Proofread

Path Resolution

• <skill-root> means the directory containing this SKILL.md.
• Resolve references/... relative to <skill-root>, not the caller's current working directory.

Not in Scope

• Rewriting text on behalf of the user. This skill diagnoses; the user decides what to fix.
• Grammar, spelling, or factual accuracy checks — use dedicated tools for those.
• Code review or technical correctness.

Input

• Target (required): One or more file paths, or inline text provided in the conversation.
• Focus (optional): Specific trope categories to check. Defaults to all categories.

Procedure

1. Load the tropes catalog: Read <skill-root>/references/tropes.md. This is the authoritative list of patterns to scan for.

2. Read the target text: Read all target files or accept inline text. For each file, note its purpose (README, blog post, documentation, etc.) — context affects severity. A single "Not X — it's Y" in a 3000-word post is fine; five instances is a problem.

3. Scan for tropes: Walk through the text looking for matches against the catalog. For each finding:

   • Identify the trope category and specific pattern
   • Quote the offending passage (keep quotes short — enough to locate, not full paragraphs)
   • Judge binary: finding (should fix) or not a finding (skip — do not report)

4. Draft rewrite suggestions: For every finding, suggest a concrete rewrite. Preserve the author's meaning while sounding like something a human would actually write. Do not over-polish — imperfect but natural beats pristine but robotic.

5. Produce the report: List all findings with rewrite suggestions. Include a count at the top.

Output Format

## Proofread Report: <filename or "inline text">

**Findings**: N

#### <Trope Category> — <Specific Pattern>
> <quoted passage>

Line: <line number or range, if from a file>
Suggestion: <concrete rewrite>

...

Judgment Calls

• Frequency matters more than presence. A single em dash or one tricolon is not a finding. Repeated use of the same pattern is.
• Context matters. "Let's break this down" in a tutorial aimed at beginners is defensible. The same phrase in a technical RFC for staff engineers is not.
• Do not flag code or structured data. Bold-first bullets in a CLI --help output or API reference are conventional, not tropes.
• Be honest, not exhaustive. If the text is clean, say so. Do not manufacture findings to justify the review.

Tropes Catalog

The full catalog lives in <skill-root>/references/tropes.md. It covers:

• Word Choice: magic adverbs, "delve", ornate nouns, "serves as" dodge
• Sentence Structure: negative parallelism, dramatic countdowns, rhetorical self-answers, anaphora/tricolon abuse, filler transitions, superficial analyses, false ranges
• Paragraph Structure: short punchy fragments, disguised listicles
• Tone: false suspense, patronizing analogies, futurism invitations, false vulnerability, truth assertions, stakes inflation, pedagogical voice, vague attributions, invented concept labels
• Formatting: em-dash overuse, bold-first bullets, unicode decoration
• Composition: fractal summaries, dead metaphors, historical analogy stacking, one-point dilution, content duplication, signposted conclusions, "despite its challenges" formula

Read the catalog before every review — it contains example patterns that help distinguish real findings from false positives.