slogsdon Skill: /workflow-stage-draft
Three-stage drafting pipeline. Outputs a clean, voice-corrected, style-checked draft that's ready for /publish-post to take over.
When to use
- User says "draft a post on X" / "write this up as a blog" / "prepare a draft on Y".
- A
/learnedor/weekly-learningsrun surfaced a publishable thread and the user wants to develop it. - An existing draft needs a voice + style pass before publishing.
When NOT to use
- The piece is already drafted AND voice-corrected → call
/publish-postdirectly. - Capturing notes, not drafting → use
/logor the obsidian skill. - Ghost-writing in a different voice → use
/ghostfirst, then this workflow.
Steps
| Step name | Stage | Invokes |
|---|---|---|
draft |
First draft | (in-skill draft) |
humanize |
Voice pass | humanize |
style |
Style pass | ms-style-pass |
Stage 1: First draft — step draft
Two paths depending on the input:
- From an idea / outline (no existing draft): write a first draft in Shane's voice, anchored on whatever vault evidence exists. ~600–1200 words. Save to
Inbox/Draft - <slug>.md. - From an existing draft (user pastes or names a vault note): read it; skip drafting; proceed to
humanize.
Before writing prose, write the outline with a word budget per H2 — tables and code blocks are their own line items, not free. Check the running count at each section boundary, not at the end. Over budget means cut a section or merge two, never trim adjectives: lexical trimming preserves the structure that caused the overrun.
Output: draft file in vault Inbox. Checkpoint: confirm draft direction before voice pass.
Stage 2: Voice pass — step humanize — invokes humanize
Removes AI-typical patterns (hedging, list-iness, em-dash overuse, throat-clearing) and restores Shane's conversational rhythm. Preserves technical precision.
Output: humanized draft (in-place edit to the Inbox file). Checkpoint: skim before style pass.
Stage 3: Style pass — step style — invokes ms-style-pass
Applies Microsoft Writing Style Guide term preferences, bias-free language rules, and heading conventions. Doesn't touch voice.
Output: style-corrected draft (in-place edit). Checkpoint: confirm draft is publish-ready before handoff.
Handoff (NOT a step — explicit to user)
After style, print:
─── Draft staged ───
File: Inbox/Draft - <slug>.md
Word count: <N>
Ready for /publish-post when you are. That skill will:
- generate brand artifacts (blog hero, OG card, LinkedIn companion)
- run any final style checks
- publish to shane.logsdon.io
Or, to iterate first: edit the draft directly and re-run /workflow-stage-draft --resume-from humanize.
Resume protocol
Default: run draft → humanize → style in order, with checkpoints between each.
--resume-from <step>: skip every step before <step> and begin from <step>. The named step itself runs.
If <step> is not in {draft, humanize, style}, print:
Invalid resume-from step: <step>
Valid steps: draft, humanize, style
…and stop.
Required state when resuming
Before running the resume step, confirm the listed inputs exist. If anything is missing, prompt the user for it.
--resume-from draft— same as a fresh run; needs the topic / outline / source note.--resume-from humanize— needs an existing draft file (inInbox/or pasted in conversation). If the user names a different file, accept it; otherwise default toInbox/Draft - <slug>.md. Confirm the file path before running humanize.--resume-from style— needs a draft that has already been through humanize (or that the user explicitly says is voice-correct). Confirm the file path; warn if the file looks unedited (no recent changes since draft).
Examples:
/workflow-stage-draft --resume-from humanize # user edited the draft manually, re-run voice pass
/workflow-stage-draft --resume-from style # voice is fine, just want the style pass
Other flags
--no-pauseto run end-to-end (use only when you've already iterated and just want a final pass).
Session open
Check Inbox/STATE.md or the draft project's directory for a STATE.md. If present, read General rules and Known failure modes — these carry learned patterns (e.g. which humanize anti-patterns recur in Shane's technical writing) so they don't need to be re-discovered.
Stage quality gate
After each stage: does the output meet the stage goal (draft = core argument present and in Shane's voice; humanize = AI-typical patterns removed without losing technical precision; style = terms and headings conform)? If it partially misses, retry once with an explicit note on the gap before presenting or continuing. On second failure, surface the issue rather than auto-continuing.
Humanize and style passes should be validated by re-reading with a critic framing (does this read like a human wrote it?) rather than the same pass that produced it.
Session close
If the humanize or style pass hit recurring issues, append them to this SKILL.md under a ## Known failure modes section. Patterns that compound here improve every future draft run.
Failure handling
If humanize flags content it can't safely de-AI without losing technical accuracy, it stops and surfaces the conflict to the user. style then operates on whatever humanize produced. On any failure, print the failed step plus the resume command (/workflow-stage-draft --resume-from <step>).