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customize.rst says a multi-word entry can never match, but never says the credential is still reachable #433
The docs are accurate but incomplete in a way that reliably produces a wrong conclusion.
docs/customize.rst:53 says:
Vocabulary entries are matched one word at a time (given_name_titles excepted), so a multi-word entry like titles={"grand moff"} can never match; the constructor warns when it sees one
That is true. What is missing is the next sentence, and its absence is what does the damage: adjacent suffix tokens are reassembled after matching, so a multi-word credential is reachable as its component words even though the phrase is not storable.
Measured across releases — original behavior, not a recent fix:
input
1.4.0
2.0.0
2.1.0
master
John Smith, MD PhD
'MD PhD'
'MD PhD'
'MD PhD'
'MD PhD'
John Smith, PSM I
'PSM I'
'PSM I'
'PSM I'
'PSM I'
The mechanism is the run predicate is_wholly_suffix (nameparser/_pipeline/_vocab.py:246).
What to add
After the multi-word-entry paragraph in customize.rst, note that a multi-word credential is still reachable, and how — the limitation is on storage, not on the shape.
Consider the same note wherever the per-word rule is stated — rules.md:430's suffix Background carries the identical true statement with the identical gap.
Why this is worth fixing rather than shrugging at
The inference from "a multi-word entry is inert" to "a multi-word credential is unparseable" survived #291, an approved design spec, and a full implementation plan that specified a new vocabulary set, a new matching unit, a new predicate and a new Lexicon field. None of them ran the parse. A two-minute measurement would have falsified the premise on the day #291 was filed.
No shipped doc ever stated the false claim — which is the point. A true limitation sitting next to an unstated capability is the shape that produced this, so stating the capability is the fix.
Spun off from #291, closed as working-as-designed.
changed the title [-]Docs say multi-word credentials are unparseable, but "John Smith, MD PhD" has always worked[/-][+]customize.rst says a multi-word entry can never match, but never says the credential is still reachable[/+]on Aug 24, 2026
Activity
[-]Docs say multi-word credentials are unparseable, but "John Smith, MD PhD" has always worked[/-][+]customize.rst says a multi-word entry can never match, but never says the credential is still reachable[/+]Merge pull request #477 from derek73/claude/v2-2-0-release-finalizati…
docs(customize,rules): a multi-word credential is reachable, the entr…