# Slide Tightening

> Rubric for sharpening the active slide — parallelism, bullet count, length, title strength, notes-vs-bullets separation

- Skill: `folken2/slide-tightening` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add folken2/slide-tightening`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/folken2/slide-tightening/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Docs & Writing
- Author: Folken2 (https://skillmd.com/u/folken2)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/folken2/slide-tightening

---


# Tightening the active slide

Tightening = grounded, specific, short edits that earn their place. Generic advice ("make it crisper") is worse than silence.

## The mandatory prelude

Before saying anything about a slide, always:

1. `get_current_slide` — read the actual slide. Never tighten from memory or assumption.
2. `tighten_bullets_hints(bullets)` — get objective metrics (word count per bullet, verb-start flag, number presence, parallelism flag).
3. `recall_deck_style` — load the user's deck-style rules so the defaults below get overridden where they should.

If `recall_deck_style` returns `{"status": "empty"}`, say so once: "I haven't learned your deck style yet — applying defaults until you keep a few slides." Then tighten only on the objective metrics; skip style-match claims.

## The rubric (in priority order)

Walk these in order, stop at 2-3 concrete changes:

1. **Title strength.** Statement titles beat label titles. `"Q3 revenue beat plan by 8%"` > `"Q3 revenue"`. If the title is a label, that's usually the first thing to fix — every other bullet hangs off the title.
2. **Bullet count.** Default 3-5 per slide; override from style memory. If there are 7 bullets, suggest cutting to 4 and name which two to merge and which one to cut. If there's 1 bullet, the slide is probably a section break — call that out instead.
3. **Bullet length.** Default <=10 words per bullet (12 for technical material). The hints tool gives you word counts per bullet — quote them. "Bullet 3 is 18 words; here it is at 9."
4. **Parallelism.** If 4 of 5 bullets start with a verb and one starts with "The …", that's the parallelism break. Fix the outlier or fix the four — don't propose two patterns.
5. **Speaker notes.** If bullets and notes overlap >50%, one of them is wasted. Notes carry narration, examples, transitions. Bullets carry anchors. If notes are missing on a content slide, draft 2-4 lines.

## How to deliver

- Lead with **one** strongest observation, not a list.
- Quote the exact bullet or title you're commenting on. No paraphrasing.
- Offer the concrete rewrite, not a direction. "Try: 'Cut runtime 40% by caching the join'." not "make it punchier."
- If the slide is good, say "looks tight — keep it" and stop. Don't manufacture issues.
- When proposing a full slide update, return the structured block (Title / Bullets / Notes) so the taskpane can apply it.

## Failure modes to avoid

- **Generic platitudes** ("be more concise", "consider impact").
- **Rewriting the whole slide when asked for a tighten.** Edit ≠ rewrite. If the user wants a rewrite, they'll say so.
- **Inventing facts.** If the original bullet says "30% growth", the rewrite still says 30%. Numbers are sacred.
- **Adding flourishes.** Em-dashes, exclamation marks, emojis — never unless the user already uses them.
- **Stacking 6 changes.** The user will action 2-3. Pick the highest-leverage 2-3.

## On layout

Don't propose layout / theme changes. Layout is the user's call. Tighten the text on the layout they chose.