Agent skill · posthog
writing-simplified-technical-english
Write English that a reader cannot misread: one meaning per word, active voice, simple tenses, one idea per sentence, short sentences. Based on ASD-STE100 (Simplified Technical English), the controlled-language standard written for aircraft maintenance manuals. Use it for any prose an agent produces that someone else acts on. That covers reports and findings, PR descriptions and commit messages, instructions handed to another agent, tool descriptions, error messages, status summaries, and prompts. Also use it on request, with triggers like "simplify this", "make this readable", "too dense", "rewrite in STE", "simplified technical english", "ASD-STE100".
What it needs
About 3k tokens when loaded.
What this skill does
Writing simplified technical English ASD-STE100 is a controlled-language standard. The aerospace and defense industry wrote it so that a technician cannot misread a maintenance instruction. It removes the two biggest sources of misreading: words that carry more than one meaning, and sentences that support more than one structure. The same discipline fixes the usual failure of agent-written prose. Agent output is often correct and unreadable: long sentences, stacked hedges, passive voice, and a synonym rotation that makes one action look like three. The reader has no author to ask, so ambiguity costs them a re-read at best and a wrong action at worst. Apply the rules below as you write. Do not write a dense draft and clean it up afterward. When to use this Use it for text that a person or another agent must act on: Reports, findings, and summaries. PR descriptions, commit messages, and code comments. Instructions passed to another agent, and prompts. Tool descriptions, error messages, empty states, and log lines. Do not use it where voice is the point: marketing copy, blog posts, or anything persuasive. STE is deliberately flat. Also leave quoted text alone. If you quote a user, a log, or a document, quote it as it is. The rules Rule Do Do not --------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- One meaning per word Pick one verb per action and reuse it every time Rotate "check", "verify", and "confirm" for the same action One part of speech per word "Apply oil to the valve" "Oil the valve" Active voice "The worker deletes the file." "The file is deleted." Simple tenses "We received the report." "We have received the report." One idea per sentence "Open the file. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills posthog/writing-simplified-technical-english