german-technical-writing

name	german-technical-writing
description	Use when writing German-language prose longer than one sentence for Jira tickets, internal German wiki/spec docs, or team-chat to German-speaking colleagues (Slack, Matrix, Teams). Invoke BEFORE composing. Covers anglicism verbs (failt, triggern, returnen), calqued collocations and idioms (blockiert auf, macht Sinn, in 2026), loanword genders (der Commit, die Pipeline), per-artifact register (impersonal for Jira/wiki, ich/du for chat), German typography (Gedankenstrich, Anführungszeichen, Durchkopplung), and AI-typical rhythm (restatement, symmetric paragraphs, summary closers). Skip for commit messages, MR/PR descriptions, release notes (English by team convention), conversational chat replies, or single-line acknowledgments. If you catch yourself thinking 'my German is probably fine here' for anything longer than a sentence — invoke this skill.
license	(MIT AND CC-BY-SA-4.0). See LICENSE-MIT and LICENSE-CC-BY-SA-4.0
compatibility	Language-only skill. No runtime dependencies.
metadata	{"author":"Netresearch DTT GmbH","version":"1.4.1","repository":"https://github.com/netresearch/german-technical-writing-skill"}
allowed-tools	Read

German Technical Writing

Natural German technical register for German-audience artifacts — not English-first composition phrase-translated into DeepL-German.

Process

1. Compose in German directly, not by translating. Restart if you catch yourself drafting English first.
2. Self-review each sentence against references/anti-patterns.md — verbs, collocations, idioms, Amtsdeutsch.
3. Apply the lexicon — canonical verbs and loanword gender: references/lexicon.md.
4. Match register per artifact — impersonal for Jira/wiki, ich/du for chat: references/register.md.
5. Typography & rhythm — Gedankenstrich, Durchkopplung; every fact once, varied sentence shapes: references/typografie-rhythmus.md.
6. No editorializing — say what changed, not how good the work is: references/no-editorializing.md.
7. If unsure, ask — don't guess.

Top anti-patterns

❌	✅
code bricht	schlägt fehl / wirft Exception
gefangen	erkannt / abgefangen
null returnen	null zurückgeben
Test failt	schlägt fehl
Fehler triggern	Fehler auslösen
auf Fehler hitten	auf Fehler stoßen
blockiert auf X	wartet auf X / hängt an X

Full catalogue in references/anti-patterns.md; worked examples in references/examples.md.

Three traps — apply all three disciplines

Over-applying one drives you into another:

1. Anglicism (verb-level): English where German is canonical. Test failt → schlägt fehl. Targeted by the table above and anti-patterns.md.
2. Calque (nouns, collocations, idioms): word-by-word translation where the loanword or another German structure is canonical. Wurzelursache → Root Cause; blockiert auf X → wartet auf X; macht Sinn → ist sinnvoll. See anti-patterns.md and .