Humanizer
Remove artificial patterns, synthetic cadence, and formulaic tells from user-facing prose. Precision beats style. This is an editorial pass for writing intended for human readers.
Boundaries
- Never auto-humanize ordinary coding output, diffs, PR summaries, or CLI tool output.
- Never rewrite source code, tests, CLI commands, YAML frontmatter, citations, or locked SmartDoc content.
- Never invent facts, quotes, statistics, or sources to make text feel more colorful.
- Voice sample provided by the user overrides default pattern recommendations.
- Academic manuscripts after GOAL_LOCK route to
academicfirst; humanizer is an optional final prose polish only when requested. - Technical documentation structure (Diátaxis / STE) routes to
/technical-writing.
Semantic-Preservation Constitution
These tokens must survive byte-equivalent unless the user explicitly requested changes:
- Facts, numbers, dates, personal names, proper nouns
- URLs, citations, file paths, line references
- Code snippets, CLI commands, flags, API endpoints, error strings
- Direct quotes
- Negations (
not,never,unless,without) - Security, compliance, and legal wording
- Legitimate domain terms when they represent the actual technical concept (
interface,vector,primitive,surface,modality,schema)
Replace an abstract term only when it is empty marketing jargon (e.g. marketing "vector" → "pathway"; linear algebra vector stays untouched).
The Five Pattern Families
Audit text against the five families of AI writing tells (detailed catalog in references/patterns.md):
- Staging: Theatrical setups, announcements, throat-clearing, and artificial transitions ("In today's fast-paced world", "Let's delve into", "It is important to remember"). Cut the preamble; start with the substance.
- Rhythm: Monotone sentence lengths and predictable cadence. AI drafts often output uniform 15-20 word sentences. Vary sentence length dynamically: combine punchy fragments with nuanced multi-clause observations.
- Inflation: Hyperbolic puffery, superlatives, and buzzword padding ("pivotal", "testament to", "game-changing", "seamlessly", "foster", "garner", "tapestry"). Use grounded, factual vocabulary.
- Formatting: Obsessive bullet lists where prose fits better, excessive bolding on lead-in words, and overused em dashes (—). Convert mechanical lists to flowing paragraphs; replace em dashes with commas or separate sentences.
- Leftovers: Chatbot residue and formulaic conclusions ("Certainly!", "I hope this helps!", "In conclusion, the future looks bright"). Remove conversational fluff and generic wrap-ups.
Workflow
1. Ingestion Mode
- Paste Mode: User provided an excerpt directly. Edit and output the rewritten prose with an optional summary of removed patterns.
- File Mode: Target file specified. Read the target, inspect surrounding context, edit user-facing text, and preserve Markdown formatting and code blocks unchanged.
2. Analysis Pass
- Scan for the five pattern families.
- Identify the author's intended tone (casual, authoritative, editorial, journalistic).
- Note any user voice sample provided to calibrate rhythm and vocabulary.
3. Rewrite & Refine
- Strip throat-clearing and puffery.
- Break monotonous sentences and vary paragraph lengths.
- Replace AI vocabulary with direct, everyday verbs and nouns.
- Keep domain terminology intact.
4. Integrity Check
- Audit against the Semantic-Preservation Constitution: ensure no dates, numbers, URLs, or technical terms were altered or dropped.
- Self-audit: "Does any sentence still sound generated by a committee or an LLM?" If yes, tighten further.