# Write Like You Tune

> Improve your write-like-you voice skill from one before/after writing pair. Proposes gated, general edits.

- Skill: `dustincole-data/write-like-you-tune` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add dustincole-data/write-like-you-tune`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/dustincole-data/write-like-you-tune/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: dustincole-data (https://skillmd.com/u/dustincole-data)
- Updated: 2026-09-22
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/dustincole-data/write-like-you-tune

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# Write Like You: Tune

Improve your `write-like-you` voice skill from one before/after pair. `write-like-you`
writes; this tunes it. The whole skill turns on one risk: **overfitting**, baking
this-piece-only language into a rule. Learn the durable pattern, not the sentence.

Apply edits like good skill-writing: prefer a general rule over this-piece phrasing.
Sharpen an existing line before adding a new one, and prune anything the file already says.

## Steps

1. **Get both versions.** `before` = the AI draft; `after` = your rewrite of the *same*
   piece. Done when you hold both for one piece; if not, stop and ask.
2. **Diff** across six axes: word choice · rhythm/punctuation · openers/endings ·
   additions · cuts · tone. Done when every material difference is named.
3. **Keep only durable patterns.** Restate each difference as a general rule in your own
   vocabulary, then ask: would it apply to a *different* piece? Drop the rest. Done when
   every kept rule names no phrase from this piece: the overfitting check.
4. **Route each** to its existing home in `write-like-you` (invent no new section): a
   **hard rule**, a **banned-tell row**, or an **exemplar quote**, the sole home where
   this-piece wording may live. Prefer sharpening an existing line to adding one; dedupe
   against what's there. Done when each candidate is an add or edit against a named
   existing line.
5. **Validate non-obvious rules against a held-out pair.** When another saved before/after
   pair is on hand (step 8 builds this bank over time), regenerate *that* pair's `before`
   with vs. without the rule and keep the rule only if its output moves toward that pair's
   `after`. That result is its evidence. A rule that helps only the pair it came from is
   overfit; demote it to an exemplar. Only one pair so far? You can't hold out yet, so
   treat it as n=1 (see Traps). Skip self-evident rules (e.g. a punctuation ban).
6. **Present the proposal table**, one row each: `finding · home · add|edit · exact
   old→new · why durable (+ evidence)`. Done when you can accept a row and its exact edit
   is already written out.
7. **The gate.** Write nothing to the voice skill until you accept a row.
8. **Apply accepted rows** to `write-like-you` (every copy you keep), then confirm the
   copies match. Save the before/after pair somewhere durable for provenance and revert.
   Done when only accepted rows changed and the pair is saved.

## Traps (diagnose a bad run)

- **Overfitting**: a rule carries a phrase from this one piece. Generalize it, or demote
  the phrase to an exemplar.
- **Bloat**: a new row where an existing line already covers it. Edit that line instead.
- **n=1**: one pair rarely proves a pattern; low-generality candidates get dropped or
  demoted to an exemplar.