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goodwe-addon/STYLE.md
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adminandClaude Opus 5.5 7b65a3e69a
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UX-08 review: tighter notification texts, and two meaning fixes
- not delivering: the body said control keeps running and then "start
  control"; clearing it takes stop then start, and it now says so.
- peak reserve: the "reserve not set" branch is really soc_floor None,
  i.e. an inverter's cut-out level missing; it now names that. The title
  is true on all three branches ("Battery stopped limiting the peak").
- no semicolon run-ons in bodies (STYLE.md + test); loop-bound, circulating,
  meter-frozen and multi-unit over-rating bodies rewritten to match.
- allowlist cap is now exact, so a shrink cannot leave room to regrow.
- DOCS names the settings behind "peak reserve" and "cut-out level";
  DECISIONS no longer states the HA anchor behaviour as fact.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-09-27 01:18:55 +02:00

3.7 KiB

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: at most 15 words. Banner: at most 12 words. Refusal: at most 30 words, naming the setting by its label. 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

Say Not
battery pack, BMS pack
inverter, or its name unit, device, actuator
controller loop, planner
meter P1 feed, telegram
peak limit / this month's peak ceiling, capaciteitstarief, billed quarter
15-minute period quarter
battery level SoC, state of charge
cut-out level BMS floor, bms_soc_floor
peak reserve peak_soc_floor, EMS floor
inverter rating max_w, rail
control is stopped / every inverter is set to 0 W failsafe, trip, latch, parked
software fault BUG SIGNAL
control board master, ESP32
shadow mode a mode that makes every decision but commands 0 W. The name is kept.

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.