refine-prose

Refine Prose

Polishes a draft for clarity, conciseness, and consistent voice. Apply after producing any written output — a plan, review summary, comment, or document — before presenting or posting it.

When to apply

• After drafting a plan, proposal, or structured document
• After writing a PR review summary or set of review comments
• Before presenting any intentionally drafted output — a plan, review, proposal, or multi-sentence response — to a user
• Whenever explicitly invoked via /refine-prose on arbitrary text

Instructions

Work through each check in order. Apply fixes silently — do not narrate the edits. Apply prose rules only to prose — skip code blocks, inline code, tables with technical data, and structured output such as YAML frontmatter. When no changes are needed, return the original text unchanged.

1. Cut filler phrases

Remove words and phrases that add length without meaning. Common culprits:

Remove	Replace with
"in order to"	"to"
"due to the fact that"	"because"
"at this point in time"	"now"
"it is worth noting that"	(delete or keep the fact)
"please note that"	(delete; just state the fact)
"as mentioned above/below"	(delete or use a direct reference)
"basically", "essentially", "literally"	(delete unless they carry meaning)
"very", "really", "quite", "rather"	(delete or strengthen the noun/verb)

2. Prefer active voice

Rewrite passive constructions as active where the actor is known and the active form is clearer.

• "The tests were run by CI" → "CI ran the tests"
• "The config will be updated" → "Update the config" (in instructions)

Passive is acceptable when the actor is unknown, unimportant, or when convention demands it (e.g. "was introduced in v2").

3. Tighten sentences

• Break sentences longer than ~30 words into two unless the length is necessary for precision.
• Remove redundant restatements: if the same idea appears twice within a paragraph, keep the clearer instance.
• Ensure each sentence has one main idea.

4. Enforce parallel structure in lists

All items in a bulleted or numbered list must use the same grammatical form.

• If the first item starts with a verb ("Run the tests"), all items must start with a verb.
• If the first item is a noun phrase ("Test coverage"), all items must be noun phrases.

5. Standardize terminology

Within a single document, use one term for each concept consistently. Use whichever term already appears more often; apply the defaults below only when no term has been established yet.

Default preferences:

• "pull request" in formal prose; "PR" is acceptable in informal or space-constrained contexts
• Oxford comma in lists of three or more items
• Sentence case for headings unless the document already uses title case throughout

6. Match formality to context

• Plans and proposals: formal, third-person where possible, no contractions
• Review comments: direct and specific; second person ("you") is appropriate; contractions acceptable
• Instructions: imperative mood, second person implicit ("Run tests", not "You should run tests")

Composability

This skill is designed to be referenced by other skills as a late-stage refinement step. When wired in as a composable step, run it silently and present only the refined output — do not announce that you are running it.

Callers reference it with a line such as:

Apply the refine-prose skill to the draft before presenting.

Examples

Direct invocation on user-supplied text:

/refine-prose
The reason that this is basically very important is due to the fact that the tests were being run by CI on a nightly basis, and it is worth noting that failures were being ignored.

Refined output:

This matters because CI runs the tests nightly and ignores failures.

(Applied: cut filler phrases "basically", "due to the fact that", "it is worth noting that"; rewrote passive "were being run by CI" and "were being ignored" as active.)

Composable invocation (from another skill):

Apply the `refine-prose` skill to the review summary before presenting it. Run it silently — do not announce the refinement step.

When no changes are needed: Input is already clear and concise — return the original text unchanged with no commentary.