--- title: "Read rounding in agent receipts" slug: read-rounding-in-agent-receipts excerpt: "Rounded figures can hide a small change or leave parts at odds with a total. Read what the displayed digits leave undecided before accepting the receipt." quickAnswer: "Find the rounded figures in an agent receipt, including amounts repeated in its conclusion. Ask which exact values and rounding rule could have produced them. Parts rounded separately may not add to a total rounded after addition. Matching displayed amounts can hide a change, and a rounded amount at a limit can hide a near miss. Request only the exact figures needed to settle the claim you are reading." keyTakeaways: - Displayed digits leave room for more than one exact value. - Separately rounded parts can disagree with a rounded total without a missing amount. - An unchanged display does not establish an unchanged amount. - A pass based on a rounded amount can remain undecided until the exact amount is known. publishedDate: 2026-10-24 dateModified: 2026-10-24 author: Bobby Huang cluster: A role: post status: published faq: - q: Do rounded parts have to add to the displayed total? a: "They may not if the receipt rounds each part separately and rounds the total after adding the exact amounts. Ask how the total was formed before treating the gap as an unexplained amount." - q: Does a matching before and after figure mean nothing changed? a: "Several exact values can round to the same display. The exact before and after amounts decide whether there was a change." - q: Can a rounded figure settle a pass at a limit? a: "Only when the permitted rounding rule makes that display sufficient. If the limit applies to the exact amount, a rounded figure at the limit leaves the pass undecided." related: - what-is-a-md-file --- A receipt says two amounts are 3.4 g each, then gives their total as 6.7 g. Adding the displayed parts gives 6.8 g. That gap deserves attention, but it does not yet tell you whether an amount is missing or whether rounding explains it. These invented receipts concern Jane Doe, a fictional reader. Read the passages as text; they do not call for carrying out any task. Unsure about the file type? Read [why a file ends in .md](what-is-a-md-file.md). ## Find the digits the claim depends on An invented receipt gives Jane Doe these amounts: > First portion: 3.4 g. Second portion: 3.4 g. Total: 6.7 g. All amounts rounded to one decimal place. Mark each displayed amount in your reading, including the total. The last sentence states that the amounts were rounded to one decimal place; simply dropping later digits is different. It leaves the rounding rule unstated, including how halves go, and leaves unstated whether the portions were rounded before addition or the total was rounded after adding their exact amounts. A figure can look exact because it has a decimal point. Read the rounding statement alongside it. Here, 3.4 g is a shortened display of an amount, rather than a promise that the amount was exactly 3.400 g. Follow any repetition of a figure into the later prose. If the conclusion repeats 6.7 g, that repetition adds no precision. Keep the rounding attached to the amount wherever the prose uses it. The examples here stay in quoted prose. For a different display choice, read [how Markdown code blocks enclose text](markdown-code-blocks.md); that appearance still leaves missing digits unknown. ## Leave room for the exact amounts behind the display For the first portion, both 3.36 g and 3.44 g could appear as 3.4 g when rounded to the nearest tenth. You cannot pick either amount from the displayed figure alone. The rounding rule matters too. Dropping digits after the first decimal place would turn 3.36 g into 3.3 g instead. If the receipt only says "rounded," ask which rule it used before treating a possible exact value as established. The gap gives Jane Doe a focused question: "Were the portions rounded to the nearest tenth, and was the total formed before or after rounding them?" She does not need every hidden digit merely to understand how the gap could arise. A possible explanation and a confirmed explanation remain separate. Until the agent supplies the relevant detail, she can say rounding might account for the difference. ## Read the parts and the whole at the same precision Suppose the invented clarification says: > Each portion was exactly 3.36 g. The exact total was 6.72 g. Each portion is shown rounded to the nearest tenth. The total is rounded once to the nearest tenth, after adding the exact portions. That explains this receipt's 3.4 g, 3.4 g and 6.7 g. The total used the exact portions. It did not add the two shortened displays. No extra portion is needed to explain their visible disagreement. Now suppose a different receipt says the total was obtained by adding the displayed 3.4 g portions. Its stated 6.7 g total would still need an explanation. The same visible gap can therefore call for different readings depending on when rounding happened. Read what the receipt says about that order. Do not silently replace its total with 6.8 g, or assume that rounding excuses any difference. If the stated method cannot account for the displayed whole, request the exact portions and the exact total for this passage. ## Pause at an unchanged display Another invented receipt reads: > Earlier amount: 2.0 g. Later amount: 2.0 g. Change: none. Both amounts rounded to the nearest tenth. The displays match. The claim of no change goes further. An earlier amount of 2.04 g and a later amount of 2.01 g would both appear as 2.0 g, despite a small decrease. Request the earlier amount and the later amount without rounding if your decision depends on whether anything changed. The other figures in this receipt are unnecessary for settling that particular claim. Differing exact amounts establish a change despite matching displayed digits. If the receipt merely says "no change in the displayed amount," its wording is narrower. That statement can stand while the exact amount remains unknown. Preserve the difference between an unchanged display and an unchanged thing being measured. ## Keep a rounded pass undecided when needed Consider this invented passage: > Remaining amount: 5.0 g, rounded to the nearest tenth. Maximum permitted amount: exactly 5.0 g. Pass. The rounded display sits at the maximum. An exact amount of 5.04 g would also display as 5.0 g, while lying above the stated maximum. The printed figure alone cannot establish this pass. Here the maximum is already explicit. The missing detail is the exact remaining amount, rather than a new explanation of which limit applies. Jane Doe can ask: "What was the exact remaining amount before rounding?" An answer of 5.04 g leaves the stated pass at odds with the stated maximum. If it is 4.98 g, the amount is below the maximum. Read the new figure against the rule already on the page, leaving the earlier rounded display in place as a rounded display. A receipt may instead expressly permit judging the rounded amount. In that case, read the pass under that stated rule. Do not assume that allowance merely because the agent printed fewer digits. ## Stop with the figures that settle the claim The question about the portions needs their exact amounts and how the total was formed. The question about an unchanged amount needs the exact before and after figures. The question about the pass needs the exact amount beside the stated maximum. Keep each request that small. Asking for every number in the receipt can bury the particular digits that decide whether its conclusion stands. Once the needed values and rounding rule are explicit, describe what they establish without claiming that the rest of the receipt has been examined. For a separate account of your reading, choose a name that identifies it as yours; see [ways to name Markdown files](markdown-file-naming.md). Leave unresolved claims visibly unresolved in your prose rather than filling the missing digits with a convenient guess. ## Where Sashmark fits With a desktop v1 planned, Sashmark stays in development. Its purpose pairs reading Markdown with editing that text. Sashmark contains no internal AI; an agent providing your text remains separate from it.