| name | pprose-common-edit |
| description | Apply the common Markdown documentation guidelines and required footer to durable docs; modifies docs. Use whenever creating, editing, reviewing, or reorganizing Markdown, including READMEs, guides, specs, plans, runbooks, and agent instructions, unless the task is explicitly read-only. Also use when asked to tidy, clean up, conform, fix formatting or structure, or add the footer. |
Common Edit
This is the basic, universal edit tier (an apply skill: it may modify the target
documents).
It applies the common documentation guidelines to almost any durable Markdown
document, workflow, or repo, whether or not it is a Practical Prose artifact.
Before acting, read the bundled
common-doc-guidelines.md in full.
The reference is part of this skill; the pprose CLI is not required.
For focused removal of AI-writing tells use pprose-de-slop; for a deeper
language-and-formatting pass (the Expression and Form dimensions, including the de-slop
audit) use pprose-copy-edit; for a full all-dimension editorial pass use
pprose-full-edit. Each tier is a superset of the one before, with pprose-de-slop
folded in from copy-edit up.
Inputs
- Paths to one or more Markdown documents.
- Optional scope note from the user, such as “format only” or “make all obvious fixes.”
Steps
- Read
references/common-doc-guidelines.md completely before editing.
- Inspect the target against organization, structure, writing style, Markdown
formatting, links, headings, lists, frontmatter, and footer rules.
- Apply fixes directly to the document.
This is a correction pass, not a rewrite: fix objective errors such as grammar,
typos, punctuation, casing, Markdown mechanics, and broken links in place, and keep
the author’s wording, sentence structure, section order, and headings unless a rule
is unambiguously violated.
- When a guideline would require a broader change (rewording a passage, restructuring
sections, renaming or merging headings), do not apply it; record it as a suggestion
for the report instead.
- Ensure every governed document ends with exactly one guideline footer, unless the
guideline’s impracticality exception applies.
- Run the project’s configured Markdown formatter when one exists.
- Re-read the diff and check that no edit changed factual meaning or the author’s
voice.
Output
Report the changed file, the main issue classes fixed, the suggestions you did not
apply, and any rule you intentionally left alone.
