Validator refusals name the setting by its label and key, say what is wrong and what to change, and keep the rejected value and limit. Option names and descriptions are short in en and nl; citations moved to DOCS "For installers" and the test_translations citation check now pins the instruction on the tab and the record in DOCS. No rule, key, schema, default or exit code changed. Allowlist 167 -> 43 (log lines only). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01LyR88rXETvwhTgx6yHE39p
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STYLE.md - how user-facing text is written (UX-08)
This applies to everything a home owner or installer reads: notifications, phone pushes, the add-on page, refusals, add-on log lines at WARNING and above, and the names and descriptions of options. It is enforced by goodwe_controller/test_messages.py. Kinds that have not been rewritten yet are on its allowlist, and that allowlist only shrinks.
1. Shape
- Title: at most 5 everyday words. It says what is wrong ("Meter reading may be stuck"). No "GoodWe:" prefix, no full stop.
- Body: one sentence of at most 25 words, saying what happened and what to do. A red alarm may use up to 3 sentences (70 words, each sentence at most 30 words), so that no action a person must take is lost.
- Details: the last line links to the add-on documentation and names the section with the rest:
Details: add-on documentation, section "<title>" under Notifications.Background, figures, reason codes and history go there or into the log, never into the body. - Status row: one sentence of at most 15 words. A red row may use up to 3 sentences (30 words), like a red alarm. It shows the live numbers the reader acts on and never an HA entity id. Banner: at most 12 words. Refusal: at most 30 words, naming the setting by its label and then its key, as
messages.setting()writes it: “Inverter rating” (max_w). Option name: at most 6 words, not counting the group prefix. Option description: at most 30 words. Where a value comes from belongs in DOCS.md. - Log line (WARNING/ERROR): one line, at most 25 words. The reasoning goes on a DEBUG line. Log lines stay in English and are not translated.
- Sentences: one idea each, active voice, present tense, with nothing nested in brackets and no semicolons (a semicolon is a second sentence in disguise). These translate well into Dutch and French.
2. Numbers
Use a number only if it helps the reader act, for example the peak limit, or what was asked and what was sent in a fault report. Write it the way app/messages.py does: 5 000 W, 20 %, 10 minutes, 14:05.
3. Severity
Severity is shown by the title and the colour, never by CAPITALS or by words like "BUG SIGNAL".
| Level | Colour | When |
|---|---|---|
| alarm | red | Control stopped, money or energy lost now, a fault, or a person must act now. Up to 3 sentences. |
| warning | orange | Control is still running, but something needs a look. 1 sentence. |
| info | grey | No action needed. 1 sentence. |
| resolved | green | An earlier alarm or warning has cleared. 1 sentence. |
A rewrite never changes an alarm's severity, notification_id or cadence.
4. Words - the same word for the same thing everywhere
A setting is named by its label in translations/en.yaml, in quotes when it sits mid-sentence (“Inverter rating”). The words below match those labels. If a label changes, change it here and in app/messages.py in the same change.
| Say | Not |
|---|---|
| the add-on (who decides), control (what it does: "start control", "Control: last ran …") | controller, loop, planner |
| battery | pack, BMS pack |
| inverter, or its name | unit, device, actuator |
| meter | P1 feed, telegram |
| peak limit / this month's peak | ceiling, capaciteitstarief, billed quarter |
| 15-minute period | quarter |
| battery level (setting: “Battery level entity”) | SoC, state of charge, charge level |
| battery cut-out level, or cut-out level next to "battery" (setting: “Battery cut-out level”) | BMS floor, bms_soc_floor |
| peak reserve (setting: “Peak reserve”) | peak_soc_floor, EMS floor, "peak guard will not discharge below" |
| “Inverter rating” (the setting) | max_w, rail, inverter rating as a fact about the hardware |
| solar production, solar entity (settings: “Solar production entity”, “Solar production entities, per inverter”, “Reversed-sign solar entities”) | PV, reversed-sign list, single sensor setting |
| “Where the meter reading comes from” | meter source |
| “Grid power entity”; entity for any Home Assistant sensor a setting points at | grid power sensor, sensor setting |
| draw the battery down, give power | discharge, discharging |
| control is stopped / every inverter is set to 0 W | failsafe, trip, latch, parked |
| safety stop (a stop that only starting control clears) | failsafe latch |
| software fault | BUG SIGNAL |
| control board | master, ESP32 |
| shadow mode | a mode that makes every decision but commands 0 W. The name is kept. In shadow mode a text says what the add-on would send, never that it sent it. |
Banned in titles and bodies (the test fails on them): SAFETY-/TARIFF-/TEL-/CFG-/FW-/HW-nn and other card ids, integrator, anti-windup, windup, clamp, clamped, saturated, BUG SIGNAL, latch, latched, arbiter, allocator, register, 0x…, layer 1/2/3, heartbeat, watchdog, telegram, ACK, CRC, OTA, Modbus, planner, §n, file names, IP addresses, option keys in snake_case, HA entity ids, and runs of 2 or more CAPITALISED words.
HA entity ids are allowed only in refusals and validator messages, where the installer has to find that entity. They are never allowed in alarms or status rows.