| name | writing-guard |
| description | Use BEFORE drafting any prose for the user — emails, log entries, documents, summaries, messages, status updates, reports. Loads the writing rules and self-censors AI tells, em dashes, hedging, puffery, and promotional tone in real time as you draft. Proactive complement to voice-check. |
Writing Guard (proactive)
You are about to write prose for the user. Internalize the rules first and self-edit as you draft, not after.
Why this skill exists
The voice-check skill cleans up AI writing tells AFTER they appear in a file. writing-guard prevents them from appearing in the first place. Both skills use the same rule list. The difference is timing: guard fires before/during writing, voice-check fires after.
Process
- Read
../../references/rules.md in full before writing anything (the file lives at the plugin root, not inside the skill dir)
- As you draft, self-check each sentence against the rules. If a sentence triggers any rule, rewrite it before continuing. Do not finish the draft and clean up later.
- After completing the draft, do one final pass against the rules.
- If you cannot express something without violating a rule, prefer the rule over the original phrasing.
- If the user is in a context with a per-repo supplement at
.claude/voice-check.md (walking up to git root), apply those rules too.
When NOT to use this skill
- When transcribing the user's exact words (the rules are about generated prose, not user quotes)
- When writing code, code comments, or commit messages where dashes and technical jargon are appropriate
- When explicitly asked to mimic a specific style that conflicts with the rules
References
../../references/rules.md — the rule list (shared with voice-check, lives at the plugin root)
