plan-antislop

# Anti-Slop Audit + Authenticity Burndown Plan **Degree of freedom: HIGH** — inventory tells, score, plan. Stay **plan-only**. No rewrites until each phase is approved. ## This skill vs neighbors | Skill | Owns | |---|---| | **plan-antislop** (this) | Authenticity / slop burndown (plan only) | | `enhance-web-ui` / `enhance-web-ux` | Apply polish after the plan | | `plan-uiux-unification` | Design-system + IA unification | | `plan-dead-code` | Provably unreachable code, deps, duplication | ## How to reason (every plan item) 1. **Propose** — direction to remove a tell (not the rewrite) 2. **Risk** — how loudly it reads as machine-made, and who sees it first 3. **Keep-working** — copy/UI/code that already sounds or looks intentional 4. **Phase** — copy → visual → IA → code (do not execute) ## Worked example > **Propose:** replace the hero dual-clause ("It's not just a tracker, it's a companion") with the concrete benefit already in the docs. > **Risk:** first-screen cadence is the loudest AI tell; readers bounce. > **Keep-working:** settings microcopy is already terse and product-specific. > **Phase:** Phase 1 — copy pass via `docs-writer`. **Role:** Senior editor + product designer + staff engineer (authenticity lens). **Task:** Inventory machine-generated tells across prose, visual/UI, code, and structure/IA. Score each finding by recognizability × effort, cluster into phased burndowns, emit `plan-antislop.md`. **Audit & plan only — no rewrites until each phase is approved.** **Find the AI tells. Plan their removal. Change nothing until approved.** "Slop" is content that is *recognizably* machine-generated: technically fine, semantically empty, and uniform in a way no human hand would produce. This skill is the **audit-and-plan** half of de-slopping. It inventories slop across four surfaces, ranks each finding by *recognizability × effort*, and emits a phased burndown the user approves before any rewrite happens. This skill never rewrites. It produces `plan-antislop.md`. Execution is handed to `enhance-web-ux`, `enhance-web-ui`, `enhance-web-landing`, `design-frontend`, `audit-i18n`, or `docs-writer` after approval — same contract as every `plan-*` skill in this repo. --- ## When this fires Trigger phrases: *"this feels AI-generated"*, *"de-slop this"*, *"reads like ChatGPT"*, *"make it sound human"*, *"every page looks identical"*, *"it's generic/templated/soulless"*, *"strip the AI smell before launch"*, *"voice and authenticity pass"*. Do **not** fire for: functional bugs (`debug-*`), security/RLS (`plan-security-audit`), missing tests (`plan-test-coverage`), or designing a new surface from scratch (`design-frontend`). Slop is about *recognizability*, not correctness — code can be 100% working and still be 100% slop. --- ## The four slop surfaces [HIGH freedom] Audit each surface the codebase actually has. Skip surfaces that don't apply (a backend-only repo has no visual surface). ### 1 · Prose & copy slop The most detectable surface. Scan all user-facing strings, marketing copy, READMEs, microcopy, error messages, and comments for: - **Cadence tells** — "It's not just X, it's Y." / "In today's fast-paced world…" / "Let's dive in." / "The result? …" / "But here's the thing:" / rhetorical question → one-line answer. - **Filler vocabulary** — *delve, tapestry, realm, landscape, leverage, seamless, robust, elevate, unlock, empower, navigate, foster, testament, bustling, vibrant, game-changer, at the end of the day.* - **Hedge-and-pad** — "it's important to note that", "it's worth mentioning", "in conclusion", triple-adjective stacks, sentences that restate the heading. - **Punctuation tics** — em-dash overuse, "—and that's the point.", emoji as bullet points, Title Case Everywhere, bolded **every** other phrase. - **Empty symmetry** — three benefits that are the same benefit, "Fast. Simple. Powerful." triads, conclusions that summarize a 2-paragraph page. Output for each: file/line, the tell, *why a human wouldn't write it*, and a direction for the fix (not the fix itself). ### 2 · Visual & UI slop The "I've seen this exact app 400 times" surface: - **Default-palette tell** — untouched shadcn violet/zinc, the default Tailwind blue-600 CTA, no brand color anywhere. - **Card-grid monotony** — every section is a 3-up grid of identical rounded cards with an icon, a bold title, and two lines of gray text. - **Centered-everything** — every section center-aligned, max-w-2xl, same vertical rhythm, no asymmetry, no intentional focal point. - **Iconography slop** — a lucide icon on every feature whether it means anything or not; emoji in headings. - **No hierarchy** — all sections weighted equally; nothing is the hero, nothing recedes; uniform spacing top to bottom. - **Generic motion** — fade-in-on-scroll on everything, or no motion at all. Cross-check against the project's design tokens if `audit-uiux-design-system` data or a tokens file exists — slop is often *divergence from* the design system plus *convergence toward* the framework default. ### 3 · Code slop Working code that no engineer would have left as-is: - **Placeholder residue** — `// TODO: implement`, `// your logic here`, `foo`/`bar`/`data`/`handleClick` naming, `lorem ipsum`, commented-out scaffolding, `console.log('here')`. - **Comment slop** — comments restating the code (`// increment i by 1`), docstrings that paraphrase the function name, banner comments around trivial blocks. - **Over-abstraction** — a factory + interface + strategy for one concrete case; `utils/helpers/index.ts` dumping grounds; premature generics. - **Copy-paste uniformity** — five near-identical components that should be one parameterized component; the same try/catch boilerplate everywhere. - **Defensive theater** — `if (!data) return null` guards that can't trigger; empty catch blocks; types widened to `any` to silence the compiler. This overlaps `audit-code-quality` — here the lens is specifically *"looks auto-generated"*, not general correctness. Flag, don't fix. It also overlaps `plan-dead-code`, which owns *provable unreachability* (a module-graph fact). Split by which judgment you are making: commented-out scaffolding and guards that can't trigger are slop **because a human would not have left them**, not because a tool proved nothing reaches them. Counts and deletion of unused files, exports, deps, and duplication belong there. ### 4 · Structure & IA slop The shape of the thing: - **Listicle-brain** — everything is a bulleted list because the model defaults to lists; no prose, no flow, no argument. - **Symmetrical IA** — every page has identical Hero → Features → Testimonials → CTA scaffolding regardless of purpose. - **README slop** — emoji-headers, a feature table no one asked for, "## Getting Started" boilerplate, badges that don't link anywhere, a "Contributing" section on a solo throwaway. - **Empty completeness** — sections that exist because the template had them (FAQ with invented questions, "Roadmap" with placeholder quarters). --- ## Procedure [HIGH freedom] 1. **Scope.** Identify which of the four surfaces exist. State assumptions. If the user pointed at a specific route/file, scope to it; otherwise sweep the user-facing surface area. 2. **Inventory.** Walk each in-scope surface. Collect concrete findings with `path:line` (or route + screenshot region for visual). Quote the *minimum* needed to identify the tell — never paste whole files. 3. **Score.** Rate each finding **Recognizability** (how loudly it screams "AI wrote this": High / Med / Low) × **Effort** (S / M / L). High-recognizability + Small-effort items are the top of the burndown — biggest authenticity gain per minute. 4. **Cluster into phases.** Group findings so each phase is independently shippable and maps to one execution skill. Suggested default ordering: - **Phase 1 — Copy pass** (`docs-writer` / `audit-i18n`): kill cadence tells & filler vocab. Highest signal, lowest risk, no visual regression. - **Phase 2 — Visual identity** (`enhance-web-ui` / `design-frontend`): break the default palette, introduce hierarchy and one intentional focal point per view, de-monotonize the card grids. - **Phase 3 — UX & flow** (`enhance-web-ux` / `enhance-web-landing`): fix IA, replace symmetrical scaffolding with purpose-driven structure. - **Phase 4 — Code cleanup** (`audit-code-quality` / `workflow-refactor`): placeholder residue, comment slop, over-abstraction. 5. **Emit the report.** Write `plan-antislop.md` (template below). End the turn. **Do not start Phase 1.** Wait for explicit approval per phase — the `composer-2.5-execution.mdc` handoff contract applies. --- ## Guardrails [LOW freedom — run exactly] - **Plan only.** No rewrites, no edits, no "while I'm here" fixes. The deliverable is the report. - **Slop ≠ broken.** Don't flag working code as slop just because it's simple. Simple-and-intentional is the *goal*, not a defect. The test is "would a human engineer/writer have left this exact thing?" — not "could this be fancier?" - **Voice is the user's, not yours.** Recommend *directions* ("warm up the CTA copy to match the conversational tone of the docs"), never ghost-write the replacement in the plan. The whole point is to remove generic voice, so don't inject a different generic voice. - **Don't over-correct into anti-slop slop.** Forced quirkiness, ironic lowercase, gratuitous em-dashes-the-other-way, and "edgy" copy are *also* slop. Flag the tendency; aim for intentional, not performative. - **Cite the design system.** When flagging visual slop, reference the project's actual tokens/brand if they exist. "Diverges from your defined `--brand-500`" is actionable; "use nicer colors" is not. - **Minimal quoting.** Identify tells by location and short excerpt; never reproduce large blocks of the source. ## Self-critique before the burndown [LOW freedom — do not skip] 1. **evidenced-not-assumed** — `path:line` (or route + region) plus the tell 2. **plan-only** — direction only; no rewrite and no ghost-written replacement 3. **phase justified** — high-recognizability + small-effort leads; copy before code 4. **right-owner** — functional bugs → `debug-*`; new surface from scratch → `design-frontend` 5. **no-false-safety** — simple-and-intentional is not slop; don't invent anti-slop slop --- ## Report template — `plan-antislop.md` ```markdown # Anti-Slop Burndown — <repo/route> _Audit-only. Nothing changes until each phase is approved._ ## Scope - Surfaces audited: [ ] Prose [ ] Visual [ ] Code [ ] Structure - Out of scope / assumptions: … ## Slop score (at a glance) | Surface | Findings | High-recognizability | Top quick win | |------------|----------|----------------------|---------------| | Prose | n | n | … | | Visual | n | n | … | | Code | n | n | … | | Structure | n | n | … | ## Findings ### Prose & copy | # | Location | Tell | Why it reads as AI | Recog | Effort | Direction | |---|----------|------|--------------------|-------|--------|-----------| | P1 | hero/page.tsx:24 | "It's not just a tracker, it's a companion" | dual-clause hype cadence | High | S | state the concrete benefit plainly | ### Visual & UI | # | Route/region | Tell | Recog | Effort | Direction | |---|--------------|------|-------|--------|-----------| ### Code | # | path:line | Tell | Recog | Effort | Direction | |---|-----------|------|-------|--------|-----------| ### Structure & IA | # | Location | Tell | Recog | Effort | Direction | |---|----------|------|-------|--------|-----------| ## Phased burndown - **Phase 1 — Copy pass** → `docs-writer` / `audit-i18n` — items P1, P3, P7… - **Phase 2 — Visual identity** → `enhance-web-ui` / `design-frontend` — V1, V2… - **Phase 3 — UX & flow** → `enhance-web-ux` / `enhance-web-landing` — S1, S4… - **Phase 4 — Code cleanup** → `audit-code-quality` / `workflow-refactor` — C2… ## Execution handoff Approve a phase to run it. Suggested order maximizes authenticity-per-effort. Re-run `plan-antislop` after execution to confirm the burndown closed. ``` --- ## Chains with - **Six-skill plan loop** — slots beside `plan-uiux-unification`; run after it so visual-slop findings inherit the design-system burndown. - **Execution:** `enhance-web-ux`, `enhance-web-ui`, `enhance-web-landing`, `design-frontend`, `audit-i18n`, `docs-writer`, `workflow-refactor`. - **Verify:** after execution, `test-playwright` (does it still work?) and a second `plan-antislop` pass (did the slop actually drop?). > Plan with a strong reasoning model; execute with `composer-2.5-execution.mdc` > riding along. The plan says *which* slop to remove; the rule constrains *how*.