Every document you write, edit, or review must comply with these rules. A document is any prose deliverable: a README, a spec, a rule, a skill, a design doc, a guide, a review, release notes. This skill does not govern normal conversation — only the deliverable.
The rules come in two sets, both applied on every document task:
references/common/source-to-deliverable.md— how to turn a source (code you read, or a discussion you had) into a deliverable without dragging the source into the output.references/common/anti-slop.md— the patterns that make a document read as machine-padded filler, each with a rule code and a fix.
All paths in this document are relative to this SKILL.md file, so they resolve wherever the skill is installed.
Step 0 — Bootstrap the reminder hooks (once per session, only if needed)
The hooks inject a short reminder of these rules at session start and on every prompt, so the
rules don't get buried as a conversation grows. Run the fast read-only check first (single
absolute-path command, no cd/&&):
python3 <skill-dir>/bootstrap.py --verify
Exit 0 → hooks are wired; go to Step 1. Non-zero → wire them:
python3 <skill-dir>/bootstrap.py
It auto-detects scope (this project's .claude/settings.json vs global ~/.claude/settings.json)
from where the skill is installed, and merges two entries — SessionStart and UserPromptSubmit —
without disturbing hooks you already have. Tell the user to restart the session so the hooks
activate; until then the reminder isn't injected, but this SKILL.md is still in force for any
document you write this session.
Step 1 — Pick the document type (optional refinement)
references/common/ applies to every document. If a per-type guide exists under
references/<doc-type>/ (README, spec, review, …), read it too — it specializes the common rules
for that kind of document. If none matches, the common rules are the whole standard.
Step 2 — Write, edit, or review against the rules
Read both common references, then produce the document. The two failures this skill exists to stop:
- Echoing the source. You read code (or had a discussion) to understand something, then paste
that source — the code, the function names, the one example you just discussed — into the
deliverable. The source is what you learned from; it does not appear in the output. See
source-to-deliverable.md. - Slop. Hedging, hype, throat-clearing, cheerleading, reflexive headers/bold/lists, and
sentences that sound like content but carry none. See
anti-slop.md.
When reviewing a document, report violations by rule code with the offending line and the fix — the same way coding-standards reports a code review.