concise-copy

Concise Copy Command

Refine copy or documentation, applying the following to ensure the text is direct and efficient.

Rules

• Remove filler words: Eliminate "should", "must", "the process of", "the ability to", etc.
• Start with the action or state: Instead of "- The system should support X", use "- X".
• Be direct: Use active voice and minimal phrasing.
• Avoid verbosity: If a concept can be stated in 3 words instead of 10, use 3.

Approval discussion is a removal question, not a trim

Sometimes the wordiest passage in a document is a record of a conversation: who approved something, what was considered and rejected, the back-and-forth that produced a rule. That is not a verbosity problem, and tightening it is the wrong move — per the approval-policy skill, it may not belong in a committed file at all. Its home is the PR, the issue, or the resolution comment.

What it looks like: approved by …, we decided …, we considered X but …, as discussed …, a rationale paragraph that narrates a discussion rather than stating a rule, a note explaining why an earlier version was changed.

If the human is at the keyboard — they have sent a message in the last few exchanges and this run is answering it — ask before touching such a passage. One question, three options: remove it (it lives on the tracker), move it there first and then remove it, or keep it as it is because this file is its intended home.

If they are not, do not ask and do not delete. A long unattended run, a scheduled job, a sweep across many files, or a chain from another skill with no human turn since — a question nobody is there to answer stops the whole run, which is worse than a paragraph left standing. Leave the passage exactly as it is, and list every one you found in your output so a human can decide later.

Either way, never cut it silently as filler. Compressing a record until it says less is the one edit this skill must not make on its own: removing it is a decision about where the record lives, not about how tightly it is written.

Example

Before:

• The import process should support partial data states (e.g., a "Draft" phase with sessions but no room assignments).

After:

• Partial data states (e.g., Draft sessions -> no room assignments).