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Agent skill

Tighten Prose

by nicknisi in nicknisi/claude-plugins

This skill should be used when the user asks to "tighten this up", "tighten the prose", "clean up the writing", "check for AI tells", "make this sound more human", "de-slop this", "run a writing…

MITAuto-check passedWriting & Content

Install Tighten Prose

skills CLI
$ npx skills add nicknisi/claude-plugins --skill tighten-prose -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install nicknisi/claude-plugins tighten-prose --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/nicknisi/claude-plugins.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/plugins/content/skills/tighten-prose .claude/skills/tighten-prose && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
tighten-prose
GitHub stars
114
Token cost
~1.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
836 words
Files
2 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
12
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

This skill should be used when the user asks to "tighten this up", "tighten the prose", "clean up the writing", "check for AI tells", "make this sound more human", "de-slop this", "run a writing…

  • Works in 6 steps: Load the Tells Reference → Fetch Live Patterns → Scan for Pattern Density → …
  • Asks to tighten this up
  • SKILL.md covers What this pass cannot see, When to Run, Process and Composability, plus 1 more section
  • Reaches en.wikipedia.org

What it does

Tighten Prose is an agent skill from nicknisi/claude-plugins. This skill should be used when the user asks to "tighten this up", "tighten the prose", "clean up the writing", "check for AI tells", "make this sound more human", "de-slop this", "run a writing pass", or when completing a writing task that should not read like AI output. Scans prose for statistically overrepresented AI writing patterns and rewrites flagged sections.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.7k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 2 other files, including reference files (for example `references/ai-tells.md`).

It sits in Writing & Content, covering Humanizing AI text. The repository describes itself as: Nick's own marketplace of Claude Plugins. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Asks to tighten this up
  • Tighten the prose
  • Clean up the writing
  • Check for AI tells

Example prompts

  • “tighten this up”
  • “tighten the prose”
  • “clean up the writing”
  • “/tighten-prose”

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Load the Tells Reference
  2. Fetch Live Patterns
  3. Scan for Pattern Density
  4. Report Findings
  5. Rewrite Flagged Sections
  6. Present the Tightened Version

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 6a6decd. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

    • en.wikipedia.org

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Tighten Prose loads about 1.7k tokens when it runs, and up to ~3.1k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 96 tokens; SKILL.md has 836 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~96
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.7k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~3.1k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from nicknisi/claude-plugins at commit 6a6decd, republished under its MIT licence (© nicknisi). 836 words, ~1,690 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/tighten-prose/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 1 other file; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
tighten-prose
description
This skill should be used when the user asks to "tighten this up", "tighten the prose", "clean up the writing", "check for AI tells", "make this sound more human", "de-slop this", "run a writing pass", or when completing a writing task that should not read like AI output. Scans prose for statistically overrepresented AI writing patterns and rewrites flagged sections.

Tighten

A final editing pass that catches and removes AI-detectable writing patterns. Not a detector — an editor. The output reads like a human wrote it because, after this pass, a human shaped every sentence.

What this pass cannot see

This skill scans vocabulary and sentence-level habits. It is blind to structure, and structure is where modern AI prose gives itself away.

A ghost-written blog post once passed this gate with zero findings — no AI vocabulary, em-dash rate below the author's own baseline — while ending eight of eight sections on an aphorism, using six "Not X. That's Y." antitheses, and asserting nine invented claims about the author's inner life. Readers called it slop immediately. The gate had certified its own blind spot.

If you are tightening a draft written for someone else in their voice, run a corpus-calibrated structural check first — see plugins/content/skills/blog-post-writer/scripts/slopcheck.py. Two rules that pass list can't encode:

  • Slop is a rate, not a presence. Real writers use every device on the list below. The tell is one firing on every section instead of once a post. Thresholds have to be measured against the author's real corpus.
  • Check both directions. A metric sitting far below an author's baseline means someone wrote to the metric. That's as suspicious as excess.

Run this skill last and weight it least.

When to Run

  • After completing any prose-heavy output (blog posts, documentation, emails, talks)
  • When another skill requests a tighten pass as a quality gate
  • When the user asks to clean up or improve writing
  • Before shipping anything where "sounds like AI" would undermine credibility

Process

1. Load the Tells Reference

Read references/ai-tells.md for the full catalog of patterns, organized by category with examples and fix strategies.

2. Fetch Live Patterns

AI writing tells evolve as models change. Fetch the current vocabulary list from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=parse&page=Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing&prop=wikitext&format=json

Extract the "Words to watch" lists and AI vocabulary entries. Newer models drop old tells and develop new ones — the live source catches drift the static reference cannot.

If the fetch fails, the static reference is sufficient. Proceed without it.

3. Scan for Pattern Density

Read the full text and scan across all categories:

CategorySignal
Vocabulary clusters3+ AI-overused words in a section
Inflated significancePhrases that inflate importance without adding information
Superficial -ing clausesParticipial phrases tacked on as fake depth
Promotional languageTravel-brochure / sales-deck vocabulary
Vague authorityPhantom expert attributions ("Industry reports suggest...")
Formulaic transitionsFive-paragraph-essay connectors (moreover, furthermore)
Negative parallelismOveruse of "not X, it's Y" construction
Rule of threeEvery list having exactly three items
Copula avoidance"Serves as" instead of "is"
Elegant variationThesaurus cycling to avoid repeating a concrete noun
Em dash densityEm dashes at 2-3x human rate
Formatting tellsMechanical boldface, title case headings, emoji decoration

The signal is density, not individual hits. One "crucial" is fine. A cluster of three AI vocabulary words in two paragraphs is a rewrite.

Show full SKILL.md (355 more words)Show less
4. Report Findings

Present a concise summary:

  • Which categories showed pattern density above noise level
  • Specific examples quoted from the text
  • Severity: how many sections need work vs. isolated hits

Do not list every individual word match. Report clusters and structural patterns.

5. Rewrite Flagged Sections

For each flagged section, rewrite to eliminate tells while preserving meaning.

Fix strategies:

  • Inflated significance — Say what actually happened. Specific facts beat vague importance.
  • Superficial -ing — If the clause adds no new information, cut it entirely.
  • Copula avoidance — If a fancy verb replaces "is" without reason, use "is."
  • Formulaic transitions — Use casual transitions or drop them. "Here's the thing:" beats "Moreover."
  • Elegant variation — Repeat the concrete noun. "Vim" twice is better than "vim... the editor... the tool."
  • Rule of three — Vary list lengths. Two items is fine. Four is fine. One is fine.
  • Vague authority — Name the person or drop the attribution.
  • Promotional language — Replace with specifics. What exactly makes it good?
  • Em dashes — Keep the ones that earn their place. Replace the rest with commas or periods.

Constraints:

  • Preserve the original meaning and information content
  • Maintain the existing voice and tone — do not flatten personality
  • Keep legitimate rhetorical devices. A single "not X, it's Y" used for emphasis is a deliberate choice, not a tell. The tell is when every other paragraph uses it.
  • When a pattern appears intentional and isolated, leave it
6. Present the Tightened Version

If only a few sections changed, present before/after pairs for the changed passages. If the whole piece needed work, present the full rewrite.

Do not explain every change. The writing should speak for itself. Mention only changes where the reasoning is non-obvious.

Composability

Designed to work standalone or as a step in other writing workflows.

Standalone: Point at text and say "tighten this up."

Composed: Another skill (like blog-post-writer) calls for a tighten pass as its final quality gate. When composed, respect any voice calibration the parent skill has already established. Tighten removes autopilot patterns, not personality.

Bundled Resources

  • references/ai-tells.md — Full catalog of AI writing tells with examples, fix strategies, and density guidance. Adapted from Wikipedia's "Signs of AI writing."

© nicknisi, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 1 other file (references) in plugins/content/skills/tighten-prose of nicknisi/claude-plugins.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/ai-tells.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 6a6decd

Compare with similar skills

Tighten Prose next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Tighten Prose compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Tighten Prose this skillnicknisi/claude-plugins114—~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
HumanizerAzure-Samples/interview-coach-agent-framework17338 repos~5.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Avoid AI Writingconorbronsdon/avoid-ai-writing4.9k3 repos~8.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
User-Facing Text Cleanupguillaumemeyer/watermarks-remover24k—~3.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Install Anti Sloptrycompai/crm11k1 repos~881Automated safety check: PassMIT
Stop SlopXe/site7328 repos~423Automated safety check: PassMIT

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Categories

Questions about Tighten Prose

What does Tighten Prose do?

This skill should be used when the user asks to "tighten this up", "tighten the prose", "clean up the writing", "check for AI tells", "make this sound more human", "de-slop this", "run a writing…. Tighten Prose is an agent skill from nicknisi/claude-plugins. This skill should be used when the user asks to "tighten this up", "tighten the prose", "clean up the writing", "check for AI tells", "make this sound more human", "de-slop this", "run a writing pass", or when completing a writing task that should not read like AI output.

When should I use Tighten Prose?

Tighten Prose fits situations like: asks to tighten this up; tighten the prose; clean up the writing; check for AI tells.

How do I install Tighten Prose in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add nicknisi/claude-plugins --skill tighten-prose -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/content/skills/tighten-prose in nicknisi/claude-plugins) into .claude/skills/tighten-prose in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Tighten Prose in Codex?

Run `npx skills add nicknisi/claude-plugins --skill tighten-prose -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/content/skills/tighten-prose in nicknisi/claude-plugins) into .agents/skills/tighten-prose in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Tighten Prose in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add nicknisi/claude-plugins --skill tighten-prose -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/tighten-prose, .gemini/skills/tighten-prose, .github/skills/tighten-prose and .opencode/skills/tighten-prose in your project.

What does Tighten Prose need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Tighten Prose is instructions for the agent only.

Does Tighten Prose access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. In commands or code: en.wikipedia.org; the agent is likely to contact it when it follows the instructions. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Tighten Prose safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Tighten Prose use?

Tighten Prose is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Tighten Prose use?

About 1.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.8k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 1.4k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Tighten Prose?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Tighten Prose: Humanizer (Azure-Samples/interview-coach-agent-framework, 173 stars), Avoid AI Writing (conorbronsdon/avoid-ai-writing, 4.9k stars), User-Facing Text Cleanup (guillaumemeyer/watermarks-remover, 24k stars) and Install Anti Slop (trycompai/crm, 11k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Tighten Prose?

nicknisi (a GitHub user) maintains it in nicknisi/claude-plugins, which has 114 GitHub stars. The repository holds 12 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on August 11, 2026.

Source: nicknisi/claude-plugins on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.