Numbers Must Mean Sequence
NEVER: Stamp numbered markers (01 / 02 / 03) on a set whose order carries no information. The test takes a second: reorder the items — if nothing breaks, if Security could just as well be 01 and Analytics 03, the numerals are decoration wearing the costume of structure, and they lie to a reader who reads "01" as a promise that something follows. A real process (Push → Build → Promote) or a typed timeline earns them, because there the order IS the information. Same bar for eyebrows, dividers and labels: encode something true, or drop them.
Stamp 01 / 02 / 03 on a set only when the order actually carries information the reader needs
Bad
Good
Why it matters
There is a one-second test: reorder the items. If nothing breaks — if Security could just as well be 01 and Analytics 03 — then the numerals are decoration wearing the costume of structure, and they are actively lying to the reader, who reads "01" as a promise that something comes next. A real process (Push → Build → Promote) or a typed timeline earns its numbers, because there the order IS the information.
Same rule governs the eyebrow chip (`aesthetics-impeccable-hero-eyebrow`): structure or nothing. impeccable ships a mechanical threshold for the same tell (`numbered-section-markers`), and it is worth knowing where the line falls: it scans the page's text for zero-padded markers in the 01–12 range and fires only when 3 or more DISTINCT markers appear AND at least 2 of them are consecutive (01, 02, 03 → two sequential pairs).
One stray "01" is not the pattern; a run of three is, because a run is what turns numerals into the page's section cadence. It classifies the result as the AI editorial scaffold one tier deeper than the tracked eyebrow chip — the same reflex, spent on a bigger typographic gesture.