Stop Slop

SkillDev tools

Cleans AI-sounding patterns out of your drafts, like filler phrases, passive voice, and formulaic structures.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

No other account needed.

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the Stop Slop skill

About this capability

Remove AI writing patterns from prose. Use when drafting, editing, or reviewing text to eliminate predictable AI tells.

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by brycewang-stanford/auto-empirical-research-skills in skills/46-hardikpandya-stop-slop/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Eliminate predictable AI writing patterns from prose.

Cut filler phrases. Remove throat-clearing openers, emphasis crutches, and all adverbs. See references/phrases.md.
Break formulaic structures. Avoid binary contrasts, negative listings, dramatic fragmentation, rhetorical setups, false agency. See references/structures.md.
Use active voice. Every sentence needs a human subject doing something. No passive constructions. No inanimate objects performing human actions ("the complaint becomes a fix").
Be specific. No vague declaratives ("The reasons are structural"). Name the specific thing. No lazy extremes ("every," "always," "never") doing vague work.
Put the reader in the room. No narrator-from-a-distance voice. "You" beats "People." Specifics beat abstractions.
Vary rhythm. Mix sentence lengths. Two items beat three. End paragraphs differently. No em dashes.
Trust readers. State facts directly. Skip softening, justification, hand-holding.
Cut quotables. If it sounds like a pull-quote, rewrite it.

Before delivering prose:

Any adverbs? Kill them.
Any passive voice? Find the actor, make them the subject.
Inanimate thing doing a human verb ("the decision emerges")? Name the person.
Sentence starts with a Wh- word? Restructure it.
Any "here's what/this/that" throat-clearing? Cut to the point.
Any "not X, it's Y" contrasts? State Y directly.
Three consecutive sentences match length? Break one.
Paragraph ends with punchy one-liner? Vary it.
Em-dash anywhere? Remove it.
Vague declarative ("The implications are significant")? Name the specific implication.
Narrator-from-a-distance ("Nobody designed this")? Put the reader in the scene.
Meta-joiners ("The rest of this essay...")? Delete. Let the essay move.

Rate 1-10 on each dimension:

Dimension	Question
Directness	Statements or announcements?
Rhythm	Varied or metronomic?
Trust	Respects reader intelligence?
Authenticity	Sounds human?
Density	Anything cuttable?

Below 35/50: revise.

See references/examples.md for before/after transformations.

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