Humanize

Humanize

Strip AI tells from text. Keep every fact, change the prose.

Ground Rules

1. Preserve information, not shape. Every claim survives. Compress dull parts, merge/split paragraphs freely. Information beats structure.
2. Never invent facts. No new names, numbers, dates, quotes, citations. Sentence needs missing detail to work -> ask, or write the plain version without it.
3. Match voice. Formal/casual/technical as intended. User provides own writing sample -> its habits outrank every rule below, including the dash rule.
4. Don't sterilize. Voiceless is as obvious as slop. Essay/opinion/post -> keep opinions, asides, uneven rhythm. Technical/reference -> plain and neutral IS the human voice there.

Out of Scope: Agent Instruction Files

Files written for a model to execute, not for a person to read: CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, context.md, llms.txt, .cursor/rules/*, GEMINI.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md, and any other agent/system-prompt file. Terse fragments, arrows, abbreviations, and lowercase headings are the working format there - compression is the point, and recasing headings or padding fragments into sentences costs tokens and blurs directives. Skip these files entirely: no rewrite, no heading recase, no punctuation pass.

Same for the prose inside a normal file when it is addressed to a model: system prompts, skill bodies, prompt templates in code or fixtures.

Exception - the user aims the skill at one of these deliberately ("humanize my CLAUDE.md", "clean up this system prompt"). Do it, and say once that the file is agent-facing so terseness there was probably intentional. A doc that merely mentions or quotes such a file is ordinary prose; edit it normally.

House Conventions

The two rules below are house style, not AI tells. They run on every pass, on every file this skill touches, whether or not the prose shows a single AI pattern - which is exactly why they need saying out loud: someone who asked for a de-slop pass and got their headings recased should have seen it coming from this section.

Both are defaults, not laws. "punctuation only", "leave the casing", "don't touch my headings" -> honor it for that pass and note in the findings table which convention was skipped. A file with a documented style guide of its own outranks both (see the exceptions under each).

Punctuation -> Plain ASCII

• em/en dash (—, –), spaced —, double -- -> replace, order of preference: period > comma > colon > parentheses > restructure
• curly quotes ("", '') -> straight " '
• … -> ...
• → -> ->
• exception: code syntax, math, non-English text, files that already follow a different convention

Before delivering, scan the result for — – …. Any hit -> not done.

Headings -> Title Case

Every heading and title is Title Case; sentence-case headings get raised.

• capitalize the first word, the last word, and every major word (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, subordinating conjunctions)
• keep lowercase mid-title: articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but, nor, for, so, yet), prepositions of four letters or fewer (of, in, to, on, at, by, from, with)
• never recase: names that are lowercase by design (npm, ripgrep, fish), code identifiers, acronyms, and titles of works quoted from the source - such a name stays lowercase even in first position
• scope: markdown headings, document/section titles, table-of-contents entries. Prose sentences, list items, and table cells keep normal sentence capitalization

Example: ## Strategic negotiations and global partnerships -> ## Strategic Negotiations and Global Partnerships.

Exception - a surface with a documented style guide that calls for a different casing keeps that casing, whatever it is: sentence case, all-lowercase, all-caps section labels. Brand and product copy, UI labels, and house-styled publications usually have one, and there the heading style is part of what readers recognize - an all-lowercase house voice reads as deliberate, and raising it is the single most visible way this pass can damage a piece it was meant to help. A stated convention outranks this default; a file that merely happens to use a casing does not - that file is the reason the rule exists. Unsure whether a convention is stated or accidental -> leave the casing alone and say so in the findings table; a heading left unraised costs nothing, a house voice flattened costs the author.

Tells to Kill

Full before/after catalog: references/patterns.md. Load it when an edge case needs calibrating or a rewrite feels under/over-done; the lists below are enough for routine passes.

Content:

• inflated significance: "stands as a testament", "pivotal moment", "underscores the importance", "evolving landscape", "setting the stage for" -> state the plain fact
• promotional tone: "nestled", "vibrant", "breathtaking", "renowned", "boasts", "rich cultural heritage" -> neutral description
• "-ing" padding: trailing "...showcasing/highlighting/reflecting/ensuring..." for fake depth -> cut, or make a real sentence
• weasel attribution: "experts argue", "industry reports", "observers note" with no source -> name the source or cut; never invent one
• formulaic "Challenges / Future Outlook" sections -> keep only the concrete facts
• gap-filling: "not publicly available, suggesting she keeps a low profile", "likely grew up..." -> say what isn't known or cut; never dress a guess as fact

Vocabulary:

• AI words: delve, leverage, crucial, pivotal, tapestry, landscape (abstract), testament, underscore, showcase, foster, intricate, seamless, robust, vibrant, enhance, garner -> plain words
• copula avoidance: "serves as", "stands as", "features", "boasts" -> is / are / has

Structure:

• "not just X, it's Y", tailing negations ("no guessing") -> plain claim
• rule of three everywhere -> keep the item that carries weight
• false ranges ("from the Big Bang to dark matter") -> plain list
• synonym cycling (protagonist / main character / central figure / hero) -> one word
• bold-header bullets (**Performance:** ...) -> prose or plain list
• emojis on headings/bullets -> gone
• staccato drama runs ("No prior. No nostalgia. Gone.") -> one short sentence max
• aphorism formulas ("X is the language of Y", "X becomes a trap") -> the concrete claim behind it

Filler:

• "in order to" -> "to"; "due to the fact that" -> "because"; "it is important to note that" -> cut
• hedge stacks ("could potentially possibly") -> one hedge max
• generic upbeat endings ("the future looks bright") -> end on the last concrete fact
• signposting ("let's dive in", "here's what you need to know") -> just do it
• fake-candid openers ("Honestly?", "Here's the thing") -> say the thing
• chatbot residue ("I hope this helps", "Would you like...", "Great question!") -> gone

Don't Over-Flag

One tell means nothing - look for clusters. A single em dash, one triad, polish, formal vocabulary, one short punchy sentence = normal human writing. Never touch quotes, titles of works, proper names, or examples that discuss a phrase rather than use it. Preserve human signals: weird specific detail, mixed feelings, asides, self-corrections, varied sentence length.

Modes

• pasted text -> deliver the rewrite + findings table
• file -> Read, rewrite prose in place; leave code blocks, frontmatter, data, link targets untouched; report the findings table, don't paste the whole file back
• embedded (step in a bigger job: PR body, commit message, doc) -> output final text only, no ceremony, no table

Findings Table

Report what was fixed as a table - one row per tell category, only categories with hits, sorted by count desc:

• Count = instances fixed, not sentences touched
• Punctuation rows (— – … curly quotes, -> arrows): get exact counts by grepping the source before rewriting, don't eyeball
• Examples: 1-3 short samples per row, enough to spot-check; truncate long ones
• No hits at all -> say the text is clean, skip the table

Process

1. Scan for tells above.
2. Draft rewrite - reads naturally aloud, varied sentence length, is/are/has.
3. Audit: anything still AI-sounding? any fact not in the source? any — – … left? Fabrication = defect even when it sounds better.
4. Final rewrite.