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From claude-english-buddy
Provides per-context tone rubrics for developer communication: commit messages, PR descriptions, code comments, API docs, emails, inline chat. Use to judge register and formality fit.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/claude-english-buddy:tone-calibrationThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Tone is fit-for-purpose: a sentence can be perfectly grammatical and still wrong for its context. Rubrics below are drawn from the legacy writing-guide plus the Google Developer Documentation Style Guide and Strunk & White on concise phrasing.
Tone is fit-for-purpose: a sentence can be perfectly grammatical and still wrong for its context. Rubrics below are drawn from the legacy writing-guide plus the Google Developer Documentation Style Guide and Strunk & White on concise phrasing.
For commit messages, code comments, CLI help, and short docs, prefer the imperative — it is shorter and clearer than the indicative.
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| "You should run the tests" | "Run the tests" |
| "It would be good to add logging" | "Add logging" |
| "We need to refactor this" | "Refactor this" |
Cut filler. From Strunk & White, "Omit needless words."
| Wordy | Concise |
|---|---|
| "In order to" | "To" |
| "Due to the fact that" | "Because" |
| "At this point in time" | "Now" |
| "In the event that" | "If" |
| "Has the ability to" | "Can" |
| "Is going to" | "Will" |
| Dimension | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Mood | Imperative (Fix, Add, Refactor — not Fixed, Fixes, Fixing) |
| Tense | Present / imperative ("Fix parser crash"), never past |
| Subject length | ≤72 characters, 50 recommended |
| Terminal period on subject | None |
| Leading article | Drop ("Fix parser crash", not "Fix the parser crash") |
| Body | Optional; wrap at 72 chars; separated from subject by one blank line |
| Why vs what | Subject = what; body = why (if the what isn't self-evident) |
| Bad | Good |
|---|---|
| "Fixed bug" | "Fix null pointer in session handler" |
| "Updated code" | "Refactor auth module to use token-based validation" |
| "Changes" | "Add rate limiting to API endpoints" |
Rule: imperative mood, present tense, specific. "Fix X" not "Fixed X" or "Fixes X".
| Dimension | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Mood | Indicative, present tense ("This change adds…") |
| Sentences | Full sentences |
| Sections | Summary / Changes / Test plan (or equivalent) |
| Links | Link issues, commits, and external discussion |
| Voice | Active preferred ("I removed the cache" > "The cache was removed") |
| Dimension | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Mood | Imperative or indicative present |
| Length | One line per logical thought; ≤100 chars per line |
| Trailing punctuation | Period if the comment is a full sentence; none if it is a label |
| Purpose | Explain WHY, not WHAT (the code shows what) |
Avoid:
// increment counter next to counter++| Dimension | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Mood | Indicative present ("Returns the user object") |
| Person | Avoid "we"; use imperative for instructions ("Pass a non-empty string") |
| Formality | Full sentences, no contractions |
| Terminology | Consistent — pick one term per concept and keep it |
| Capitalization | Match the canonical form of tool/framework names (React, not react; npm, not NPM) |
| Dimension | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Opening | Greeting line matched to recipient (first-name basis vs "Dear …") |
| Body | Full sentences; one topic per paragraph |
| Closing | Sign-off matched to formality ("Thanks," "Best," "Regards,") |
| Tone | Professional but warm; avoid both stiffness and slang |
| Requests | Direct — state the ask in the first paragraph |
| Dimension | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Formality | Informal — contractions, sentence fragments, and lower-case sentence starts are fine |
| Emoji | Fine if the team uses them |
| Code | Use backticks or code blocks for anything runnable |
| Question vs statement | End questions with ?; do not end statements with ! unless warranted |
Before emitting a tone judgement, ask:
If any of (1)–(5) is off, that is a tone issue — even if every word is correctly spelled.
This skill covers tone and register only. Related concerns live in sibling skills:
npx claudepluginhub xiaolai/claude-english-buddy-for-claude --plugin claude-english-buddyEnforces brief, direct style without AI-speak for GitHub/GitLab issues, PR/MR descriptions, code reviews, commit messages. Skips public docs/READMEs.
Reviews draft messages (emails, Slack, PR comments) for clarity, tone, action items, and length. Flags buried asks, passive aggression, and vague next steps, then outputs a revised version with notes.
Avoids AI writing tropes like em dashes, delve, and promotional language when writing or editing PR descriptions, commit messages, documentation, Slack, or de-AI'ing text.