| name | clearmode |
| description | Write and edit so anyone can read it: plain words, human voice, real structure, no filler. Enforces the CLEAR-100 standard on four axes (Plain, Human, Structured, Dense) with a zero-dependency checker. Use this skill whenever you draft, rewrite, review, or edit any prose a person will read: posts, docs, READMEs, emails, newsletters, landing pages, release notes, PR descriptions, or instructions for another agent. Also use it when asked to deslop, humanize, simplify, or de-jargon existing text.
|
| license | MIT |
clearmode
CLEAR-100 v1.0.0. Four axes, 43 rules, one checker.
Aerospace built ASD-STE100 so a mechanic on a runway
could not misread a step. It works, and it reads like a machine wrote it, because it
was built for readers who cannot ask a follow-up question. CLEAR-100 keeps that
discipline and adds the two things STE never needed: a human voice, and a page shape
a person will actually scan.
| Axis | What it asks | Weight |
|---|
| Plain | A reader outside your field understands it on the first pass, with no dictionary and no follow-up question. | 30% |
| Human | It reads like a person who did the work, not like a model that read about the work. | 30% |
| Structured | The shape of the page matches the shape of the information. Lists look like lists, steps look like steps. | 25% |
| Dense | Every sentence carries information a reader could not have guessed. Delete it and the piece loses something. | 15% |
Before you write a sentence
Ask three things:
- Would someone outside my field understand this on the first pass?
- Would a person who did this work say it this way out loud?
- If I delete this sentence, does the reader lose anything?
A no to any of them means rewrite, not soften.
Hard rules, no exceptions
- H1 No slop vocabulary. Say the specific thing the word was standing in for. If nothing specific is behind it, delete the sentence.
- H2 No slop phrases. Delete. If the sentence dies without the phrase, the sentence was the phrase.
- H4 No em-dash, no en-dash used as one. Use a period and a new sentence, a comma, a spaced hyphen, or parentheses.
- H6 No negative parallelism. State the claim once, directly.
- H12 No assistant voice. Delete. Published text has no counterparty to be polite to.
- H14 No model self-reference. Delete the sentence and answer the question, or say the fact is unverified and why.
- D3 No throat-clearing opener. Lead with the number, the name, or the claim.
The rest of the rules
Load references/rules.md for all 43 rules with the reason, the fix, and a
before-and-after for each. Load references/lexicons.md for the word lists:
108 slop words, 68 slop phrases,
111 plain-word swaps, 79 jargon glosses.
Profiles
Pick the profile that matches the reader, then hold its limits.
| Setting | general | technical | social | agent |
|---|
| Sentence cap | 25 | 28 | 20 | 20 |
| Sentences per paragraph | 4 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| Reading grade target | 9 | 11 | 8 | 9 |
| Reading grade hard cap | 13 | 15 | 11 | 12 |
The loop
- Write or read the draft.
- Run the checker:
python3 scripts/clearcheck.py FILE --profile <general|technical|social|agent>.
- Fix every
error. Fix warn unless you can say why the rule is wrong here.
- Re-run. Stop when the score clears the gate (80 by default) and no errors remain.
- Never argue with a rule in the draft. Either fix the line or suppress it with
clear: ignore <RULE> on that line and say why in the commit.
What this skill will not do
- It will not make a false claim readable. Wrong and clear is still wrong.
- It will not strip a technical term that is the subject of the sentence. It glosses it once.
- It will not ban contractions. Formal reads synthetic.
- It will not touch code, code blocks, quoted material, or someone else's words.
