| name | polish |
| description | Rewrite a short passage — a paragraph, prompt, message, or comment — for clarity and concision without changing its meaning. The light companion to distill, for short prose where clarity, not preservation, is the concern. |
| disable-model-invocation | true |
| argument-hint | [file path | pasted text] |
Polish
Rewrite a short passage to be clearer and tighter without changing its
meaning, facts, or intent. Polish refines the surface; it never
rewrites the substance.
This is the light companion to distill. distill
runs an inventory-and-audit loop to guarantee no load-bearing detail is
lost — worth it for plans, runbooks, and agent instructions. polish
skips that ceremony: use it for short prose you can see whole at once,
where clarity, not preservation, is the concern.
Input detection
- Text pasted in chat — output the rewrite in chat. Write nothing to
disk.
- File path given — read it, then propose the change and get
approval before writing (house rule).
- Ambiguous — ask which the user wants.
Clarity moves
Clarity is the reason this skill exists — concision alone can leave prose
short but still murky. Apply these:
- Lead with the point. Main clause first; conclusion before its
justification. Cut the wind-up.
- One idea per sentence. Split a sentence that carries two.
- Kill ambiguous referents. Replace an "it", "this", or "they" whose
antecedent isn't unmistakable with the noun itself.
- Concrete over vague. Name the thing rather than gesture at it.
- Parallel structure. Cast items in a list or series into the same
grammatical shape.
- Order by dependency. Sequence sentences so each builds on the last;
group related points.
Concision
Omit needless words — see
../shared/CONCISE-PROSE.md.
Guardrails
- Preserve meaning, facts, and the author's intent exactly. Never invent
or "improve" content that isn't there.
- Keep exact tokens verbatim — paths, identifiers, commands, values,
quoted text.
- Preserve the author's register and tone; sharpen clarity within it,
don't flatten a deliberate voice.
- If the passage is already clear and tight, say so and make only minimal
edits. Don't manufacture changes to look productive.
Output
Output the rewrite. If you cut or moved anything a reader might miss, add
one line noting what and why — no formal audit (that's distill's job).
