# Setup

> Configure the ai-slop plugin for a consumer repository: exemption paths for documents that legitimately need em dashes, excluded paths, AI-vocabulary word-list tuning, and per-rule thresholds, written to the team layer .claude/ai-slop.json with the user's confirmation. Use when: 'set up ai-slop', 'configure slop detection', 'exempt this doc from the em-dash rule', 'tune the slop thresholds'.

- Skill: `melodic-software/setup-5` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add melodic-software/setup-5`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/melodic-software/setup-5/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Docs & Writing
- Author: melodic-software (https://skillmd.com/u/melodic-software)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/melodic-software/setup-5

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## Purpose

The ai-slop detector ships neutral defaults. A consumer repo declares its own exemptions and
tuning in `.claude/ai-slop.json`, resolved per the config-cascade convention: user-global
(`~/.claude/ai-slop.json`), team (`.claude/ai-slop.json`, tracked), local overlay
(`.claude/ai-slop.local.json`, gitignored). Later layers refine earlier ones per key.

## Keys

| Key | Type | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| `excluded_paths` | glob list | Files the audit never scans |
| `em_dash_allowed_paths` | glob list | Documents exempt from the zero-tolerance em-dash rule |
| `vocab_add` | word list | Additions to the AI-vocabulary list |
| `vocab_remove` | word list | Removals from the AI-vocabulary list |
| `phrase_add` | ERE fragment list | Additions to the model-era phrase roster (`rule-model-era-phrases`); whole fragments, spaces allowed, apostrophes spelled `.` |
| `phrase_remove` | ERE fragment list | Removals from the shipped phrase roster, matched verbatim against the shipped fragments |
| `disabled_rules` | rule slugs | Rules the audit skips entirely (reported as disabled) |
| `thresholds` | map | Per-rule density thresholds: `ai_vocabulary`, `copulative_avoidance` (matches per 1000 words; density rules also need at least 3 matches) |
| `_comment` | string | Free-text rationale for the choices in this file. Read by nobody; JSON has no comment syntax, and a config that disables a rule without recording why is the drift this skill exists to catch. Not drift — do not flag it as an unknown key |

## check (default — read-only)

Report the current state and change nothing:

1. Run the detector's `--show-config` (it names the layer supplying each value) or read the
   layers directly; report which layer wins each key and which layers are absent.
2. Flag drift: unknown keys, an em-dash threshold key (the rule is zero-tolerance by design —
   per-document exemption via `em_dash_allowed_paths` is the supported mechanism), globs that
   match nothing, a `disabled_rules` slug that names no shipped rule, a `phrase_add` fragment
   that is not a valid ERE (the detector skips it with a stderr note; surface it here as
   drift), or a `phrase_remove` fragment matching no shipped phrase.
3. End with what `apply` would change, if anything was flagged.

## apply

Everything `check` does, then the confirmed write:

1. Interview the user for what they want changed. For em-dash exemptions, ask for the documents
   that genuinely require em dashes; the default posture is that most work does not.
2. Write ONLY the team layer (`.claude/ai-slop.json`), showing the diff and getting explicit
   confirmation before writing. Never write the user-global or overlay layers on the user's
   behalf; name them as options the user edits themselves.
3. Re-run `--show-config` and report the new effective state. Then run the tracked-file pair on
   the written team file: `git check-ignore -v .claude/ai-slop.json` reports no match (a match is
   FAIL with the pattern) AND `git ls-files --error-unmatch .claude/ai-slop.json` exits 0
   (non-zero right after a fresh write means "written but untracked: commit it to share with the
   team", never success).