Writing pillar — token consolidation rationale

Real DTCG constraint that shaped this design

DTCG 2025-10 has no array/list primitive. Every list-shaped rule (banned-vocabulary lists, required-vocabulary lists, thematic-anchor lists) is modeled as one token per entry, with structural metadata (alternates, exceptions, scope) carried in a documented $extensions.com.pointsav.writing namespace — a genuinely new surface for this repo (the color/spacing token layers never needed $extensions). Flagged for confirmation that the build tooling (sync-design-tokens.sh, tokens_gallery.rs) tolerates a non-standard extensions namespace before treating this as fully load-bearing.

Why genericize Woodfine's lexicon content instead of leaving it Woodfine-only

woodfine-media-assets/tokens/linguistic/wf-protocol-lexicon.yaml and its siblings (disclaimer/trademark/contact templates) are real, live, production content — not drafts. The rule SHAPES recur identically across PointSav and Woodfine's own linguistic content (a banned-vocabulary list, a required-vocabulary list, a thematic- anchor list, a parametrized disclaimer template, a trademark-footer template, a contact-block template) — only the concrete values differ per tenant. Per operator decision: the reusable STRUCTURE becomes a generic PointSav Design System token (writing.semantic.lexicon.*, .disclaimer.*, etc.), shipped empty of any tenant's real values; Woodfine's actual banned words, required phrases, "Five Fs" thematic anchors, and entity/address strings become a woodfine-media-assets override layer — the same fork-and-repoint pattern themes/<brand>.json already uses for color aliases. Rationale, in the operator's own words: these tokens were originally built FROM Woodfine's real production needs, and genericizing them is exactly what makes the design system useful to other companies facing the same needs.

Real philosophical conflict found, not silently resolved

The legacy pointsav-design-system/tokens/linguistic/vocabulary-banned-*.yaml files are kill lists. The editorial style-guide bundle's own house-core.md explicitly rejects kill lists in favor of a positive, WARN-only linter ("not a list of forbidden words"). Resolution applied: writing.semantic.lexicon.banned survives as a real, tenant-override token (a brand's own voice legitimately needs banned words — e.g. Woodfine's but/however/despite/although ban is a real, deliberate stylistic choice), but is marked advisory/WARN-only in its $description, consistent with the editorial machine's own philosophy rather than reintroducing a hard-gate kill list.

Composition, stated explicitly (not a silent merge)

1. writing.primitive.* — objective craft constants (sentence length, casing, active voice). Tenant-agnostic, applies everywhere, owned by the design system.
2. writing.semantic.register.* — the SCALE of registers. Each token's $extensions.guide field points at the mounted editorial guide-*.md — it indexes the prose, it does not copy it. This is the seam that satisfies the editorial bundle's explicit "mount, don't fork the prose" requirement.
3. writing.semantic.profile.* — register + audience delta, mirroring house profiles.
4. writing.semantic.{lexicon,disclaimer,page-title}.* — generic rule shapes, shipped empty of tenant values.
5. A tenant theme override (media-assets, not this repo) binds real values into the semantic shapes.

Explicitly out of scope, flagged not dropped

~20 legacy *protocol*/ds-protocol*.yaml files (e.g. protocol-topic.yaml, ds-protocol-comm.yaml) are SLM extraction/publishing-pipeline enforcement configuration, not writing-craft tokens — they were read during this consolidation and deliberately excluded from dtcg-vault/writing/, not silently dropped. They belong with the extraction/publishing services that actually consume them.

The voice block the editorial bundle's own draft asks to be removed from themes/pointsav-brand.json was confirmed absent in this clone already (either already removed, or never present) — worth re-verifying against the canonical repo and any exported bundle before treating this as fully closed.