/revision-continuity

name: revision-continuity
description: This skill should be used when the user asks to "revise a chapter", "continuity check", "find inconsistencies", "audit character state", "check timeline consistency", "developmental edit", "structural revision", "reverse outline", "cut a subplot", "revision passes", "what pass next", "pacing check" as a revision pass, "clue check", "cut to a word count", or "length pass", or to prepare existing story material for the next revision pass. NOT for planning book structure (use plot-structure), scene-level craft (use scene-craft), voice consistency (use voice-style), or reconciling a chapter drafted by discovery (use discovery-drafting).

Revision Continuity

Overview

Revise existing Story Skills projects without losing continuity. Use this skill for targeted chapter edits, continuity audits, developmental revision, line edits, and pre-flight checks before drafting the next chapter.

Prerequisites

A story project must already exist. Verify by checking for `story.md` in the project root, then run or inspect `story report .` when CLI access is available. Read `story.md` `language` (a missing field means `en`) and write every revision in that language; when a `story prose` or `story voices` check is reported as skipped for the language, do that check by reading.

Named Revision Passes

Track a full revision as a ladder of named passes in `story.md` `revision-passes`, so the work happens in order (big structural changes before polishing sentences that may be cut) and survives between sessions:

story passes . --init            # writes the default ladder, keeping existing entries
story passes .                   # checklist with the checks each pass runs
story passes . --start pacing    # mark a pass in-progress
story passes . --done pacing     # mark it done
story next .                     # with story status revising, recommends the next unfinished pass

The default ladder is `structure`, `character`, `theme`, `continuity`, `pacing`, `line`, `copyedit`, `proof`. Each entry is `{pass, status}` with status `pending`, `in-progress`, or `done`; add a custom kebab-case pass (`fact-check`, `length`, `sensitivity`) with `story passes . --start <name>`, which appends it as `in-progress`. The checks per pass, as `story passes .` prints them, and the checklists in `references/pass-checklists.md` that each pass works through:

| Pass | Checks | Checklists | |------|--------|----------------| | `structure` | `story timeline .`, `story pacing .`, `story diagram arcs` | Reverse outline, pacing waveform, removability audit | | `character` | `story voices .`, `story knowledge <id> --at <chapter>`, `story diagram relationships` | Developmental revision (motivation, arcs) | | `theme` | `story report .` | Theme audit | | `continuity` | `story continuity .`, `story clues .`, `story links .` | Continuity audit, reveal economy, fact check | | `pacing` | `story pacing .` | Pacing waveform | | `line` | `story prose .`, `story voices .` | Line edit (the `line-editing` skill) | | `copyedit` | `story prose .` + `style-sheet.md` | Copyedit (the `line-editing` skill) | | `proof` | `story build --format print`, `story build --format html` | Proof (the `line-editing` skill) |

Mark a pass `--start` when beginning it and `--done` only when its checks are clean or every remaining finding is a recorded decision. Set story `status: revising` so `story next .` points at the next pass.

Revision Workflow

1. Clarify the pass type unless the user already specified it. Each pass has a checklist in `references/pass-checklists.md` (what to run, read, check, and update); follow it from step 3 on, after the snapshot, because some checks write files:

• **Continuity audit** - contradictions, stale references, timeline problems, missing backlinks, word-count drift
• **Developmental revision** - structure, scene purpose, character motivation, pacing, stakes, arc progression
• **Reverse outline** - what each chapter actually does, diffed against what the plot files say it should do
• **Theme audit** - whether the ending engages the opening's value-question and early motifs pay off
• **Pacing waveform** - tension per chapter and dead zones (`story pacing .`)
• **Reveal economy** - every reveal earned by planted setup and spaced out (`story clues .`)
• **Removability audit (darling-killing)** - scenes whose removal would change nothing downstream
• **Length pass** - cut or expand to a target word count from a per-chapter and per-arc budget (`story progress .`, `story pacing .`; a custom `length` pass)
• **Voice differentiation** - each speaker sounds like themselves (`story voices .`)
• **Line edit** - clarity, voice, rhythm, dialogue, and sensory detail without changing plot facts (the `line-editing` skill)
• **Copyedit** - style baseline and surface-detail consistency, not prose quality (the `line-editing` skill)
• **Fact check** - real-world details against `research/` notes (the `research` skill)
• **Proof/polish** - small wording, grammar, and formatting fixes on a built copy (the `line-editing` skill)

2. Snapshot the draft before any multi-chapter pass (see Draft Snapshots below), so the pass can be compared and undone. 3. Read the relevant context:

• `story.md`
• `chapters/_index.md`
• The target chapter(s)
• Previous and next chapters when present
• Relevant character, location, system, and arc files referenced by the chapter frontmatter
• Matching scene files in `scenes/`
• `continuity/state.md`, open questions, and promises/payoffs
• `plot/timeline.md` and active arc files for continuity-sensitive edits
• The files the pass checklist lists, and the output of the checks it runs

4. Create a concise revision plan:

• What will change
• What must stay fixed for continuity
• Which files may need updates beyond the chapter
• Each scene, subplot, or passage the plan cuts, folds into anothe