Minutes Regarding Comment Style Masking
Rewriting a generated comment to match the file's existing voice is an editorial step the original author never needed.
Minutes of: Informal Working Session Attendees: The subject Duration: Eleven minutes Agenda Item: Comment Style Masking
The code was written. The code was correct. The inline comments were generated alongside the code by the same tool that generated the code. The comments were clear, syntactically well-formed, and consistent with the function's behavior.
The subject read the comments.
The comments were too well-formed. Specifically: they used complete sentences, lacked abbreviations, and explained the reasoning behind decisions rather than merely naming the action. The surrounding file uses fragments. The surrounding file uses lowercase variable names in comments. The surrounding file was written by a person over fourteen months, and the stylistic fingerprint of that person is visible in the comments if you know what you are looking for.
The comment is correct and needs to be made to sound like it was written by someone who did not have help.
The subject rewrote three comments. The rewriting took eleven minutes. The rewritten comments are technically less precise than the originals but are stylistically consistent with the file. A reviewer reading the diff will see comments that match the surrounding code. This is the intended outcome.
Under the governing rule, comment style masking becomes procedure once the first rewrite has been completed and the PR merged without comment. The second time, the masking step is budgeted into the workflow. The third time, the workflow includes the masking step before the generation prompt, because the subject has learned that generating comments in the file's voice requires specifying the file's voice in the prompt.
Assisted work becomes routine while disclosure stays exceptional, and comment style masking is one of the places the gap is most visible. The masking exists because the gap exists. The gap exists because there is no agreed norm for the gap's existence. The subject is not unusual in this position.
The PR is merged. The comments read as expected. The eleven minutes are not logged anywhere.
Action Item: None. The process is working as designed.