closer-critique

Closer Critique

Table of Contents

• Closing archetypes
• Scoreboard check (series posts)
• Workflow
• Worked example
• Guardrails

Related skills: Called by Editor in the structural pass. For series posts, enforces scoreboard non-negotiability (ties to style-guide.md's scoreboard template and each section-profile's operational rules).

Closing archetypes

Archetype	Example	Verdict
Bolded maxim	"You don't have an AI problem. You have an eval problem."	PASS
Forward-looking question / statement	"Game 6 is tomorrow. The scoreboard will move."	PASS
Compressed mechanism	"The AI is not the bottleneck. The context you architect around it is."	PASS
Gratitude beat	"I'm grateful for it." (after a reader-correction post)	PASS
Scoreboard + restrained disclaimer	Running-tally block + one-paragraph financial disclaimer	PASS (and REQUIRED for series)
"In summary…" or "To conclude…"	prompt residue	FLAG tier-2
Custom CTA	"If this resonated, subscribe!"	FLAG tier-1
No close / dangling	Post ends mid-thought	FLAG tier-1

Scoreboard check (series posts)

If draft frontmatter has series: {slug}, the closer MUST include a scoreboard block per style-guide.md:

Running tally: P&L $NNN.NN, Brier 0.NN, W-L N-N
This week: +$N.NN or -$N.NN on {bet}.

Placed above the bolded maxim (if one exists).

Missing scoreboard = automatic tier-1 blocker. No-go on series posts until fixed.

Workflow

Evaluate closer:
- [ ] Step 1: Extract last paragraph (and bolded maxim if separate)
- [ ] Step 2: Classify archetype
- [ ] Step 3: If series, check scoreboard presence + format
- [ ] Step 4: Emit verdict + flags

Worked example

Series post closer (Kalshi Log) — missing scoreboard:

This concludes my Fed-meeting experiment. Thanks for reading.

The decision is not the news. The explanation is.

Flags:

1. (Tier-1) Scoreboard missing. Series is kalshi-log. Prior post ended with P&L +$127, Brier 0.18, W-L 4-3. This post must update.
2. (Tier-2) "Thanks for reading" — CTA residue. Cut.

Rewrite (scoreboard insertion above the maxim):

Running tally: P&L $134.50, Brier 0.19, W-L 5-3
This week: +$7.50 on the Fed decision not moving.

**The decision is not the news. The explanation is.**

Non-series post closer (good):

After training for two weeks, the model held. I do not know whether it would hold on a different dataset.

The context you architect around it is.

Classification: compressed mechanism + bolded maxim. PASS.

Guardrails

1. Series posts without scoreboard = automatic tier-1. Non-negotiable.
2. Scoreboard format follows style-guide.md exactly. Deviations (missing W-L, missing Brier) are tier-1.
3. Custom CTA ("subscribe if this resonated!") = tier-1. Substack's platform boilerplate is fine.
4. Dangling close ("... and that's what I think about attention") = tier-1.
5. Don't flag bolded maxims that are a full paragraph of prose — bolded-for-emphasis within a paragraph is different from a one-sentence maxim close. Accept both forms.
6. The closer can be a scoreboard-only (no maxim) on series posts — acceptable if the scoreboard IS the close.

Quick reference

• Input: last paragraph + draft frontmatter.
• Output: classification + verdict + scoreboard-check result for series posts.
• Blocks: series posts without scoreboard, custom CTAs, dangling closes.