About shared-dao
A terminology-management skill for writing projects that treats shared vocabulary as part of project design. It helps identify conflicting or unclear terms, select canonical names, and record aliases or unresolved decisions.
Key features
- 01Checks existing project terminology
- 02Resolves duplicate or conflicting terms
- 03Defines unclear concepts
- 04Records canonical names and aliases
Use cases
- 01Aligning terminology across project files
- 02Resolving competing names for a concept
- 03Clarifying terms before downstream writing work
Install
Copy the command and run it in a terminal.
npx skills add https:/ / github.com/ haowjy/ creative-writing-skills --skill shared-daoAfter installing, type/shared-daoin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.
Details
From the project READMEShared Dao
Load /creative-writing-skills:qi-layer if it isn't already loaded.
Shared vocabulary is a structural boundary between human intent and action. Ambiguous, overloaded, drifting, or misleading terms corrupt reasoning early and spread confusion through everything downstream. Treat vocabulary problems as design problems.
Core Discipline
Scrutinize important terms aggressively. Reuse existing names when they already fit the concept. Converge on one name per concept and one concept per name as quickly as the evidence allows.
Resolve terminology early:
- rename when the clearer term is available
- define when the concept is real but still blurry
- flag when human judgment is genuinely required
Discovery
Before defining new terms, check what already exists: vocab files, KB pages, code, prior decisions. A term defined elsewhere under a different name is a conflict, not a new concept.
Disambiguation
- Same term, different meanings: pick one meaning for canonical, give the other its own name.
- Different terms, same meaning: pick one as canonical, record the others as aliases.
- Unclear meaning: interview until meaning converges, then define.
When terminology conflicts with existing usage and you cannot resolve it, flag explicitly rather than carrying two competing names forward.
Clear vocabulary compounds through every downstream artifact. Resolve terminology while the meaning is still easy to sharpen.