figure-auditlisted

# Skill: /figure-audit [article path] Answer whether a figure earns its place, applying the standard that most articles should get none — the value is in the rejections, not the approvals. **Don't:** invent the data a figure would need; if the article does not contain the numbers, the verdict is not additive, full stop. **Don't** approve a figure that restates the thesis in boxes — that is the exact failure this guards against. **Don't** audit several articles in one agent; it starts pattern-matching the second against the first and stops reading. ## The standard > If the page is no worse without the figure, cut the figure. Prefer `none`. Reaching for a figure to fill space is the failure mode. ## The taxonomy A figure may ONLY be one of these five types, and ONLY if it meets its entry requirement. | Figure | Use it for | REQUIRES | |---|---|---| | Dimensioned diagram | A claim about proportion, or where a line sits | Two regions and a measured split you can defend | | Cycle | A process with a genuine return edge | Three or more stages AND a real loop back | | Record chart | A claim about the author's own history or data | A file it reconciles to, named in the caption | | Detail | Clarifying one step of an assembly | A step that is actually unclear without it | | Footed table | Anything with numbers, including pricing | Figures that add up, shown adding up | Hard limits: **max one figure per article**, max three callouts per figure. Zero figures is a perfectly good a