avoid-ai-writing
Audit & rewrite content to remove AI writing patterns. A practical skill for any AI agent. Supports detect-only and edit-in-place modes, plus voice profiles.
A portable writing skill for Claude Code, OpenClaw, Hermes, and any other agentskills.io-compatible agent. Audits and rewrites content to remove AI writing patterns ("AI-isms").
Three modes:
- Rewrite (default) — flags AI patterns and rewrites the text to fix them. A built-in second pass catches patterns that survived the first edit.
- Detect — flags AI patterns without rewriting. Shows which flags are real problems vs. judgment calls. Useful when patterns might be intentional, when auditing content you don't want altered, or when you just want a quick scan.
- Edit — edits a file in place (via the Edit tool) with minimal, targeted changes, preserving passages that are already human. Returns an edits-made + verification report, not the full file.
An optional voice profile (casual / professional / technical / warm / blunt) sets how the prose should sound, independent of the audience context profile.
Quick demo
Input:
Certainly! Acme Analytics, a vibrant startup nestled in the heart of Boulder's thriving tech ecosystem, has secured $40M in Series B funding — marking a watershed moment for the observability landscape. The platform serves as a unified hub, featuring real-time dashboards, boasting sub-second queries, and presenting a seamless integration layer. Moreover, experts believe Acme is poised to disrupt the market. In conclusion, the future looks bright!
Output:
Acme Analytics raised a $40M Series B led by Sequoia. The Boulder-based startup makes an observability platform that runs queries in under a second and plugs into existing monitoring stacks without custom integration work.
What it caught: chatbot opener ("Certainly!"), promotional language ("vibrant," "nestled," "thriving"), significance inflation ("watershed moment"), copula avoidance ("serves as," "featuring," "boasting"), 4 word replacements, vague attribution ("experts believe"), filler ("Moreover"), generic conclusion ("the future looks bright"), over-polished uniformity. 15+ AI tells in one paragraph.
Why a skill, not just a prompt
A one-shot "make this sound human" prompt catches the obvious stuff. This skill is different:
- Structured audit — returns identified issues with quoted text, the rewrite, a change summary, and a second-pass audit in four discrete sections. You see exactly what changed and why.
- Two-pass detection — the second pass re-reads the rewrite and catches patterns that survive the first edit: recycled transitions, lingering inflation, copula swaps that snuck through.
- 109-entry word replacement table across 3 tiers + 10 Tier 3 phrases — not vibes-based. Every flagged word has a specific, plainer alternative. "Leverage" → "use." "Commence" → "start." Tier 1 words always flag, Tier 2 words flag when they cluster, Tier 3 words flag only at high density. Tier 3 phrases (multi-word boilerplate like "the integration of," "decentralized compute") flag on per-phrase repetition or when 3+ distinct phrases stack in one piece — the LLM-self-varies-boilerplate shape.
- 46 pattern categories — representative examples below, each with before/after. Includes structural detection (hashtag stuffing, bare-NP bullet lists, hedge-stacked predictions), AI-tool fingerprints (placeholders, citation markup, UTM params), rhythm/uniformity checks, and writer-side tests. The full catalog lives in
SKILL.md; this count is enforced against it in CI.
- Detect mode — flag patterns without rewriting. See which flags are real problems vs. judgment calls. Useful when patterns might be intentional or you're auditing content you don't want altered.
- Works across platforms — one
SKILL.md runs in Claude Code, Cowork (as a plugin), OpenClaw, and Cursor (as a ported rule). See the install paths below.
Installation & Usage
Claude Code
Option 1: Clone into skills directory
git clone https://github.com/conorbronsdon/avoid-ai-writing ~/.claude/skills/avoid-ai-writing
Option 2: Copy the file directly
Download SKILL.md and place it in any directory that Claude Code can read. Reference it in your CLAUDE.md:
- Editing for AI patterns → read `path/to/avoid-ai-writing/SKILL.md`
