2 files changed, 43 insertions, 6 deletions
diff --git a/voice/SKILL.md b/voice/SKILL.md
index 19eb38b..fe5d48a 100644
--- a/voice/SKILL.md
+++ b/voice/SKILL.md
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ---
 name: voice
 description: |
-  Multi-pass prose editor with three modes. General mode (default) edits arbitrary writing — research notes, essays, anyone's README prose — by walking 31 patterns: Wikipedia's Signs of AI Writing patterns plus universal good-writing rules (long-word → short-word, active-over-passive, comma splices, cliché flag, jargon-fragment-in-prose rewrite, corporate-speak nominalizations). Prose mode adds Craig's writing-voice patterns for prose he authors or sends — emails, documents, notes — on top of general (em-dash zero-tolerance, no-emphasis-formatting, contractions, semicolons → periods, sentence-split, felt-experience cut, sentence-fragment rewrite, terse-cut, single-sentence cadence, parenthetical asides, declarative-register marker). Personal mode is for publish artifacts only (commits, PR titles + bodies, PR review comments) and adds the artifact-mechanics patterns on top of prose (first-person rewrite, public-artifact scope flag, praise/correction asymmetry, finding stems) plus per-artifact terseness budgets. Total 45 patterns; one editorial review covers all relevant ones for the chosen mode, with an attestation receipt for the high-recurrence set. Replaces the standalone humanizer skill. Use when editing prose. Do NOT use for code, structured data, or plain bullet lists where fragments are valid.
+  Multi-pass prose editor with three modes. General mode (default) edits arbitrary writing — research notes, essays, anyone's README prose — by walking 31 patterns: Wikipedia's Signs of AI Writing patterns plus universal good-writing rules (long-word → short-word, active-over-passive, comma splices, cliché flag, jargon-fragment-in-prose rewrite, corporate-speak nominalizations). Prose mode adds Craig's writing-voice patterns for prose he authors or sends — emails, documents, notes — on top of general (em-dash zero-tolerance, no-emphasis-formatting, contractions, semicolons → periods, sentence-split, felt-experience cut, sentence-fragment rewrite, terse-cut, single-sentence cadence, parenthetical asides, declarative-register marker). Personal mode is for publish artifacts only (commits, PR titles + bodies, PR review comments) and adds the artifact-mechanics patterns on top of prose (first-person rewrite, public-artifact scope flag, praise/correction asymmetry, finding stems, comma budget) plus per-artifact terseness budgets. Total 46 patterns; one editorial review covers all relevant ones for the chosen mode, with an attestation receipt for the high-recurrence set. Replaces the standalone humanizer skill. Use when editing prose. Do NOT use for code, structured data, or plain bullet lists where fragments are valid.
 allowed-tools:
   - Read
   - Write
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Three modes determine which patterns to walk. They nest: prose is general plus C
 
 - **General** (default) — apply patterns **#1-31**. Use for writing whose author isn't Craig and that isn't a publish artifact: research notes you're editing for someone else, a quoted passage, README prose for a shared project, any third-party text. Output is well-edited human-sounding prose, but does not impose Craig's voice (first-person, contractions, em-dash elimination) — those conflict with academic, literary, or formal registers that aren't his.
 - **Prose** — apply **#1-31** plus the patterns tagged **(prose + personal)**: em-dash zero-tolerance (#13), contractions (#34), semicolons → periods (#33), sentence-split (#35), felt-experience cut (#36), sentence-fragment rewrite (#37), terse-cut (#38), no-emphasis-formatting (#41), single-sentence cadence (#43), parenthetical asides (#44), and the declarative-register marker (#45). Use for prose Craig authors or sends in his own voice that isn't a publish artifact: emails, documents he writes or hands to someone, working notes, journal entries. This is the mode that finally applies his actual writing voice to the documents he most wants it on. It skips the artifact-mechanics patterns (#32, #39, #40, #42) — those assume a commit or PR and misfire on free prose (a document is legitimately third-person; a journal has no public-scope concern; praise/correction asymmetry and finding stems are PR-review rules).
-- **Personal** — apply all **#1-45**. Use only for publish artifacts: commits, PR titles + bodies, and PR review comments. Adds the artifact-mechanics patterns (#32 first-person rewrite, #39 public-artifact scope flag, #40 praise/correction asymmetry, #42 finding stems) on top of everything prose mode walks.
+- **Personal** — apply all **#1-46**. Use only for publish artifacts: commits, PR titles + bodies, and PR review comments. Adds the artifact-mechanics patterns (#32 first-person rewrite, #39 public-artifact scope flag, #40 praise/correction asymmetry, #42 finding stems, #46 comma budget) on top of everything prose mode walks.
 
 If invoked without a mode argument, default to general. Prose mode is invoked explicitly with `/voice prose` (emails, authored documents). Personal-context callers (`commits.md` publish flow, `respond-to-cj-comments.md`) invoke `/voice personal`.
 
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ Terse is a budget, not an adjective. Each publish-artifact type has a target sha
 
 When given text to edit:
 
-1. **Identify which patterns apply** — Scan for the patterns numbered below. General mode walks #1-31 only. Prose mode adds the patterns tagged **(prose + personal)**. Personal mode adds those *and* the ones tagged **(personal only)** — i.e. all 45.
+1. **Identify which patterns apply** — Scan for the patterns numbered below. General mode walks #1-31 only. Prose mode adds the patterns tagged **(prose + personal)**. Personal mode adds those *and* the ones tagged **(personal only)** — i.e. all 46.
 2. **Rewrite problematic sections** — Replace each detected pattern with its rewrite.
 3. **Preserve meaning** — Keep the core message intact.
 4. **Maintain voice** — Match the intended tone (formal, casual, technical, academic, literary).
@@ -296,7 +296,7 @@ See `voice/references/voice-profile.org` §31 for problem, basis, examples, and
 
 ## Craig's Voice (prose + personal modes)
 
-These patterns carry Craig's writing voice. Most apply in **both** prose mode (emails, documents, notes he authors) and personal mode (commits, PRs, PR comments) — tagged **(prose + personal)**. Four are publish-artifact-specific — tagged **(personal only)** — because they assume a commit or PR and misfire on free prose: #32 (first-person rewrite) wrongly imposes "I did X" voice on a document that's legitimately third-person, #39 (public-artifact scope flag) has nothing to guard in a private journal, and #40 (praise/correction asymmetry) and #42 (finding stems) are PR-review rules. General mode skips all of them — it edits text that isn't Craig's, where contractions, em-dash elimination, and first-person would conflict with academic, literary, or formal registers.
+These patterns carry Craig's writing voice. Most apply in **both** prose mode (emails, documents, notes he authors) and personal mode (commits, PRs, PR comments) — tagged **(prose + personal)**. Five are publish-artifact-specific — tagged **(personal only)** — because they assume a commit or PR and misfire on free prose: #32 (first-person rewrite) wrongly imposes "I did X" voice on a document that's legitimately third-person, #39 (public-artifact scope flag) has nothing to guard in a private journal, #40 (praise/correction asymmetry) and #42 (finding stems) are PR-review rules, and #46 (comma budget) is scoped to publish artifacts by Craig's 2026-07-20 directive. General mode skips all of them — it edits text that isn't Craig's, where contractions, em-dash elimination, and first-person would conflict with academic, literary, or formal registers.
 
 ### 32. First-Person Voice Rewrite [personal]
 
@@ -382,10 +382,16 @@ See `voice/references/voice-profile.org` §44 for problem, basis, examples, and
 
 See `voice/references/voice-profile.org` §45 for problem, basis, examples, and history.
 
+### 46. Comma Budget — Max Two Per Sentence [personal]
+
+**Rule.** No sentence carries more than two commas. Rewrite the third comma away: split the sentence, move a clause into a parenthetical (#44) or behind a colon, or break an inline serial list into bullets or its own sentence. Count prose commas only — commas inside code spans, quoted log lines, and literal strings don't count toward the budget.
+
+See `voice/references/voice-profile.org` §46 for problem, basis, examples, and history.
+
 ## Process
 
 1. Read the input text carefully. Confirm the mode (general, prose, or personal) — invocation argument or context. If a file path was given, that file is the deliverable: the final text gets written back to it in step 7.
-2. Walk patterns 1-31 in general mode; add the (prose + personal) patterns in prose mode; walk all 45 patterns in personal mode.
+2. Walk patterns 1-31 in general mode; add the (prose + personal) patterns in prose mode; walk all 46 patterns in personal mode.
 3. For each pattern, scan the text. If a match is found, rewrite it according to the pattern's rule. Patterns #39 and #45 emit flags without rewriting.
 4. After walking all patterns, ensure the revised text:
    - Sounds natural when read aloud
@@ -395,7 +401,7 @@ See `voice/references/voice-profile.org` §45 for problem, basis, examples, and
 5. **Terse pass — mandatory, last rewrite pass (prose + personal modes).** Walk pattern #38 again as a standalone action: read each sentence and try to cut it in half, keeping only the words that change meaning. Run it on its own here, not folded into step 3's walk — it is the most-skipped pattern and the bloat it catches is the first thing a reader notices. General mode skips this step — academic and third-party registers keep their transition markers.
 6. **Anti-AI audit — on the final text.** Prompt: "What makes the below so obviously AI generated?" Answer briefly with remaining tells, then revise. This runs *after* the terse pass so the audited text is the text that ships. If the audit triggers rewrites, re-apply the #38 per-sentence test to every changed sentence before proceeding.
 7. **Write-back.** If the invocation supplied a file path, write the final text to that file now and say so. The publish flow posts from the file (`git commit -F`, `gh pr create --body-file`), so a final text that lives only in chat is a drift bug waiting to post the un-voiced version.
-8. **Attestation block (prose + personal modes).** The high-recurrence patterns — the ones with a documented failure history — each get one explicit line: pattern, checked, match or no match, action taken. Current high-recurrence set: **#13 (em-dash), #37 (fragments), #38 (terse), #40 (praise asymmetry), #42 (finding stems)**. This is a receipt, not a summary: a pattern with no match still gets its line. When a pattern in this set fails in the wild despite the receipt, escalate it the way #38 was escalated; when one holds clean for a long stretch, it can rotate out.
+8. **Attestation block (prose + personal modes).** The high-recurrence patterns — the ones with a documented failure history — each get one explicit line: pattern, checked, match or no match, action taken. Current high-recurrence set: **#13 (em-dash), #37 (fragments), #38 (terse), #40 (praise asymmetry), #42 (finding stems), #46 (comma budget)**. This is a receipt, not a summary: a pattern with no match still gets its line. When a pattern in this set fails in the wild despite the receipt, escalate it the way #38 was escalated; when one holds clean for a long stretch, it can rotate out.
 9. Present the final version per the Output Format below.
 
 ## Output Format
@@ -481,6 +487,7 @@ This skill draws from:
 - Plain English Campaign — pattern #26 (Plain English wordlist).
 - Garner, *Modern English Usage* — pattern #26 (word-pair preferences).
 - Craig's voice rules from `claude-rules/commits.md` (Voice and Focus section) — patterns #32-42, split across prose mode (his authored prose and email) and personal mode (publish artifacts).
+- Craig's directive, 2026-07-20 (archsetup session) — pattern #46 (comma budget), personal mode.
 - Corpus measurement (2026-05-29 phases 1-2, documented in the profile) — patterns #43-45 and the calibration notes on #7, #13, #33.
 
 Key insight (Wikipedia, paraphrased): LLMs use statistical algorithms to guess what should come next. The result tends toward the most statistically likely text that applies to the widest variety of cases. Patterns #1-25 detect that signature.
diff --git a/voice/references/voice-profile.org b/voice/references/voice-profile.org
index 765d513..3907edf 100644
--- a/voice/references/voice-profile.org
+++ b/voice/references/voice-profile.org
@@ -1532,3 +1532,33 @@ A question mark in a draft in Craig's voice. Flag it; keep genuine questions to
 *** History
 - 2026-05-29: surfaced by the Phase 1-2 corpus measurement as a register marker; filed as suggested delta 6.
 - 2026-06-10: promoted from the suggested-deltas list into a numbered advisory pattern. Craig's call, from the work-project session.
+
+** §46 Comma Budget — Max Two Per Sentence
+
+*** Modes
+Personal mode only. Prose and general modes skip.
+
+*** Rule
+No sentence carries more than two commas. Rewrite the third comma away: split the sentence, move a clause into a parenthetical (§44) or behind a colon, or break an inline serial list into bullets or its own sentence. Count prose commas only — commas inside code spans, quoted log lines, and literal strings (version numbers, paths) don't count toward the budget.
+
+*** Problem
+Three or more commas in one sentence almost always mark stacked clauses or an inline list doing a paragraph's work. The sentence reads fine to its author and lands as a pileup on the reader. The comma count is a mechanical proxy the walk can enforce, where "don't stack clauses" is prose advice that gets skipped.
+
+*** Basis
+Craig's directive, 2026-07-20 (archsetup session, while gating a Hyprland issue draft): "no more than two commas per sentence. we should add that to the /voice personal pass."
+
+*** Before (spec-sheet line with three commas, from the draft that prompted the rule)
+#+begin_example
+System: Arch Linux, kernel 6.18.25-lts, AMD Strix Halo (Radeon 8060S), no plugins loaded.
+#+end_example
+
+*** After
+#+begin_example
+System: Arch Linux, kernel 6.18.25-lts. GPU: AMD Strix Halo (Radeon 8060S). No plugins loaded.
+#+end_example
+
+*** Detection
+Count commas per sentence on the final text. A sentence at three or more gets restructured, not trimmed to exactly the budget — the third comma is the symptom, the stacked structure is the target.
+
+*** History
+- 2026-07-20: added at Craig's direction from the archsetup session. Scoped to personal mode; broaden to prose only if he asks. Added to the attestation high-recurrence set at birth — a mechanical count is cheap to receipt, and new discipline fails silently without one.