Perform a broad-spectrum continuity pass before drilling into specialized audits.
This skill asks whether the narrative remains internally coherent across time, state, causality, and authored rules.
Audit Dimensions
Timeline
- impossible ordering
- inconsistent ages/durations
- travel or recovery time contradictions
- event referenced before occurrence
Character state
- alive/dead/present/location mismatch
- unexplained motive reversal
- relationship-state mismatch
- possessions/abilities appearing or disappearing
Information
- impossible knowledge
- forgotten discoveries
- optional-path leakage
World rules
- magic/technology/social/legal rules change for convenience
- established limitation ignored
- exception introduced without cost/explanation
Geography and logistics
- impossible travel
- location topology mismatch
- resource or population claims contradict established world
Causality
- consequence without cause
- cause with no expected consequence
- solution depends on unavailable capability
Setup / payoff
- conspicuous promise abandoned
- resolution not seeded
Naming / identity
- title/name/faction terminology drift
- two entities accidentally conflated
Branch continuity
- mutually exclusive events both treated as canon on same path
- reconverged content erases meaningful prior state
Procedure
- Establish source hierarchy: canon bible > approved implementation > draft, unless user states otherwise.
- Build a short fact/state ledger from relevant material.
- Trace chronology and causality.
- Compare repeated references to the same entity/rule/event.
- Check branch and optional-content assumptions.
- Classify findings by dimension.
- Separate hard contradictions from ambiguity or missing documentation.
- Recommend specialized audit where the issue needs deeper analysis.
Finding Types
- Contradiction — two claims cannot both be true under current rules.
- Continuity gap — transition/explanation is missing.
- Ambiguity — multiple interpretations are possible and may confuse implementation/audience.
- Drift — repeated element gradually changes without declared reason.
- Unverified dependency — correctness depends on material not provided.
Output
Executive summary
Most important continuity risks.
Findings
For each:
Location(s)
Dimension
Conflicting facts / missing link
Finding type
Severity / confidence
Player/audience impact
Smallest repair category
Canon questions
Only unresolved questions that materially block a determination.
Specialized follow-ups
Examples:
- impossible knowledge →
$audit-impossible-knowledge - behavioral drift →
$audit-character-consistency - voice drift →
$audit-character-voice - setup/payoff →
$audit-setup-payoff - explicit state logic →
$audit-narrative-state - branch production logic →
$audit-branching-complexity
Severity
Critical: breaks plot/progression or central premise. High: clearly noticeable contradiction in major content. Medium: local continuity gap or implementation risk. Low: terminology, minor timing, or polish-level inconsistency.
Confidence
Always report separately from severity.
Do Not Flatten Intentional Ambiguity
Unreliable narration, conflicting testimony, rumor, mystery, and retcon reveals may deliberately produce apparent contradictions. Flag only when the text/system fails to distinguish intentional uncertainty from accidental inconsistency.
Final Quality Check
The audit should leave the designer with a ranked correction list, not a rewritten story.