^ 1 | Details — A single action in detail. About the action rulebooks

Standard actions concerning the actor's vision
Looking , Examining , Looking under , Searching , Consulting it about

Examining something (requires light) (past tense examined)

The act of looking closely at something. Note that the noun could be either a direction or a thing, which is why the Standard Rules include the 'examine directions rule' to deal with directions: it simply says 'You see nothing unexpected in that direction.' and stops the action. (If you would like to handle directions differently, list another rule instead of this one in the carry out examining rules.)
Some things have no description property, or rather, have only a blank text as one. It's possible that something interesting may be said anyway (see the rules for directions, containers, supporters and devices), but if not, we give up with a bland response. This is done by the examine undescribed things rule.

Typed commands leading to this action

"look/l at [something]"

"look/l [something]"

"examine/x/watch/describe/check [something]"

"read [something]"

Named values belonging to this action

examine text printed - truth state

Rules controlling this action

instead of doing something to the cables

carry out standard examining rule name unlist

carry out examine directions rule name unlist 1

A "[We] [see] nothing unexpected in that direction." name set

carry out examine containers rule name unlist 2

A "In [the noun] " name set
B "[The noun] [are] empty." name set

carry out examine supporters rule name unlist 1

A "On [the noun] " name set

carry out examine devices rule name unlist 1

A "[The noun] [are] [if story tense is present tense]currently [end if]switched [if the noun is switched on]on[otherwise]off[end if]." name set

carry out examine undescribed things rule name unlist 1

A "[We] [see] nothing special about [the noun]." name set

report an actor examining report other people examining rule name unlist 1

A "[The actor] [look] closely at [the noun]." name set

Click on the speech-bubble icons to see the responses, or here to see all of them: 7