style-tells SKILL.md skillA
This file is byte-identical to the first copy the registry indexed. Same content hash, so the same checks give both the same grade.
style-tells from kalyvask/winning-writing is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add kalyvask/winning-writing/style-tells@git:20260522.8896ed6Pins git:20260522.8896ed6 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- kalyvask/winning-writing
- Path
side-panel-coach/rules/skills/style-tells/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20260522.8896ed6, committed May 22, 2026
- Size
- 10,907 bytes
- Repository stars
- 16
- License
- MIT
Scrubs the three surface tells that make prose feel AI-generated, padded, or jargon-heavy. Three targets behind one skill, picked via the --target arg. em-dashes (default off in cold email / memo / Slack, max one per page in op-eds), adverbs (the -ly and intensifier pile), jargon (the Silicon Valley / consultant kill-list plus AI-tell phrases). Use when the user says "kill the AI tells," "scrub jargon," "remove em-dashes," "cut the adverbs," "make this sound human," "less corporate…
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# Style tells Source: `points/ai-writing-rules.md` (em-dash rule), `points/core-rules.md` rule 5 (be shorter), `points/banned-jargon.md`, and Stephen King's *On Writing* (the adverb rule). ## What this skill does Three passes behind one skill. Each pass removes a different surface tell that flags writing as AI-generated, padded, or jargon-heavy: | Target | What it removes | When to run alone | |---|---|---| | **em-dashes** | em-dashes (—), double-hyphens (--), the "not just X — it's Y" construction | When the only problem is AI-flavored punctuation | | **adverbs** | empty intensifiers, -ly adverbs the verb already implies, sentence-starting adverbs | When the draft is bloated with qualifiers | | **jargon** | banned consultant words, AI-tell phrases, wordy substitutions | When the draft sounds corporate or AI-generated | Default `--target all` runs all three in order: jargon → adverbs → em-dashes. The order matters: jargon and adverbs often expose dashes that were holding bloated clauses together. ## How to invoke ``` /style-tells "draft text" /style-tells --target em-dashes "draft text" /style-tells --target adverbs "draft text" /style-tells --target jargon "draft text" …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add kalyvask/winning-writing/style-tells@sha256:b5b610d0c24675ebThe line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260522.8896ed6, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_zmd4ssuom7samzy7)
4 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on May 22, 2026.
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (10907 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
kalyvask/winning-writing · 16 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-09-05 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_zmd4ssuom7samzy7 GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=kalyvask/winning-writing/style-tells GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/b5b610d0c24675ebdc8fb5c44d896b61b9fdbaca7b49370b07b801c276116bda
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.
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