extend action

extend action <name> adds grammar to an action that already exists — one of the standard library's or one of your own. The new lines drive the action's real implementation: extend taking and your new phrasing takes things, updates the inventory, fires the same events.

extend action taking
  grammar
    snag the item

snag the lamp now works exactly as take the lamp does. Slot names refer to the slots the action already resolves — taking calls its object the item, so the extension does too (the standard names are listed on define action).

Making a different action win

Extensions also settle contests. A story's grammar always outranks the standard library's, so restating a pattern under a different action flips which one wins:

extend action examining
  grammar
    read the target

Out of the box read the book is reading; with this extension the restated line wins and read the book examines instead. No ordering syntax exists or is needed — write the line under the action you want, or remove the competitor.

Mistakes are loud

An extension names an action that must exist. A misspelled name is a load error with a suggestion — never a silently minted new action:

LoadError: `extend action tacking` — no story action or standard action
has that name — did you mean `taking`?

Only grammar belongs in an extension block: refusals, scores, body statements, and phrases stay with the action that owns them, and the analyzer rejects them here by name.

Extensions are story declarations — write them in the story file or in a spliced .chord fragment (multi-file stories), and pair them with remove from action when you also want standard phrasings gone.