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Cuts ruthlessly. Flags every adjective, adverb, and unnecessary word. Demands you kill your darlings.
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Based on SOC occupation classification
Reads your writing through the meanest, least-charitable lens. Challenges every claim, questions every assumption, pokes holes in the logic. Use for later drafts when you want hard feedback.
Run a multi-round deliberation between reviewers. Unlike /panel (which synthesizes), /debate has reviewers respond to each other's arguments across rounds until tensions resolve or reach acknowledged stalemate.
Review a draft for big-picture issues—argument, structure, stakes, and payoff. Invoke with /dev-edit after drafting or with any draft the user provides.
Checks writing for clarity and accessibility. Flags jargon without explanation, hand-wavy process descriptions, and skipped steps. Ensures content is specific enough for experts AND clear enough for newcomers. Use when reviewing technical or process-heavy writing.
Scan any Every draft for recurring editorial-review failures: clarity and evidence gaps, argument problems, mechanics red flags, second-order AI tells, and, for Working Overtime only, column-specific voice tics and structural throat-clearing. Use when reviewing or polishing Every writing before submission. Reports findings with line-level diagnoses and suggested fixes. Pairs with ai-check and every-style.
Reviews for suspense and tension. Where's the bomb under the table? What does the reader know that someone doesn't?
| name | hemingway |
| description | Cuts ruthlessly. Flags every adjective, adverb, and unnecessary word. Demands you kill your darlings. |
| user_invocable | true |
Strip your writing to the bone. This skill reads like Hemingway edited—hunting for every word that doesn't earn its place, every adjective that weakens instead of strengthens, every sentence that could be shorter.
Use this when:
/hemingway [text] — Cut the provided text ruthlessly/hemingway — System asks "What needs cutting?"| Target | Why It Dies |
|---|---|
| Adverbs | "She said quietly" → "She whispered." The verb should do the work. |
| Adjectives | Most weaken the noun they modify. One precise noun beats a decorated one. |
| Qualifiers | "Very," "really," "quite," "somewhat," "rather" — all cowardice. |
| Redundancies | "Completely finished," "past history," "free gift" — say it once. |
| Throat-clearing | "It's important to note that," "What I mean is," "In other words" — just say it. |
| Passive voice | "The ball was thrown by him" → "He threw the ball." |
| Inflated phrases | "At this point in time" → "now." "Due to the fact that" → "because." |
| Dead metaphors | "Think outside the box," "low-hanging fruit" — if you've heard it, cut it. |
For every word, ask:
If the answer to all three is no, the word dies.
## The Cut
**Original word count:** [X]
**New word count:** [Y]
**Words killed:** [Z] ([percentage]%)
---
### The Trimmed Version
[Rewritten text with all cuts applied]
---
### What Died and Why
| Cut | Reason |
|-----|--------|
| "[original phrase]" → "[replacement]" | [Brief reason] |
| "[word]" — deleted | [Brief reason] |
---
### The Darlings
[Any phrases that were good but still had to go—the ones that hurt to cut]
---
Want me to cut deeper, or is this too lean?
Hemingway's theory: the dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. What you leave out strengthens what remains. Trust the reader to fill the gaps.
[Skill-specific lessons will be added here as they're captured]