de-ai-proselisted
Install: claude install-skill Fergius-Engineering/instincts
## The rule
Readers can tell when a machine wrote the text, and it costs trust the same way sloppy code does. After you write any prose a person will read, read it back once and cut the tells. Plain words, varied sentences, say the thing instead of announcing you're about to say it.
## Fires when
About to show a human a README, a doc page, a commit or PR body, a changelog entry, a UI string, store copy — anything a person will read as writing rather than run as code.
## Tells to cut
- Signposting sentences: "Here's the thing.", "That's the point.", "This is the important part.", "By the end you'll know what, why, and how."
- Closers like "That's it." or "And that's all there is to it."
- Em-dash overuse as the default connector. The constant em-dash rhythm is a fingerprint.
- Parallel triads everywhere ("a texture, a config, a script"), over-balanced sentences, the list-of-three cadence.
- Arrow constructions in prose ("write one function -> the whole thing appears").
- A table for everything; bold sprinkled on every other phrase as decoration.
- Bullet lists where every item opens with a bold label ("**Fast:** ...", "**Simple:** ..."), parallel from top to bottom.
- Cutesy section names and peppy filler ("the payoff", "the ones that bite").
- Paragraphs that are all the same length and shape. Too tidy.
## How to apply
Plain, varied sentences. Some short. Let one run long and a little uneven, like a person typing.
Say it directly instead of signposting it. Use em-dash