products/<app>.md
For trust moments, read voice/TRUST_COPY.md
Update inventory when adding surfaces