docs: copy edits across the ADRs, guides, and glossary (#417)

Copy edits only: say each thing in plain terms throughout the
architecture records, user guides, CONTEXT.md, AGENTS.md,
CONTRIBUTING.md, README, and NEWS. No decision, glossary term,
or code changes.

Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: thodson-usgs

AGENTS.md

@@ -4,43 +4,44 @@
 - **`CONTEXT.md` is the shared vocabulary** — getter, query, chunk, plan, fan-out,
   page, adapter, facade, leaf, transport, collection, profile, effective
   configuration, and the legacy names that are deliberately not renamed. Read it
-  before writing code, docstrings, or commit messages. Two kinds of term live
-  there and they bind differently (ADR 0013). A **core** term is ours and takes
-  one spelling everywhere *including identifiers*, so a name in the code that
-  conflicts with it is a defect. A **domain** term -- *monitoring location*,
-  *collection* -- is fixed for prose only: each adapter keeps its own service's
-  spelling in its parameters, so `nwis.get_record(service="dv")` and WQP's
-  `Station` are that service's language rather than drift. Each entry states
-  which kind it is.
+  before writing code, docstrings, or commit messages. Two kinds of term are
+  defined there and they bind differently (ADR 0013). A **core** term is ours
+  and takes one spelling everywhere *including identifiers*, so a name in the
+  code that conflicts with it is a defect. A **domain** term -- *monitoring
+  location*, *collection* -- is fixed for prose only: each adapter keeps its
+  own service's spelling in its parameters, so `nwis.get_record(service="dv")`
+  and WQP's `Station` are that service's vocabulary rather than drift. Each
+  entry states which kind it is.
 - Architectural decisions and their rationale: `docs/source/architecture/decisions/`
   (ADRs, referenced by number throughout the code and by `.importlinter`).
 - Contributor workflow, style, and the quality gates in detail: `CONTRIBUTING.md`.
 
 ## How the tree is organized
 Use `ls`/`grep` for the file list; what follows is the placement logic, so you
-can predict where a thing lives.
+can predict where a thing is defined.
 
 - `dataretrieval/` — the public surface is one *adapter* module per service,
   named for the service (`nldi`, `nwdc`, `ngwmn`, `streamstats`, `wqp`, and
   legacy `nwis`); each owns that service's URLs, parameters, and response
   quirks. `waterdata/` is the one adapter large enough to be a package, split by
   collection family; its `api.py` is a compatibility facade holding no logic.
-  Everything else in the package is shared machinery the adapters sit on top of
+  Everything else in the package is shared code the adapters depend on
   — configuration, credentials, progress, exceptions, code tables, response
-  formats. Shared machinery below the adapter layer must not know about any
+  formats. Shared code below the adapter layer must not reference any
   particular service.
-- `dataretrieval/ogc/` — the OGC API protocol machinery (chunk planning,
+- `dataretrieval/ogc/` — the OGC API protocol code (chunk planning,
   filters, request building, response shaping). Shared by the two OGC services
   only; `.importlinter` refuses any other importer.
-- `dataretrieval/transport/` — service-neutral request machinery (HTTP, retry,
+- `dataretrieval/transport/` — service-neutral request code (HTTP, retry,
   pagination, fan-out). It names no service and no protocol, and is not public API.
 - Leading-underscore top-level modules are private; the dependency-free *leaves*
-  sit at the floor of the stack so anything may use them without pulling in the
+  are at the bottom of the stack so anything may use them without pulling in the
   rest of the package. Check for an existing leaf before writing a small helper.
-- **`.importlinter` is the map.** Its `layers` contract lists every top-level
-  module in dependency order and is `exhaustive = True`, so it is both the
-  authoritative statement of where a module sits and the thing that fails when a
-  new module has no home. Read it before adding a module or an import.
+- **`.importlinter` records where every module belongs.** Its `layers` contract
+  lists every top-level module in dependency order and is `exhaustive = True`,
+  so it is both the authoritative statement of where a module belongs and the
+  thing that fails when a new module has not been placed. Read it before adding
+  a module or an import.
 - `tests/` — flat, one `*_test.py` per module or concern, organized into four
   dependency-oriented layers (public contract, adapter contract, component,
   cross-component) that `tests/contracts/README.md` defines and assigns files to.
@@ -74,10 +75,10 @@ can predict where a thing lives.
 - Tests: `coverage run -m pytest tests/ && coverage report`, or focused like
   `pytest tests/waterdata_test.py::test_mock_get_samples`. `coverage report` is
   a merge gate: branch coverage with a `fail_under` ratchet in
-  `[tool.coverage.report]`. Chase the uncovered *branch*, not the number -- a
-  test written to colour a line green catches nothing and costs a maintenance
-  slot. If a path is genuinely unreachable, add it to `exclude_also` with a
-  reason, or leave the ratchet alone.
+  `[tool.coverage.report]`. Cover the uncovered *branch*, not the number -- a
+  test written only to mark a line as covered catches nothing and adds
+  maintenance. If a path is genuinely unreachable, add it to `exclude_also`
+  with a reason, or leave the ratchet alone.
 - Types: `mypy` (`strict = true` in `pyproject.toml`; CI runs it over the
   PR-merged-into-main, so bare `dict`/`list` annotations fail there even if they
   pass on your branch).
@@ -88,7 +89,7 @@ can predict where a thing lives.
 
 ## Testing gotchas
 - The suite is offline by default: `addopts = "-m 'not live'"`. Tests marked
-  `@pytest.mark.live` hit real USGS services and run on a schedule
+  `@pytest.mark.live` call real USGS services and run on a schedule
   (`.github/workflows/live-api.yml`); run them locally with `pytest tests/ -m live`.
 - HTTP is mocked with `pytest-httpx`'s `httpx_mock` fixture plus fixtures under
   `tests/data/`; keep new API tests offline.
@@ -101,23 +102,23 @@ can predict where a thing lives.
 ## Error messages
 Most callers here are programs — a script, a pipeline stage, an agent — so a
 message is the only channel through which a caller can correct itself. Every
-raise states the problem and then the move that fixes it, in that order.
+raise states the problem and then the action that fixes it, in that order.
 
 - Name the remedy, not just the fault. `"Service not recognized"` gives a caller
   nothing to try next; listing the services it does accept does. For a transport
   failure the remedy is whether to retry, and `transport.pagination.
   paginated_failure_message()` is the model: cause, then `To recover: …`.
 - Don't invent a phrasing for a check that recurs. `dataretrieval/_validation.py`
-  owns the wording for the shared shapes — bad value in a closed vocabulary
+  owns the wording for the shared cases — bad value in a closed vocabulary
   (`require_one_of`), missing argument (`require_argument`), incomplete group
   (`require_together`), no filter at all (`require_any_of`), and conflicting
-  arguments (`require_exactly_one`, `reject_together`). Reach for one before
+  arguments (`require_exactly_one`, `reject_together`). Use one before
   hand-writing a message. A service-specific pointer is not a reason to
-  hand-write: every check takes a `remedy=` for the move it cannot derive. Every
-  check raises `ValueError` -- one class for a bad argument value, so a caller
-  catches by shape rather than by which module rejected it.
+  hand-write: every check takes a `remedy=` for the action it cannot derive.
+  Every check raises `ValueError` -- one class for a bad argument value, so a
+  caller catches by error class rather than by which module rejected it.
 - `require_argument` returns the narrowed value and `require_exactly_one` the
-  winning `(name, value)` pair, so use their results rather than re-testing for
+  selected `(name, value)` pair, so use their results rather than re-testing for
   `None` to satisfy mypy — a second, unreachable message beside the first is
   how the two drift apart.
 - **Paste the remedy back before trusting it.** Whatever a message names must be
@@ -127,9 +128,9 @@ raise states the problem and then the move that fixes it, in that order.
   private local no getter accepts, `configure(Configuration(...))` was a silent
   no-op because `configure` is a context manager, `pip install
   dataretrieval[nldi]` globs in zsh, and a navigation missing its `data_source`
-  spelled `None` into the URL and returned an empty frame. Run the corrected
+  wrote `None` into the URL and returned an empty frame. Run the corrected
   call against the real service; wording review does not catch these.
-- Shared checks take the caller's spelling. `_validate_data_source`,
+- Shared checks take the caller's argument name. `_validate_data_source`,
   `_format_api_dates`, and `require_one_of` all accept a `name=` so the subject
   of the message is the argument that was actually passed. A helper that hard-codes
   one noun reports the wrong parameter the moment a second call site reuses it.
@@ -151,7 +152,7 @@ raise states the problem and then the move that fixes it, in that order.
 - The `API_USGS_PAT` credential is owned by the `credentials` leaf and applied as
   the `X-Api-Key` header by `transport.http.default_headers()`, which sends it
   only to the host it belongs to. Never hard-code tokens in examples or tests.
-- Water Data request builders translate Python kwargs to API spellings
+- Water Data request builders translate Python kwargs to API names
   (`skip_geometry` -> `skipGeometry`, `filter_lang` -> `filter-lang`); tests
   assert exact URLs and query params.
 - Multi-value OGC params are comma-joined GETs, except `monitoring-locations`