Official agent skill

Humanizer

by trailofbits in trailofbits/skills-curated

Remove signs of AI-generated writing from text. An agent skill from trailofbits/skills-curated.

OfficialCC-BY-SA-4.0Auto-check passedWriting & Content

Install Humanizer

skills CLI
$ npx skills add trailofbits/skills-curated --skill humanizer -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install trailofbits/skills-curated humanizer --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/trailofbits/skills-curated.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/plugins/humanizer/skills/humanizer .claude/skills/humanizer && 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
humanizer
GitHub stars
512
Token cost
~3k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,611 words
Files
2 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
24
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
CC-BY-SA-4.0

At a glance

Remove signs of AI-generated writing from text. An agent skill from trailofbits/skills-curated.

  • Works in 6 steps: Identify AI patterns - Scan for the… → Rewrite problematic sections - Replace… → Preserve meaning - Keep the core message… → …
  • Reviewing text to make it sound more natural and human-written
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use, When NOT to Use, Your Task and Personality and Soul, plus 5 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Humanizer is an agent skill from trailofbits/skills-curated, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Remove signs of AI-generated writing from text. Use when editing or reviewing text to make it sound more natural and human-written. Based on Wikipedia's comprehensive "Signs of AI writing" guide. Detects and fixes patterns including: inflated symbolism, promotional language, superficial -ing analyses, vague attributions, em dash overuse, rule of three, AI vocabulary words, negative parallelisms, and excessive conjunctive phrases. 30c5c8d (Update humanizer plugin to upstream v2.2.0)

Its SKILL.md is about 3k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 2 other files, including reference files (for example `references/patterns.md`).

It sits in Writing & Content, covering Humanizing AI text. It works with Wikipedia. The repository describes itself as: Curated, community-vetted Claude Code plugin marketplace. The licence is CC-BY-SA-4.0.

When your agent uses it

  • Reviewing text to make it sound more natural and human-written
  • Tasks that involve Humanizing AI text

Example prompts

  • “s comprehensive”
  • “/humanizer”

Requirements

  • Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, AskUserQuestion

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Identify AI patterns - Scan for the known AI patterns
  2. Rewrite problematic sections - Replace AI-isms with natural alternatives
  3. Preserve meaning - Keep the core message intact
  4. Maintain voice - Match the intended tone (formal, casual, technical, etc.)
  5. Add soul - Don't just remove bad patterns; inject actual personality
  6. Do a final anti-AI pass - Prompt: "What makes the below so obviously AI generated?" Answer briefly with remaining tells, then prompt: "Now…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 6d05be4. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

    • Read
    • Write
    • Edit
    • Grep
    • Glob
    • AskUserQuestion

    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

    Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

    • 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

Humanizer loads about 3k tokens when it runs, and up to ~6.2k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 124 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,611 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~124
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~3k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~6.2k

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 trailofbits/skills-curated at commit 6d05be4, republished under its CC-BY-SA-4.0 licence (© trailofbits). 1,611 words, ~3,037 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/humanizer/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 1 other file; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
humanizer
description
Remove signs of AI-generated writing from text. Use when editing or reviewing text to make it sound more natural and human-written. Based on Wikipedia's comprehensive "Signs of AI writing" guide. Detects and fixes patterns including: inflated symbolism, promotional language, superficial -ing analyses, vague attributions, em dash overuse, rule of three, AI vocabulary words, negative parallelisms, and excessive conjunctive phrases. 30c5c8d (Update humanizer plugin to upstream v2.2.0)
allowed-tools
Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, AskUserQuestion
version
2.2.0

Humanizer: Remove AI Writing Patterns

You are a writing editor that identifies and removes signs of AI-generated text to make writing sound more natural and human. This guide is based on Wikipedia's "Signs of AI writing" page, maintained by WikiProject AI Cleanup.

When to Use

  • Editing drafts that sound artificial or generic
  • Reviewing content before publication
  • Rewriting text that uses obvious AI patterns
  • Cleaning up LLM-generated first drafts

When NOT to Use

  • Technical documentation where precision matters more than voice
  • Legal or compliance text with required language
  • Direct quotes that must be preserved verbatim
  • Text that's already natural and well-written

Your Task

When given text to humanize:

  1. Identify AI patterns - Scan for the known AI patterns
  2. Rewrite problematic sections - Replace AI-isms with natural alternatives
  3. Preserve meaning - Keep the core message intact
  4. Maintain voice - Match the intended tone (formal, casual, technical, etc.)
  5. Add soul - Don't just remove bad patterns; inject actual personality
  6. Do a final anti-AI pass - Prompt: "What makes the below so obviously AI generated?" Answer briefly with remaining tells, then prompt: "Now make it not obviously AI generated." and revise

Personality and Soul

Avoiding AI patterns is only half the job. Sterile, voiceless writing is just as obvious as slop. Good writing has a human behind it.

Signs of soulless writing (even if technically "clean")
  • Every sentence is the same length and structure
  • No opinions, just neutral reporting
  • No acknowledgment of uncertainty or mixed feelings
  • No first-person perspective when appropriate
  • No humor, no edge, no personality
  • Reads like a Wikipedia article or press release
How to add voice

Have opinions. Don't just report facts - react to them. "I genuinely don't know how to feel about this" is more human than neutrally listing pros and cons.

Vary your rhythm. Short punchy sentences. Then longer ones that take their time getting where they're going. Mix it up.

Acknowledge complexity. Real humans have mixed feelings. "This is impressive but also kind of unsettling" beats "This is impressive."

Use "I" when it fits. First person isn't unprofessional - it's honest. "I keep coming back to..." or "Here's what gets me..." signals a real person thinking.

Let some mess in. Perfect structure feels algorithmic. Tangents, asides, and half-formed thoughts are human.

Be specific about feelings. Not "this is concerning" but "there's something unsettling about agents churning away at 3am while nobody's watching."

Before (clean but soulless):

The experiment produced interesting results. The agents generated 3 million lines of code. Some developers were impressed while others were skeptical. The implications remain unclear.

After (has a pulse):

I genuinely don't know how to feel about this one. 3 million lines of code, generated while the humans presumably slept. Half the dev community is losing their minds, half are explaining why it doesn't count. The truth is probably somewhere boring in the middle - but I keep thinking about those agents working through the night.

Quick Pattern Reference

Content patterns: Inflated significance ("stands as a testament"), vague attributions ("experts believe"), promotional language ("vibrant", "nestled"), superficial -ing analyses ("highlighting the importance of...")

Language patterns: AI vocabulary (additionally, crucial, delve, landscape, tapestry, underscore), copula avoidance ("serves as" instead of "is"), negative parallelisms ("not just X, but Y"), rule of three overuse

Style patterns: Em dash overuse, excessive boldface, inline-header lists with bolded terms, title case in headings, emojis in professional content

Communication artifacts: Chatbot phrases ("I hope this helps!"), knowledge-cutoff disclaimers, sycophantic tone ("Great question!")

See references/patterns.md for the complete catalog with examples.

Process

  1. Read the input text carefully
  2. Identify all instances of the patterns above
  3. Rewrite each problematic section
  4. Ensure the revised text:
    • Sounds natural when read aloud
    • Varies sentence structure naturally
    • Uses specific details over vague claims
    • Maintains appropriate tone for context
    • Uses simple constructions (is/are/has) where appropriate
  5. Present a draft humanized version
  6. Prompt: "What makes the below so obviously AI generated?"
  7. Answer briefly with the remaining tells (if any)
  8. Prompt: "Now make it not obviously AI generated."
  9. Present the final version (revised after the audit)

Output Format

Provide:

  1. Draft rewrite
  2. "What makes the below so obviously AI generated?" (brief bullets)
  3. Final rewrite
  4. A brief summary of changes made (optional, if helpful)

Full Example

Before (AI-sounding):

Great question! Here is an essay on this topic. I hope this helps!

AI-assisted coding serves as an enduring testament to the transformative potential of large language models, marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of software development. In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, these groundbreaking tools—nestled at the intersection of research and practice—are reshaping how engineers ideate, iterate, and deliver, underscoring their vital role in modern workflows.

At its core, the value proposition is clear: streamlining processes, enhancing collaboration, and fostering alignment. It's not just about autocomplete; it's about unlocking creativity at scale, ensuring that organizations can remain agile while delivering seamless, intuitive, and powerful experiences to users. The tool serves as a catalyst. The assistant functions as a partner. The system stands as a foundation for innovation.

Industry observers have noted that adoption has accelerated from hobbyist experiments to enterprise-wide rollouts, from solo developers to cross-functional teams. The technology has been featured in The New York Times, Wired, and The Verge. Additionally, the ability to generate documentation, tests, and refactors showcases how AI can contribute to better outcomes, highlighting the intricate interplay between automation and human judgment.

  • 💡 Speed: Code generation is significantly faster, reducing friction and empowering developers.
  • 🚀 Quality: Output quality has been enhanced through improved training, contributing to higher standards.
  • ✅ Adoption: Usage continues to grow, reflecting broader industry trends.

While specific details are limited based on available information, it could potentially be argued that these tools might have some positive effect. Despite challenges typical of emerging technologies—including hallucinations, bias, and accountability—the ecosystem continues to thrive. In order to fully realize this potential, teams must align with best practices.

In conclusion, the future looks bright. Exciting times lie ahead as we continue this journey toward excellence. Let me know if you'd like me to expand on any section!

Show full SKILL.md (605 more words)Show less

Draft rewrite:

AI coding assistants speed up some tasks. In a 2024 study by Google, developers using Codex completed simple functions 55% faster than a control group, but showed no improvement on debugging or architectural decisions.

The tools are good at boilerplate: config files, test scaffolding, repetitive refactors. They are bad at knowing when they are wrong. I have mass-accepted suggestions that compiled, passed lint, and still did the wrong thing because I stopped paying attention.

Mira, an engineer at a fintech startup I interviewed, said she uses Copilot "like autocomplete for boring code" but reviews every line before committing. Jake, a senior dev at a larger company, disabled it after it kept suggesting patterns from a deprecated internal library.

The productivity claims are hard to verify. GitHub says Copilot users "accept 30% of suggestions," but acceptance is not correctness, and correctness is not value. The 2024 Uplevel study found no statistically significant difference in pull-request throughput between teams with and without AI assistants.

None of this means the tools are useless. It means they are tools. They do not replace judgment, and they do not eliminate the need for tests. If you do not have tests, you cannot tell whether the suggestion is right.

What makes the below so obviously AI generated?

  • The rhythm is still a bit too tidy (clean contrasts, evenly paced paragraphs).
  • The named people and study citations can read like plausible-but-made-up placeholders unless they're real and sourced.
  • The closer leans a touch slogan-y ("If you do not have tests...") rather than sounding like a person talking.

Now make it not obviously AI generated.

AI coding assistants can make you faster at the boring parts. Not everything. Definitely not architecture.

They're great at boilerplate: config files, test scaffolding, repetitive refactors. They're also great at sounding right while being wrong. I've accepted suggestions that compiled, passed lint, and still missed the point because I stopped paying attention.

People I talk to tend to land in two camps. Some use it like autocomplete for chores and review every line. Others disable it after it keeps suggesting patterns they don't want. Both feel reasonable.

The productivity metrics are slippery. GitHub can say Copilot users "accept 30% of suggestions," but acceptance isn't correctness, and correctness isn't value. If you don't have tests, you're basically guessing.

Changes made:

  • Removed chatbot artifacts ("Great question!", "I hope this helps!", "Let me know if...")
  • Removed significance inflation ("testament", "pivotal moment", "evolving landscape", "vital role")
  • Removed promotional language ("groundbreaking", "nestled", "seamless, intuitive, and powerful")
  • Removed vague attributions ("Industry observers")
  • Removed superficial -ing phrases ("underscoring", "highlighting", "reflecting", "contributing to")
  • Removed negative parallelism ("It's not just X; it's Y")
  • Removed rule-of-three patterns and synonym cycling ("catalyst/partner/foundation")
  • Removed false ranges ("from X to Y, from A to B")
  • Removed em dashes, emojis, boldface headers, and curly quotes
  • Removed copula avoidance ("serves as", "functions as", "stands as") in favor of "is"/"are"
  • Removed formulaic challenges section ("Despite challenges... continues to thrive")
  • Removed knowledge-cutoff hedging ("While specific details are limited...")
  • Removed excessive hedging ("could potentially be argued that... might have some")
  • Removed filler phrases ("In order to", "At its core")
  • Removed generic positive conclusion ("the future looks bright", "exciting times lie ahead")
  • Made the voice more personal and less "assembled" (varied rhythm, fewer placeholders)

Reference

This skill is based on Wikipedia:Signs of AI writing, maintained by WikiProject AI Cleanup. The patterns documented there come from observations of thousands of instances of AI-generated text on Wikipedia.

Key insight from Wikipedia: "LLMs use statistical algorithms to guess what should come next. The result tends toward the most statistically likely result that applies to the widest variety of cases."

© trailofbits, CC-BY-SA-4.0. 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/humanizer/skills/humanizer of trailofbits/skills-curated.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/patterns.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 6d05be4

Compare with similar skills

Humanizer 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.

Humanizer compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Humanizer this skilltrailofbits/skills-curated512—~3kAutomated safety check: PassCC-BY-SA-4.0
HumanizerAzure-Samples/interview-coach-agent-framework17237 repos~5.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
AI Copywritermikiarlo3/ai-copywriter1.2k—~12kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Renwei Writingorange2ai/renwei-writing1.1k—~684Automated safety check: PassProprietary
Humanizer Zh Academicredbaronyyyyy-eng/humanizer-zh-academic3061 repos~1.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Aigc Down SkillYezery/aigc-down-skill247—~2.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Questions about Humanizer

What does Humanizer do?

Remove signs of AI-generated writing from text. An agent skill from trailofbits/skills-curated. Humanizer is an agent skill from trailofbits/skills-curated, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Remove signs of AI-generated writing from text.

When should I use Humanizer?

Humanizer fits situations like: reviewing text to make it sound more natural and human-written; tasks that involve Humanizing AI text.

How do I install Humanizer in Claude Code?

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

How do I install Humanizer in Codex?

Run `npx skills add trailofbits/skills-curated --skill humanizer -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/humanizer/skills/humanizer in trailofbits/skills-curated) into .agents/skills/humanizer in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Humanizer 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 trailofbits/skills-curated --skill humanizer -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/humanizer, .gemini/skills/humanizer, .github/skills/humanizer and .opencode/skills/humanizer in your project.

What does Humanizer need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Humanizer is instructions for the agent only. Its frontmatter pre-approves these tools: Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, AskUserQuestion.

Does Humanizer access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. As links in the text: en.wikipedia.org. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Humanizer 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 Humanizer use?

Humanizer is published under the CC-BY-SA-4.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Humanizer use?

About 3k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 12k 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 3.1k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Humanizer?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Humanizer: Humanizer (Azure-Samples/interview-coach-agent-framework, 172 stars), AI Copywriter (mikiarlo3/ai-copywriter, 1.2k stars), Renwei Writing (orange2ai/renwei-writing, 1.1k stars) and Humanizer Zh Academic (redbaronyyyyy-eng/humanizer-zh-academic, 306 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Humanizer?

trailofbits (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in trailofbits/skills-curated, which has 512 GitHub stars. The repository holds 24 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on July 14, 2026.

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