anti-ai-slop

name	anti-ai-slop
description	Use when producing or revising any research artefact to prevent generic, unsupported, repetitive, or mechanically styled output in real time; use ai-slop-audit to grade a concrete completed iteration independently.
metadata	{"portable":true,"compatible_with":["claude-code","codex"],"priority":"critical","source":"ai-slop-detector research (2026-06-07), verified"}

Anti AI Slop

The guardrail that governs production quality — writing and assembling research outputs so slop never appears. Detection is the companion ai-slop-audit skill. Truthfulness is source-evaluation/references/evidence-discipline.md; this skill is its quality counterpart: a report can be fully sourced and still read as slop (generic, voiceless, template-uniform). Both gates must pass.

Real-time application (a LIVE constraint, not only a final gate)

Apply these rules continuously, as you write — to every sentence, table, finding, and slide at the moment it is drafted, not in one cleanup pass at the end. The moment you reach for a banned word, a generic placeholder, an unverified figure, or a template default, correct it in place. The ship-gate checklist below is the final confirmation, not the first time these rules are consulted.

What "AI slop" is (so you know what you are preventing)

Low-quality content produced in quantity by generative AI and pushed at people who did not ask for it (Merriam-Webster 2025 Word of the Year, verified). Three diagnostic properties (Kommers et al., "Why Slop Matters", arXiv 2601.06060, verified): superficial competence, asymmetric effort, mass producibility. The human tell named in every domain studied: absence of intent. A research output beats slop by re-internalising effort — specificity, verification, and authored judgement — before it reaches the reader.

The seven universal guardrails (apply to EVERY output)

#	Marker to prevent	Avoidance rule you MUST follow
U1	Genericness / averaging	Every section carries >=1 concrete, named, source-specific element (a real figure, named source, dated event, decision) a generic template could not produce.
U2	Superficial competence	Substance floor: include an analytic claim, comparison, or judgement the section could not exist without. If you cannot, it is filler — cut it.
U3	Confident wrongness / hallucination	Verify every statistic, quote, citation, name, and URL before it ships; cite at the point of claim; mark inferences "(inference)" and gaps "(no source found)". Defers to evidence-discipline.
U4	Volume over substance	One sourced, reasoned paragraph beats three hollow ones. Do not pad to length.
U5	Absence of authored voice / judgement	State the analytic point of view: what the evidence means, not just what it says. No relentless hedging, no viewpoint-free summary.
U6	Skipping the hard parts	Address the counter-case, the limitation, the contradicting source, the gap — not just the confirming evidence.
U7	Mechanical uniformity	Vary sentence and section structure. No rule-of-three reflex, no "it's not X, it's Y" formula, no em-dash flood, no uniform paragraph length.

Banned / high-risk vocabulary (the lexical tells)

Over-produced by LLMs (FSU/COLING-2025; PubMed "delve" +400%, verified). Allowed only when genuinely the precise term, never as default register.

• Words: delve, tapestry, realm, landscape (as metaphor), navigate (as metaphor), leverage, foster, harness, synergy, embark, robust, vibrant, holistic, seamless, intricate, commendable, meticulous, pivotal, underscore, testament, resonate, elevate, paramount, multifaceted.
• Phrases: "in today's fast-paced world", "in the ever-evolving landscape of", "it is important to note that", "let's dive in", "at the end of the day", "in conclusion", "studies show" (without a named study).
• Constructions: the "it's not just X, it's Y" antithesis; reflexive rule-of-three lists; em-dash used to manufacture drama; triplet adjectives ("robust, scalable, reliable").

Drop-in guardrail block (inherit in dependent skills)

ANTI-SLOP GUARDRAIL (inherit in every output):
1. SPECIFICITY FLOOR — every section carries >=1 concrete, named, source-specific element.
2. VERIFY-BEFORE-EMIT — no statistic, quote, citation, name, or URL ships unverified;
   cite at point of claim; mark inferences and gaps. (Defers to evidence-discipline.)
3. AUTHORED JUDGEMENT — say what the evidence means; no viewpoint-free summary, no sycophancy.
4. COVER THE HARD PARTS — counter-case, limitation, contradicting source, gap.
5. BREAK THE TEMPLATE — vary rhythm and structure; forbid the banned-vocabulary list above.

Domain-specific avoidance (research outputs)

• Report / dossier / memo: named sources at the point of every claim; a stated analytic judgement per section; the contradicting evidence shown, not hidden; varied section shapes (not every section a three-bullet list).
• Tables / data: every figure carries a source and date; no round-number "estimates" presented as measured; flag computed/derived values.
• .docx output: apply the professional-word-output design standard (named styles, two typefaces, real hierarchy) so the document looks human-made, not template-extruded.
• Academic / proposal: visible logic (evidence -> warrant -> implication); no inflated superlatives; British English and house tone per the project.

Ship gate (run before delivering ANY output)

• Every section has >=1 concrete, named, source-specific element (U1/U2).
• Every stat, quote, citation, name, URL verified and cited at point of claim (U3 / evidence-discipline).
• No banned vocabulary used as register; output scanned against the list.
• Output states an analytic judgement; no viewpoint-free summary, no sycophancy (U5).
• Counter-case, limitation, or gap addressed (U6).
• Sentence and section structure varied; no rule-of-three reflex, no antithesis formula, no em-dash flood (U7).
• For .docx, professional-word-output standard applied.
• When in doubt, run ai-slop-audit on the draft.

If any box is unticked, the output is not ready to ship.

See also

Use When

Use throughout production and revision of every research artefact.

Do Not Use When

Do not substitute it for the independent ai-slop-audit release verdict.

Required Inputs

Input	Source/provider	If absent
Draft artefact, purpose, audience	Producing workflow	Stop generic generation and request context
Verifiable facts and dependencies	Evidence register	Remove or qualify unsupported specificity

Workflow

1. Identify the artefact type and intended action.
2. Apply specificity, verification, voice, hard-case, and variation controls while drafting.
3. Stop on fabricated or unverifiable content and recover by removing it or marking a gap.
4. Run the domain ship gate, then route the iteration to ai-slop-audit.

Outputs

Artefact	Consumer	Acceptance condition
Guarded artefact	Requesting workflow	Every section earns its place and all claims are verified or qualified

Production Evidence Guidance

The completed ship gate and verification-gap log support release review.

Production Capability Notes

Apply only capabilities authorised for the parent task. Mutation, publication, destructive action, spending, or certification requires explicit authority.

Degraded Mode

Fallback when a fact, dependency, citation, or visual check is unavailable: name the gap and return the narrowest useful qualified artefact; never turn an unassessed check into a pass.

Decision Rules

Finding	Action	Failure/risk avoided
Unsupported specificity	Verify, qualify, or remove	Hallucination
Generic non-blocking prose	Rewrite or cut	Superficial content
Intentional verified material	Preserve	Destructive over-editing

Quality Standards

Every claim is verified or qualified, every section carries intent, and errors, empty states, risks, and countercases are addressed where applicable.

Anti-Patterns

• Inventing a number for specificity. Fix: verify it or remove it.
• Keeping polished filler. Fix: add a sourced judgement or cut it.
• Waiting for the final audit. Fix: apply controls live.
• Flattening authored voice. Fix: preserve intentional choices.
• Hiding an unavailable check. Fix: name the gap and its release consequence.

Worked Example

If a current market figure cannot be verified, the draft records the evidence gap instead of inserting a plausible estimate.

References

• Independent audit
• Evidence discipline
• extracted-books/human-english-craft-synthesis-2026.md — human-English reader, genre, rhythm, grammar, and proof overlay; routed from the engine-level AGENTS.md.

Evidence Produced

Evidence	Consumer	Acceptance condition
Completed ship gate and verification-gap log	Producing workflow and release reviewer	Every section has intentional substance and every claim is verified, qualified, or removed

Capability Contract

Minimum capability is read-only access to the draft, facts, and dependencies. Any editing, mutation, publication, destructive action, spending, or certification requires explicit authorisation from the parent task.

Production Pitfalls

• Inventing a number for specificity. Fix: verify it or remove it.
• Keeping polished filler. Fix: add a decision or evidence, otherwise cut it.
• Waiting for the final audit. Fix: apply controls during production.
• Flattening an intentional voice. Fix: preserve authored choices that serve the audience.
• Hiding an unavailable check. Fix: name the gap and its release consequence.

See also

• ai-slop-audit — the per-iteration detection/audit companion.
• source-evaluation / references/evidence-discipline.md — the truth gate this pairs with.
• professional-word-output — document-design standard for .docx outputs.