# Intent Compiler > Use when a human's ask arrives as natural prose (metaphor, slang, poetry, compressed shorthand, heat, or "you know what I mean") instead of a ticket. Translates the language into a stated technical directive, states the reading in one line, then executes. Trigger words: prose is the spec, read the prose, translate the ask, ambiguous prompt, unclear ask, what did they mean, deduce intent, metaphor, slang, vernacular, vibe, phrasing. - Skill: `tcuzzo/intent-compiler` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tcuzzo/intent-compiler` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tcuzzo/intent-compiler/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - License: MIT - Author: Tcuzzo (https://skillmd.com/u/tcuzzo) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tcuzzo/intent-compiler --- # Prose Is the Spec **Effort:** free — reading discipline before any build, nothing extra runs. Removes: whole builds lost to a literal misread — the stated reading makes a wrong guess cost one word, not a rebuild. People do not write tickets. They talk — fast, with rhythm, metaphor, and heat, leaving out what they assume you already know. Most agents treat that as a low-quality prompt and fail in one of two ways: they run the words literally, or they park a question and wait. Both are failures. The prose is not a rough draft of a spec. **The prose IS the spec.** It carries more than a ticket does — priority, risk tolerance, taste, and the reason. Compressed expression is not incomplete thinking. An agent that cannot read it is throwing away the richest part of the input. ## The three forbidden failures - **Literalism** — running a metaphor as an instruction. "Burn it down" is not a delete. "Kill it" is not a destroy. "Make it sing" is not audio. This is hallucination by dictionary, and it is a destructive-action risk. - **Caricature** — mirroring the slang back, performing the dialect, reaching for stereotype to sound relatable. Read the culture; do not cosplay it. An agent busy performing is an agent not listening, and it misreads. - **Invention** — filling a gap with something that sounds right. When the anchor is thin, say it is thin. Never fabricate meaning. ## Step 1 — Parse: split carrier from payload Strip the input down to its mechanics. - **Carrier** = cadence, repetition, volume, profanity, heat. Carrier marks priority and emotional weight. It is real signal. It is not content. - **Payload** = the nouns, verbs, named surfaces, constraints, and quantities. This is the instruction. - **Repetition is emphasis, not a second request.** "Fix it, fix it now" is one urgent fix, not two fixes queued. - **Mark every metaphor and every double meaning.** A word can do two jobs at once — that is the point of the form, not an accident. - **Compression is not vagueness.** Missing detail is usually detail the human assumed you had. Go find it before you call it missing. Output: the ask rewritten as *priority* + *literal payload* + *a list of the figures that still need grounding*. ## Step 2 — Ground: anchor every reading in evidence Strict priority — higher beats lower, always: 1. **The human's own record** — their past decisions, corrections, saved preferences, and profile (see [human-calibration](../human-calibration/SKILL.md)). 2. **The project's source truth** — the actual files, symbols, configs, docs. 3. **The lived vernacular** — the phrase's real meaning and history in its culture, read as context. A dialect is a valid grammar with its own internal logic. 4. **Model priors** — dead last, and never on their own. A reading that only reaches rung 4 is a guess. Label it thin and keep going. ## Step 3 — Deduce: produce the four-part directive State four separate things. The split exists to stop the number-one misalignment risk — shrinking a big vision into something easier to build: 1. **Intended capability** — what the human actually wants to exist. 2. **Current boundary** — what the system can do today. 3. **The route available now.** 4. **The route required later.** **Never lower the goal because the near route is short.** Build route 3, name route 4, keep capability 1 intact. ## Output protocol — state the reading, then build Open with one plain line, then execute: > **Read:** - Grounded on rungs 1–3 → `Read:` - Thin anchor, mostly inference → `Read (thin):` — and **build anyway**. Ambiguity is resolved by deciding and saying so — never by parking a question. The stated reading is the receipt: if it is wrong, the human's correction costs one word instead of a whole build. A question goes back only when the call is genuinely theirs (taste, vision, or destructive/data-loss risk; see [decision-bar](../decision-bar/SKILL.md)), and then as a plain summary with choices, never a paragraph of hedging. ## Fluency, not costume Speaking the language is comprehension and register: understanding what the words mean, and answering in plain, warm, modern speech (see [human-voice](../human-voice/SKILL.md)). Cosplaying the language is performance. An agent that actually speaks the language does not need to perform it. Fluency shows up as getting the read right — not as an accent. ## Example reads | They said | Literal misread (wrong) | Anchored reading | |---|---|---| | "burn it down" | delete the files | The approach is wrong at the root — redesign it. High heat = top priority. Destructive action still needs an explicit yes. | | "make it sing" | audio | The surface should feel alive — motion, transitions, responsiveness. | | "don't build toys" | avoid a games folder | It must produce a real outcome, not a demo. | | "fix it, fix it now" | two tickets | One fix, urgent. | ## Red flags — you are about to misread - "This prompt is too vague to act on." → It is compressed. Ground it first. - "Let me ask what they mean." → State the reading and build. - "I'll match their energy in the reply." → Caricature. Read, don't perform. - "I'll build the small version that's clearly possible." → Never shrink the intended capability — name route-now and route-later instead. - "The vibe words aren't real requirements." → The vibe IS a spec. Route aesthetic reads to [design-taste](../design-taste/SKILL.md). - "I'll fill the gap with what usually makes sense." → That is priors alone. Label it thin, or go find the anchor. ## Works well with - [understanding-gates](../understanding-gates/SKILL.md) — translate before scoring; a stage gate graded on raw poetic prose marks faithful work wrong. - [human-calibration](../human-calibration/SKILL.md) — the record this skill grounds in. - [decision-bar](../decision-bar/SKILL.md) — the only bar a question may cross. - [human-voice](../human-voice/SKILL.md) — the register for the way back.