infrastructure-prose · git:20260503.72c1838 · 2026-05-03 · sha256 8620b97c2bc8fbc6
infrastructure-prose git:20260503.72c1838A
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---
name: infrastructure-prose
description: Prose analysis utilities for research manuscripts and prose-focused projects. Provides readability metrics (Flesch, Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog), heading-outline structural analysis, editorial quality flags (passive voice, hedge words, citation density, long sentences), aggregate ManuscriptReport across a manuscript directory, and a CLI (metrics/outline/quality/report). Use when analyzing manuscripts for readability, building editorial dashboards, validating heading structure, extracting citation keys from prose, or wiring prose-quality gates into the pipeline.
---
# Prose Module
Editorial-grade prose analysis: readability, structure, quality flags,
and manuscript-wide aggregation.
```mermaid
flowchart LR
MD[Markdown manuscript] --> NORM[normalise_for_prose<br/>strip front-matter · fences ·<br/>inline code · links]
NORM --> METRICS[ProseMetrics<br/>Flesch · FKGL · Gunning Fog]
NORM --> QUALITY[QualityReport<br/>passive · hedges · citations ·<br/>long sentences]
MD --> STRUCT[StructureReport<br/>headings · sections · word counts]
METRICS --> AGG[ManuscriptReport]
QUALITY --> AGG
STRUCT --> AGG
classDef io fill:#0f766e,stroke:#0f172a,color:#fff
classDef proc fill:#1e3a8a,stroke:#0f172a,color:#fff
classDef out fill:#7c2d12,stroke:#0f172a,color:#fff
class MD io
class NORM,METRICS,QUALITY,STRUCT proc
class AGG out
```
## Readability metrics
```python
from infrastructure.prose import compute_metrics, normalise_for_prose
text = "The cat sat on the mat. Dogs run fast."
metrics = compute_metrics(normalise_for_prose(text))
print(metrics.flesch_reading_ease) # 100+ — very easy
print(metrics.flesch_kincaid_grade) # ~1
print(metrics.gunning_fog) # ~1.6
```
## Heading structure
```python
from infrastructure.prose import analyze_structure, render_outline
report = analyze_structure(open("manuscript/02_methodology.md").read())
print(report.has_h1, report.max_depth, report.has_skipped_level)
print(render_outline(report))
```
## Quality flags
```python
from infrastructure.prose import analyze_quality
q = analyze_quality(text)
q.passive_count, q.hedge_count, q.citation_count, q.long_sentence_count
q.citation_density_per_1000 # citations per 1000 words
```
## Whole-manuscript report
```python
from infrastructure.prose import analyze_manuscript, write_report
report = analyze_manuscript("projects/my_project/manuscript")
write_report(report, "output/prose_report.json")
print(report.total_words, report.avg_flesch_kincaid_grade)
```
## CLI
```bash
# Metrics for a single file
uv run python -m infrastructure.prose.cli metrics path/to/section.md
# Heading outline
uv run python -m infrastructure.prose.cli outline path/to/section.md
# Editorial quality
uv run python -m infrastructure.prose.cli quality path/to/section.md \
--long-sentence-threshold 30
# Whole-manuscript JSON report
uv run python -m infrastructure.prose.cli report \
projects/my_project/manuscript \
--output output/prose_report.json
```
## Design notes
* **Pure functions, deterministic.** No I/O outside the `report` and
`cli` layers. `compute_metrics`, `analyze_structure`, `analyze_quality`
are stable across versions.
* **Heuristics only.** Passive-voice detection uses "be + past
participle"; hedge detection is a fixed word list; syllable counting
is a vowel-group rule. Each is good enough for a writer-friendly
signal, not for linguistic research.
* **Handles Markdown.** `normalise_for_prose` strips front-matter,
fenced code, inline code, and link URLs so metrics reflect prose, not
scaffolding.
* **Citation extraction.** `extract_citation_keys` recognises both
`[@key1; @key2]` and bare `@key` forms used by Pandoc.