tend-prose

Reviews recently added comments, docstrings, and Markdown against four prose defects and fixes them in place.

Updated Nov 17, 2025
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/vzakharov/vovazakharov.com --skill tend-prose-vzakharov
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: tend-prose
Source: https://github.com/vzakharov/vovazakharov.com/tree/main/.claude/skills/tend-prose
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/vzakharov/vovazakharov.com --skill tend-prose-vzakharov

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve? Prose added during coding sessions — comments, docstrings, and Markdown — accumulates four recurring defects: text that should never have been written, narration of the change instead of the code's lasting contract, bloated restatements of what names and types already say, and negations of things the change removed. This Skill finds and fixes those defects in the prose you just wrote, before handing work back. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Four-lens review (TEND): Checks every added prose line for Tightness, Existence, Negation, and Durability defects, with concrete tells and tests for each lens. - Single-lens mode: Run only one lens by name or alias (e.g. durability, narration, polar bear) for a targeted pass instead of the full sweep. - Git-scoped review: Scopes the review to uncommitted changes or commits since the operator last engaged, and collects removed nouns from the diff to detect prose about things that no longer exist. - Edits, not reports: Fixes clear cases in place — deletions first, then rewrites, then trims — and commits the result with reasons. - Use Case: After an autonomous multi-commit run that added comments and updated a README, invoke the skill to strip narration like "no longer parses the emoji", cut docstrings that restate their signatures, and delete sentences denying a module the branch removed. ## Quick Start Ask the AI to run /tend-prose to review and fix the prose added in your recent commits, optionally naming one lens such as durability or polar bear for a targeted pass.

Frequently Asked Questions about tend-prose

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I review code comments and docstrings I just wrote?

Invoke /tend-prose after your coding work. It scopes to your uncommitted changes or recent commits via git diff, checks each added prose line against four defect lenses, and fixes clear cases in place rather than producing a report.

What are the four prose defects the TEND review checks?

Tightness (more words than information), Existence (text that should not have been written), Negation (denying a thing the change removed), and Durability (narrating the change instead of the code's lasting contract). All four carry equal weight.

Can I run only one review lens instead of all four?

Yes. Name one lens as the argument, such as /tend-prose durability or /tend-prose polar bear, optionally with focus guidance like a path. Aliases work too: narration maps to durability, bloat to tightness.

What is the polar bear or negation defect in documentation?

It is prose whose subject is something the change removed, surviving as its own denial — for example "copy is not a segment" after the copy catalogue was deleted. The skill detects it by grepping removed nouns from the diff against the post-change tree.

Does the prose review touch commit messages or changelogs?

No. Commit messages, PR bodies, changelogs, release notes, and transient plan documents are explicitly excluded, because narrating changes is their purpose. Only lasting prose in code comments, docstrings, and documentation is reviewed.

When should I skip running a prose review pass?

Skip it when recent work added no prose at all — pure logic or test edits with no new comments or documentation. The skill itself reports there is nothing to review if the git scope comes back empty.