---
name: voice
description: Make prose sound like Thomas, not like a generic technical writer. Use whenever drafting, editing, or reviewing any blog post, page, or bio for tschuehly.de — even a small edit. Loads an empirical voice profile extracted from real pre-AI-era posts.
metadata:
  trigger: Writing or editing posts, pages, or bios; any prose that ships under Thomas's name
---

# Voice

Match the author's real voice. This skill carries an empirical profile — durable habits distilled from 15 posts Thomas wrote 2021–2024. It is the "sounds like *you*" layer that generic slop-removal can't supply. It captures *how he reasons and addresses the reader*, not dated catchphrases to paste.

## How to use

1. **Read [references/voice-profile.md](references/voice-profile.md)** before drafting or doing a voice pass. It is the source of truth: pronoun discipline, reasoning habits (get-to-the-point, show-then-explain, concrete-over-vague, honest about friction), and a never-do list. Reproduce the *moves*, never the literal example wording.
2. **Draft or edit to match** the habits: real numbers over hand-waves, examples before theory, candor about what didn't work, energy that's earned by a real moment.
3. **Run the never-do list** as a check: no long wind-up, no abstract-first, no corporate hedging, no em-dash drama, no pronoun blurring, no manufactured enthusiasm.

## Precedence over stop-slop

stop-slop removes *generic* AI tells. This skill keeps *Thomas-specific* ones. Where they conflict, voice wins — these are authentic, not slop:

- **An earned exclamation** on a genuine milestone (not sprinkled on for tone).
- **`leverage`** in its architectural sense ("leverage Dependency Injection / backend patterns"). Still cut it in the generic business sense.

Run stop-slop first to strip generic slop, then this skill to restore the real habits — don't let the slop pass flatten genuine voice into something anonymous.

## Relationship to the other docs

- `WRITING_STYLE.md` — mechanics and structure (headings, code blocks, "In detail:" notation).
- `PERSONA.md` — public positioning. More restrained and serious than the real blog voice; see the reconciliation notes in the profile before trusting it for post prose.

## Refresh

This profile is a snapshot of 2021–2024 writing. Re-extract from newer non-AI-assisted posts as the voice moves.