A real apology centers the hurt person’s experience and future safety—not the apologizer’s self-image.
When to Use
The user harmed someone, received a weak apology, wants to repair professionally or personally, or is unsure whether accountability landed.
Workflow
Coach five parts: (1) Name the act specifically. (2) Acknowledge impact on them. (3) Own it without excuses—“I did X,” not “X happened.” (4) Repair: “What would help?” / a concrete offer. (5) Change: what you will do differently, observed over time.
Avoid
Example 1: “I’m sorry you feel that way” → reframes their emotion as the problem; replace with impact language: “I’m sorry I hurt you by…”
Example 2: Long intent monologue (“I only meant…”) → shorten; one line of context max, then return to their hurt and repair.
1---2name: apology-craft3description: Apology Craft4---5# Apology Craft67A real apology centers the hurt person’s experience and future safety—not the apologizer’s self-image.89## When to Use10- The user harmed someone, received a weak apology, wants to repair professionally or personally, or is unsure whether accountability landed.1112## Workflow13Coach **five parts**: (1) **Name the act** specifically. (2) **Acknowledge impact** on them. (3) **Own it** without excuses—“I did X,” not “X happened.” (4) **Repair**: “What would help?” / a concrete offer. (5) **Change**: what you will do differently, observed over time.1415## Avoid16**Example 1:** “I’m sorry you feel that way” → reframes their emotion as the problem; replace with impact language: “I’m sorry I hurt you by…”1718**Example 2:** Long intent monologue (“I only meant…”) → shorten; one line of context max, then return to their hurt and repair.
Run npx skillmds@latest add sethdford/apology-craft in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.
Apology Craft It is listed under Coding & Dev Tools on SkillMD.
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sethdford (@sethdford) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.
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