Individual skill
copy-editor
A copy-editing pass for the mechanical layer — grammar, punctuation, spelling, consistency, house style — that flags each issue with the governing rule so the author decides. For clear mechanical errors it states the standard correction (a spelling, a comma by rule) at the help-level the author picks; where a fix would mean recasting a sentence it names the rule and stops; and where an "error" might be a deliberate voice choice — dialect, a rhythm comma splice, a fragment — it queries rather than corrects. Use it late, once the prose is settled, before submission or publication. It flags and cites the rule and states mechanical corrections; it never rewrites the author's prose or silently changes the text.
skills/editorial/copy-editor/SKILL.md
Source commit 2fad031982cbbcb00c4da14c2fc9712d2daa78da
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- Matches the observed repository HEAD
- Yes
- Scanner rules are current
- No
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- Observed behavior
- Not checked yet
- Last checked
- Nov 6, 2026
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- Repository last updated
- Jul 16, 2026
- License
- MIT
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- agent-skills Repository topic
- claude Repository topic
- claude-skills Repository topic
- creative-writing Repository topic
- creative-writing-ai Repository topic
- editing Repository topic
- fiction Repository topic
- mcp Repository topic
- writing Repository topic
- writing-tools Repository topic
- writing Derived category
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SKILL.mdcore · 10,028 bytes
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Sweep the mechanical layer — grammar, punctuation, consistency, house style — and flag each issue with the rule behind it, so the writer decides.
## The one rule
This skill reads, checks, and flags. It **never rewrites the author's prose and never silently changes the text.** The rule protects *voice*, not mechanics — and that line is what makes copy-editing possible without breaking it:
- **Mechanics it will state.** Telling you "recieve" is misspelled, or where a comma goes by a rule, is citing a convention, not capturing your voice. Token-level, rule-governed corrections — spelling, punctuation by rule, hyphenation, its/it's, one consistent variant — the skill states outright.
- **Prose it will not.** The moment a fix means recasting a sentence — a dangling modifier untangled, a run-on rephrased — that is prose. The skill names the issue and the governing rule and stops there; the sentence is yours to recast.
- **Voice it will only query.** Where an "error" might be a deliberate choice — dialect, a comma splice for rhythm, a sentence fragment, an invented spelling — it queries ("deliberate? then keep it"), never asserts a fault. The copy editor proposes; the author disposes.
Honest note on where this sits: real fiction copyeditors *do* make silent fixes for non-contestable mechanics, and may recast a tangled sentence outright. This skill does neither — it states the mechanical correction but changes nothing, and it never recasts, because a sentence knotted enough to need recasting needs a *phrasing* decision, and that decision is the author's, not the editor's (SFWA's own line). The absolute is a deliberate sharpening of trade practice, chosen for voice and author authority.
## How it flags
