| name | blog-writing-guide |
| description | This skill enforces Sentry's blog writing standards across every post — whether you're helping an engineer write their first blog post or a marketer draft a product announcement. |
| type | skill |
| created | 2026-02-27T00:00:00.000Z |
| domain | communication-content |
| category | writing |
| risk | unknown |
| source | community |
| tags | ["skill","communication-content","writing","blog"] |
Sentry Blog Writing Skill
This skill enforces Sentry's blog writing standards across every post — whether you're helping an engineer write their first blog post or a marketer draft a product announcement.
The bar: Every Sentry blog post should be something a senior engineer would share in their team's Slack, or reference in a technical decision.
What follows are the core principles to internalize and apply to every piece of content.
When to Use
- You need to draft or edit a Sentry blog post.
- The task involves technical storytelling, product announcements, or engineering deep-dives in Sentry's blog voice.
- You want blog content that is opinionated, specific, and technically credible rather than generic marketing copy.
The Sentry Voice
We sound like: A senior developer at a conference afterparty explaining something they're genuinely excited about — smart, specific, a little irreverent, deeply knowledgeable.
We don't sound like: A corporate blog, a press release, a sales deck, or an AI-generated summary.
Be technically precise, opinionated, and direct. Humor is welcome but should serve the content, not replace it. Sarcasm works. One good joke per post is plenty.
Use "we" (Sentry) and "you" (the reader). This is a conversation, not a paper.
Banned Language
Never use these. They are automatic red flags:
- "We're excited/thrilled to announce" — just announce it
- "Best-in-class" / "industry-leading" / "cutting-edge" — show, don't tell
- "Seamless" / "seamlessly" — nothing is seamless
- "Empower" / "leverage" / "unlock" — say what you actually mean
- "Robust" — describe what makes it robust instead
- "At [Company], we believe..." — just state the belief
- "Streamline" — everyone is streamlining, stop
- Filler transitions: "That being said," "It's worth noting that," "At the end of the day," "Without further ado," "As you might know"
- "In this blog post, we will explore..." — be direct, just start
The Opening (First 2-3 Sentences)
The opening must do one of two things: state the problem or state the conclusion. Never start with background, company history, or hype.
Good: "Two weeks before launch, we killed our entire metrics product. Here's why pre-aggregating time-series metrics breaks down for debugging, and how we rebuilt the system from scratch."
Bad: "At Sentry, we're always looking for ways to improve the developer experience. Today, we're thrilled to share some exciting updates to our metrics product that we think you'll love."
