Abstract: With the preliminary establishment of the theoretical framework for Systemic Functional Typology (SFT), some guiding principles have been formulated for systemic functional grammatical description.SFT-informed grammatical description features five major principles:text-based data compilation, trinocular perspectives, approaching grammar ‘from above’, axial reasoning, and cryptogrammar.This paper explains and illustrates these guiding principles, drawing chiefly on examples from the MOOD system in interpersonal grammar.