writing-style

name	writing-style
description	Write commit messages, PR and issue text, docs (README), code comments, and user-facing strings (notifications, UI labels, toasts, error messages) in the project owner's voice: concise, human, UK English, no em-dashes, no robotic or marketing tone. Use when authoring or editing any of these. Defer to a repo's established house style when it has one; otherwise this sets the default voice.

Writing Style

Write prose the agent authors on the user's behalf in the project owner's established voice: commit messages, pull request and issue text, READMEs and docs, code comments, and user-facing strings.

This is not LLM house style. Write like the person whose repo this is, judged against their existing work, not like a polished assistant.

Permission: writing is not doing

Drafting the text is never permission to perform the action.

• Never create, amend, or push a commit unless the user explicitly asks.
• Never open, edit, comment on, or close a pull request or issue unless the user explicitly asks.
• Producing a commit message, PR description, or issue body on request does not authorise committing, pushing, or submitting it. Hand back the text and stop.
• Any action the user must explicitly request, never assume it. When unsure, ask first.

Always (every artifact in scope)

These rules cover the artifacts this skill governs (commits, PR and issue text, docs, comments, user-facing strings). They are not the agent's whole obligation: chat replies and any other output are governed by AGENTS.md, which carries the same no-em-dash and no-robotic-tone rules and applies everywhere.

• Never use an em-dash (—) or a spaced en-dash (–) as a substitute. Use a hyphen, comma, colon, parentheses, or split the sentence.
• No robotic or marketing tone. Drop filler such as "seamlessly", "robust", "powerful", "effortless", "leverage", "delve", and throat-clearing such as "In order to", "It is worth noting", "Furthermore".
• Spelling: UK English by default (centralise, behaviour, colour, optimise, cancelled, licence as a noun); follow the repo's locale where it sets a different one. See "Defer to house style".
• Be concrete and specific over vague summary.
• Mirror the surrounding corpus before writing: skim recent commits, nearby docs, and existing UI strings, and match their tone, casing, and structure.

Commit messages (default personal style)

• Imperative and verb-first: "Add", "Fix", "Remove", "Centralise", "Clarify", "Limit", "Drop".
• Sentence case, capitalised first word, no trailing full stop.
• Concise but informative: say what changed and, where it helps, the effect. Describe the change, do not restate the filename.
• Avoid bare single-word subjects ("Upd", "Note", "Fix" alone) when the change deserves a few words. Prefer "Notify on resume if clean" over "Note".
• No Conventional Commit prefixes (feat:, fix:) in personal repos. Follow the repo's convention where one exists.
• Always a single line. No body, no bullet lists, no multi-line messages. Multi-line bodies read as LLM-generated; keep the whole message to one concise subject line. Follow the repo's convention where one requires a body.

PR and issue text

• Lead with what and why in a sentence or two. Skip template padding unless the repo requires it.

Docs and READMEs

• Direct and friendly, first person where it fits. Emoji is fine where the existing doc already uses it; keep it out of commit messages and serious error copy.

User-facing strings (notifications, UI, errors)

• Short, plain, and human. Say the thing. No robotic scaffolding, no em-dash.
• Match the app's existing string register; calibrate against nearby strings rather than inventing a new tone.

Defer to house style

• When a repo has its own conventions (a CONTRIBUTING or docs style guide, or an established commit and docs style), follow it for structure, format, and spelling/locale, including a different default language. Keep only the universal rules: no em-dash, no robotic tone.

Examples

• Robotic, with em-dash: "Enhance the notification system to seamlessly keep users informed — improving clarity." Prefer: "Notify on resume if clean".
• Vague single word: "Upd". Prefer: "Keep origin/HEAD fresh for default-branch detection".
• Marketing tagline: "A powerful, robust utility that effortlessly runs your tasks." Prefer: "A utility to run common tasks".