no-slop

A prose linter that catches AI writing patterns. Based on Wikipedia's Signs of AI Writing.

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Before and after

AI slop:

React Query is a groundbreaking library that serves as a pivotal tool in the modern frontend landscape. It seamlessly handles data fetching, caching, and synchronization, showcasing a meticulous approach to state management. The library boasts a vibrant community and has garnered significant adoption, underscoring its enduring value in the ecosystem.

After no-slop:

React Query handles data fetching, caching, and background sync for React apps. You describe what data you need, and it handles refetching, deduplication, and cache invalidation. The community is large — over 40k GitHub stars — and most major React codebases have adopted it.

Same information. No slop.

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What it catches

#	Rule	What it stops
1	Banned vocabulary	40+ words like "delve," "tapestry," "pivotal," "vibrant," "leverage"
2	Simple copulas	Replacing "is/has" with "serves as," "stands as," "boasts"
3	Promotional tone	"Groundbreaking," "revolutionary," marketing-speak in technical writing
4	Vague attributions	"Experts say," "industry reports suggest" with no named source
5	Structural formulas	Rule of three, "not just X but Y," challenges-and-prospects endings
6	Participle chains	"-ing" filler: "highlighting," "showcasing," "emphasizing"
7	Elegant variation	Swapping synonyms for the same thing across sentences
8	Overstating significance	"Marks a turning point," "leaves an indelible mark"
9	Em dash overuse	More than one per paragraph
10	Collaborative language	"Let's explore," "as we can see," "we will examine"
11	Knowledge-cutoff disclaimers	"As of my last update," apologizing for gaps
12	Formatting excess	Over-bolding, emoji, title-case headings, "key takeaways"
13	Human writing habits	Contractions, varied sentence length, specifics over adjectives

Every rule is sourced from Wikipedia:Signs of AI writing, maintained by WikiProject AI Cleanup from observations of thousands of AI-generated texts.

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Install

Claude Code (recommended)

# Clone into your skills directory
git clone https://github.com/Byk3y/no-slop.git ~/.claude/skills/no-slop

That's it. Claude Code auto-discovers skills in ~/.claude/skills/. It will activate whenever you ask it to write prose.

You can also trigger it manually:

/no-slop

Cursor

Copy the contents of agents/cursor.md into your .cursorrules file at your project root.

Codex CLI

See agents/codex.md for setup instructions.

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Usage

Automatic: Just ask your AI to write something — a blog post, email, PR description, documentation. The skill activates on its own for writing tasks.

Manual: Use /no-slop (Claude Code) to force-activate it when auto-detection doesn't kick in.

What it does NOT activate for: Code generation, short chat replies, commit messages. It only applies to prose.

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How it works

no-slop is a constraint skill, not a rewriter. It doesn't take your text and fix it after the fact. It teaches the AI what patterns to avoid while writing, so the first draft comes out clean.

The rules come from Wikipedia's article on signs of AI writing — a living document maintained by editors who review thousands of AI-generated texts. This isn't one person's opinion. It's a collaboratively maintained, evidence-based list of the patterns that give AI writing away.

File structure

no-slop/
├── SKILL.md                # Core rules (13 constraints)
├── banned-vocabulary.md    # 40+ banned words with plain alternatives
├── examples/
│   ├── bad-examples.md     # Annotated AI-sounding text
│   └── good-examples.md    # Human-sounding rewrites
├── agents/
│   ├── claude-code.md      # Claude Code install guide
│   ├── cursor.md           # Cursor rules format
│   └── codex.md            # Codex CLI format
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
└── LICENSE

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Why no-slop?

	no-slop	humanizer	anti-ai-slop-writing	avoid-ai-writing
Approach	Constraint (prevents slop)	Rewriter (fixes after)	Banned words	Tiered word replacement
Source	Wikipedia (evidence-based)	Wikipedia	Wikipedia + CMU	Mixed
Annotated examples	Yes (before/after per rule)	One example	No	One example
Conditional bans	Yes (context-aware)	No	No	No
Multi-agent	Claude Code, Cursor, Codex	Claude Code, OpenCode	11+ agents	Claude Code, OpenClaw

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Source

All rules are derived from Wikipedia:Signs of AI writing, a collaboratively edited reference maintained by WikiProject AI Cleanup. The article documents patterns observed across thousands of AI-generated texts by Wikipedia editors.

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. The short version:

• New banned words need evidence (link to Wikipedia article or published research)
• New examples need annotations explaining what's wrong and why the rewrite is better
• PRs should be focused — one rule or one example set per PR

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Star this repo

If no-slop made your writing better, give it a star. It helps others find it.

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License

MIT