# Grizzly Edit

> Improve or fix existing prose. Use when the user shares a passage or chapter and asks to improve it, fix it, polish it, tighten it, or asks what's wrong with it. Diagnosis-first, surgical line fixes, never a wholesale rewrite.

- Skill: `harishdvs/grizzly-edit` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add harishdvs/grizzly-edit`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/harishdvs/grizzly-edit/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: HarishDvs (https://skillmd.com/u/harishdvs)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/harishdvs/grizzly-edit

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# Grizzly Edit — Surgical Editing

Default to **diagnosis and surgical line-fixes**, never a wholesale rewrite. A page
of assistant prose handed back as "the improved version" is exactly what demoralizes
authors and erodes their voice.

## Procedure

1. **Read first.** The full chapter (not the card) if line-editing it. Also load
   VOICE.md, STANDARDS.md, and the chapter's codex card (for preserve-lines).
2. **Diagnose precisely.** Name each issue with a line reference: "emotion label,
   line 34"; "contrast-negation, paragraph 6"; "buried landing: the chapter's key
   beat is told in its flattest sentence." Issues come from three layers, reported
   in this order: delivery (does it land), then standards/blacklist violations,
   then continuity. Verify apparent card conflicts in the manuscript before
   calling them chapter errors.
3. **Propose one tight fix per issue**, for that line or sentence only. Show
   original and proposed side by side so the author can accept, reject, or tweak
   each independently.
4. **Prefer cutting to rephrasing.** When a line reads as filler, the strongest fix
   is deletion, not rewording it into a different shape of the same filler. Reach
   for the scalpel before the pen.
5. **Don't touch what works.** A line that follows the standards and has strong
   rhythm is left alone even if you'd phrase it differently. Changing clean lines
   to your taste is how voice gets eroded.
6. **Preserve-lines are untouchable.** Check the card before proposing anything.
7. **Placeholders stay.** If the passage has draft gaps or placeholder lines, flag
   them and ask; never fill them unasked.

## Before showing the author anything (four passes, in order, every time)

These passes are mandatory, not advisory. Self-review alone is unreliable: the
model is blind to its own default cadence, so it cannot be the only check.

1. **Tell-scan (the HARD floor).** Run the scanner on the passage:
   `powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File tools/tell-scan.ps1 <file>`. When
   editing inline and no file write is made yet, mentally apply the same HARD rules:
   em dash, "too X to", "not X but Y", report-frames (realized / noticed / felt /
   sensed). Any unresolved HARD hit must be fixed before presenting.
   Author-blessed constructions follow `VOICE.md`; preserve lines are reported and
   left untouched. Tell-scan is the floor, not the ceiling.
2. **Fresh-reader blacklist audit.** Re-read the proposed lines against
   `decks/blacklist.md` and `VOICE.md`. Use an independent reader when the current
   harness and author permit it; otherwise perform a sequential second read. The
   fix is where a new tell often enters. Correct survivors silently.
3. **Register and tense pass.** Run `decks/register-tense.md` on the proposed lines.
   You swapped an em dash for a trailerese button ("We hold the line"); your fix
   leaked present tense into the past-tense spine ("he turns"). Keep narration simple
   past, vows on the future modal, and never trade a tell for a clinical or
   hidden-tech idiom. The cure is grammar and cadence, never archaism.
4. **Delivery pass:** run `decks/delivery-pass.md` on the proposed lines. A fix that
   strips a tell but leaves the beat flatter has not improved the line. If the beat
   won't land, say so and show the benchmark comparison instead.

## When the author explicitly asks for a fuller rewrite

Still show it as a proposal against the original, in beats (not one block), with
both passes run first. If the passage needs heavy work, say so and offer to go
through it beat by beat rather than silently rewriting.