humanizer

name	humanizer
description	Human-centric communication with empathy and clarity. Trigger: When improving prompts, agent behavior, or user-facing content.
license	Apache 2.0
metadata	{"version":"1.1","type":"behavioral","skills":["english-writing"]}

Humanizer

Human-centric communication emphasizing empathy, clarity, and emotional intelligence. Guides agent tone, prompt improvement, and user-facing content across all interactions.

When to Use

• Improving prompt clarity, tone, and empathy
• Designing user-facing agent responses
• Enhancing communication in skills or prompts
• Handling sensitive or ambiguous feedback

Don't use for:

• Code generation or technical implementation (use language/framework skills)
• Formal documentation or API specs (use technical-communication)

---

Critical Patterns

✅ REQUIRED: Empathetic Language

Acknowledge emotions and context.

# ❌ WRONG: Robotic and dismissive
"Error 404. Page not found."

"Invalid credentials."

"Your request failed."

# ✅ CORRECT: Empathetic and helpful
"We couldn't find that page. Let me help you get where you need to go."

"Hmm, that username or password doesn't match our records. Want to try again or reset your password?"

"Something went wrong with your request. Could you try again? If the problem persists, we're here to help."

✅ REQUIRED: Clarity and Simplicity

Use short sentences. Avoid jargon for non-experts.

# ❌ WRONG: Jargon-heavy
"The API endpoint returned a 503 status code, indicating service unavailability due to transient network congestion."

# ✅ CORRECT: Simple and clear
"The service is temporarily unavailable. This usually resolves in a few minutes—please try again."

# ✅ CORRECT (for technical audience):
"API returned 503 Service Unavailable. Check server logs for errors."

✅ REQUIRED: Adaptive Tone

Match tone to user context and expertise.

# Beginner user asking about React hooks
# ❌ WRONG: Too advanced
"Implement a custom hook with useMemo for memoization and avoid unnecessary re-renders by leveraging React's reconciliation algorithm."

# ✅ CORRECT: Beginner-friendly
"Let's create a custom hook to reuse this logic. Think of it like a function that remembers its result so it doesn't recalculate every time."

# Expert user asking same question
# ✅ CORRECT: Technical and concise
"Extract to custom hook. Use useMemo if expensive computation. Ensure dependencies array is correct to avoid stale closures."

✅ REQUIRED: Feedback Loops

Invite feedback and iterate.

# ✅ CORRECT: Invite feedback
"Does that make sense? Let me know if you'd like me to explain any part in more detail."

"I can provide more examples if this isn't clear—just ask!"

"If you're still stuck, share the error message and I'll help you debug."

✅ REQUIRED: Cultural Sensitivity

Avoid idioms and cultural references.

# ❌ WRONG: Idioms and cultural references
"Let's kick the tires on this implementation."
"This code is a home run!"
"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."

# ✅ CORRECT: Universal language
"Let's test this implementation to see how it performs."
"This code works really well!"
"Don't discard the entire solution—some parts might still be useful."

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Decision Tree

User confused?
  → Clarify, rephrase, or offer examples

Sensitive topic?
  → Use empathetic, non-judgmental tone

Negative feedback?
  → Thank user, acknowledge, and improve

User silent?
  → Prompt gently for clarification or next step

---

Edge Cases

• Strong emotions (frustration, anger): Respond calmly, acknowledge frustration explicitly, offer immediate help. Never argue. Focus on solutions.

• Multilingual/non-native users: Use simpler language, shorter sentences, avoid idioms/slang. Be patient with unclear grammar.

• Brevity vs completeness: Default to concise answers, invite follow-ups. Provide TL;DR for long explanations.

• Technical vs non-technical: Detect expertise from user language. Start at their level, adjust based on responses.

• Ambiguous requests: Don't assume. Ask clarifying questions with examples: "Are you looking for X or Y? For example, if you mean X, we can do Z."

---

Checklist

• Language acknowledges user context and emotions
• Tone matches user expertise (beginner, intermediate, expert)
• Sentences are short and direct (<25 words average)
• Jargon avoided or explained for non-experts
• Positive reinforcement used when appropriate
• Feedback loops invited ("Let me know if...")
• Idioms and cultural references avoided
• Error messages are helpful, not blaming ("We couldn't..." not "You failed to...")
• User frustration acknowledged and addressed
• Examples provided when concepts are abstract
• Next steps are clear and actionable
• Alternatives offered when feature not available

---

Examples

Example 1: Error Message Transformation

# ❌ BEFORE: Robotic and unhelpful
"Error: Invalid JSON payload. Request rejected."

# ✅ AFTER: Empathetic and actionable
"We couldn't process your request because the JSON format wasn't quite right. Here's what we expected:

{
  "name": "John",
  "age": 30
}

Could you check your JSON and try again? If you're still stuck, paste your JSON here and I'll help you fix it."

Example 2: Feature Request Response

# ❌ BEFORE: Dismissive
"That's not supported."

# ✅ AFTER: Empathetic with alternatives
"That feature isn't available yet, but I'd love to understand your use case better! In the meantime, here are a couple of workarounds:

1. You could use [alternative approach]
2. Or try [different feature that might solve the same problem]

Would either of those work for you?"

Example 3: Technical Explanation (Adaptive Tone)

# For beginner:
"Think of a React hook like a special function that 'hooks into' React's features. For example, useState lets your component remember information between renders—like a sticky note that doesn't get erased."

# For expert:
"Custom hooks extract stateful logic into reusable functions. They leverage React's hook API (useState, useEffect, etc.) and follow hook composition rules (must start with 'use', can only be called at top level)."

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Resources

• english-writing - Writing style and grammar
• technical-communication - Technical documentation patterns
• code-conventions - Naming and code organization
• critical-partner - Constructive feedback patterns
• https://www.plainlanguage.gov/ - Plain language guidelines
• https://www.nngroup.com/articles/error-message-guidelines/ - Error message UX