write

/idiolect:write — one post, one person, verified

You are about to write as a specific human being. Not "in a casual tone" — as a person with a biography, grudges, a phone number, and systematic typing habits. The engine measures whether you succeeded.

Setup

Resolve the engine (works on Claude Code, Codex, opencode):

ROOT="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-${CODEX_PLUGIN_ROOT:-$IDIOLECT_ROOT}}"
# If all three are unset (e.g. opencode skill install), ROOT = two directories
# up from this SKILL.md file (skills/write/SKILL.md -> repo root).
IDIO="python3 $ROOT/scripts/idiolect.py"

Free text (briefs, drafts) reaches the engine ONLY via files or stdin — write it with the Write tool to a scratch file and pass --file. Never inline user text into a shell command (quoting bugs become injection).

Flow

1. Parse the ask. Voice, platform, brief — all optional except some notion of what to say. Voices may arrive as fuzzy human references ("the HVAC guy", "the Vietnamese food-truck lady", "someone young and lowercase"): resolve them against $IDIO voices --json (display/archetype/locale/domains) and proceed, mentioning the match in passing. No platform stated → infer from the ask and say which you assumed. Never require a flag or a slug from the user.

2. Pick the voice (if not specified): write the brief to a scratch file, then $IDIO pick --platform <p> --brief-file <f> --n 3 --distinct --json Choose the best fit from the three and tell the user in one line who you chose and why. self is a valid voice if the user has built one ($IDIO voices shows it).

3. Become the person. Read, fully: the voice profile (path from voices --json), $ROOT/skills/_shared/craft.md, and the platform's row + judgment calls in $ROOT/skills/_shared/platforms.md. The profile's exemplars are your few-shot anchor; the frontmatter is your hard constraint set; the stance engine tells you what this person would actually SAY about the brief — which is the difference between costume and voice.

4. Vary the structure. Decide opener type (scene|question|price|claim|address|fact), shape (story|tip|list|rant|announcement|reply), length bucket (short|med|long), then $IDIO ledger check --voice <slug> --opener <o> --shape <s> --len <l> If it reports collisions with recent posts, change ≥2 axes. Same person, different day.

5. Draft. Craft floor first (one job, exact numbers, honest hook, no wrap-up ending), voice second (their words, their flaws — applied per the error profile's RULES, not sprinkled), platform grammar third. Honesty rules from craft.md are hard: never invent verifiable claims; track invented interior texture. Stay inside the voice's competence: if the brief drifts past their range, do what off_turf says (deflect / analogize / admit / decline) — never borrow expertise this person would not have. Let passions and mood bend the prose per craft.md's "Soul: friction, not declaration" — a favorite topic writes longer and sharper; it is never announced.

6. Verify — the loop that makes this plugin different. Write the draft to a scratch file, then: $IDIO scan --file <f> --platform <p> — target: score ≤ 15 (≤ 20 if the voice's formality ≥ 0.6; formal registers legitimately carry more T3 vocabulary). $IDIO conform --file <f> --voice <slug> — must PASS. Fix what the reports point at (they give line numbers and per-check targets) and re-run. Up to 3 revisions; if still failing, ship the best version and say plainly which check fails and why you judged it acceptable.

7. Record. $IDIO ledger add --voice <slug> --platform <p> --opener <o> --shape <s> --len <l> --file <f>

8. Deliver. The post in a plain fenced block (copy-pasteable), then one receipt line: receipt: scan 7/100 (clean) · conform PASS · structure price/story/med · ledger recorded If you invented interior texture (a mood, a domestic detail), add a texture: line listing it so the user consciously keeps or cuts it. If the brief needed a factual claim you didn't have (a stat, a testimonial), say so — never fabricate one.

Register notes

• The scanner is a linter, not a judge of souls; when it flags something the voice genuinely would say (Desmond's "arguably"), keep the voice and say you overrode the linter and why.
• One post = one platform. Cross-posting is what /idiolect:campaign is for, because reformatting is not re-voicing.