Devrites Prose Craft

devrites-prose-craft: prose that reads human

Write for a teammate who will rely on the result. Remove model-shaped filler without sanding off the author's voice or weakening technical content.

When this fires

• A text-generating phase composes an artifact: $rite-spec (overview, rationale), $rite-define / $rite-plan (plan narrative), $rite-temper / $rite-vet (review prose), $rite-review / $rite-seal (findings + verdict prose), $rite-ship (commit/PR body), devrites-doubt / $rite-handoff (notes).
• Any phase composes substantive user-facing prose beyond the shared reply labels.

Two modes

• Rewrite (default). When DevRites writes the artifact/reply or polishes it, fix the prose in place.
• Detect-only. When auditing prose you shouldn't silently change, such as a user's existing spec.md at $rite-adopt or text under $rite-review, list the tells with quotes and leave the text untouched. Mirrors devrites-audit's read-only stance.

Order findings by severity: P0 credibility-killers (vague attribution, a marketing adjective standing in for evidence, a false/unsourced claim, cutoff disclaimers, unfilled placeholders, citation markup, AI-tool tracking URLs) → P1 obvious tells (negative parallelism, filler openers, em-dash tics, reasoning-chain scaffolding, narrated candor) → P2 polish (rhythm, word choice, 1B clarity edits). A quick pass fixes P0 + P1 and stops; a full pass takes P2 too. Flags are writing-quality signals, not authorship proof. In detect-only, report Tier 1A (figurative filler) separately from Tier 1B (wordiness).

Process

1. Calibrate. Choose rewrite or detect-only mode, split prose from technical sections, and set the voice baseline: an explicit user sample first, then neighboring project prose, then the source text itself. Fall back to flat, direct prose. Done when every section has a register and one voice baseline.
2. Protect. Apply the preservation contract in prose-style.md before changing words. Leave tables, YAML frontmatter, URLs, and file paths untouched unless the caller asked to change them. Scan for clusters of tells; one isolated marker is not a verdict. Done when every claim, constraint, identifier, example, quotation, and deliberate uncertainty is accounted for.
3. Rewrite. Remove P0/P1 tells and P2 when the caller asked for a full pass. Match the baseline's vocabulary and cadence without inventing facts, opinions, or quirks. Done when the same reader can make the same decisions from the rewrite as from the source.
4. Audit. Compare source and result, read the prose aloud, and run the relevant references below. Done when the preservation contract passes, the technical register remains exact, and no in-scope tell remains.

References

• Always read prose-style.md for the two registers, preservation contract, and core checks.
• Load reference/banned-phrases.md when word choice or tone is the problem.
• Load reference/structures.md when sentence shape, rhythm, or formatting is the problem.
• Load reference/examples.md when the target artifact's shape is unclear.

Boundaries

This skill edits language, not facts. When style and fidelity conflict, fidelity wins.

Output

• Rewrite: replace the target prose; add no editing commentary unless the caller's contract asks for it.
• Detect-only: return ordered P0/P1/P2 findings with the exact phrase and a concrete fix.