unslop

Use it when:: A draft, doc or message reads as machine-written and you want it plain.
It does:: Scans the text for 28 numbered patterns, then rewrites it, keeping the meaning and intended tone.
You get:: The rewritten text.
Strict on:: Punctuation: no em dashes, en dashes or parentheses as stand-ins; colons only before a list or example.
Runs:: Only when you call it with /unslop.

Skill 8 of 14 in the pstack bundle, after technical-writing and before principle-boundary-discipline.

TL;DR

The prose rules of pstack, a set of agent workflows in Cursor's plugin repo; its rule numbers are stable ids that other skills cite. It covers content (trailing -ing phrases, vague attributions), language (words like delve, pivotal and tapestry, "serves as" for "is", "not just X but Y", forced groups of three, rotating synonyms, false ranges), style (em dashes, mid-sentence colons, bold labels that restate the line, title case headings, decorative emoji, curly quotes), chatbot phrases and sycophancy, filler and hedging, and abstract metaphor nouns such as substrate, north star or flywheel. Its plain-speech rules ask for the mechanism or a number instead of a feeling, cutting any sentence that could appear unchanged in another project's docs, and for short sentences, active voice, strong verbs over adverbs, plain words, literal phrasing, and whole sentences instead of compressed fragments and arrows. Unlike no-ai-slop, it has no detect-only mode: it scans and rewrites.

Summarizes the skill at 2776ddd.

npx skills add https://github.com/cursor/plugins --skill unslop

skills.sh page Source on GitHub All skills from cursor/plugins

Total Downloads: 33,600 on skills.sh, Nov 9, 2026
Repo stars: 15,776 cursor/plugins
First seen: May 24, 2026 on skills.sh

Weekly Downloads

2.7K

+67% over the 8 weeks to Nov 9

Weekly values

Week to	Installs
Sep 21	1,630
Sep 28	1,678
Oct 5	1,955
Oct 12	2,226
Oct 19	2,935
Oct 26	2,475
Nov 2	3,020
Nov 9	2,727

Category	category:writing Articles, docs, internal comms, research write-ups and prose that doesn't read as generated.
Type	type:command A one-shot action you invoke by name, such as turning the conversation into a PRD.
Effect	effect:none Adds no side effects of its own. It shapes how the agent thinks, writes or reviews. Guidelines and routers are always effect:none, even when the task they support edits code.
Needs	needs:none Instructions only. Works in any agent that supports skills.
Publisher	by:community Everyone else. Unverified vendor claims default to community.
Topics	anti-slop writing

SKILL.md

From cursor/plugins at 2776ddd. Checked daily, last changed Nov 6, 2026.

Frontmatter

name: unslop
description: Cut AI tells from any writing.
disable-model-invocation: true

Unslop

Edit text to remove AI patterns. Scan for the patterns below, then rewrite. Preserve meaning and match the intended tone.

Patterns to detect and fix

Rule numbers are stable ids that other skills cite. A removed rule leaves a gap.

Content

Superficial -ing phrases. "highlighting...", "ensuring...", "reflecting...", "showcasing...", "fostering...". Delete or expand with real sources.
Vague attributions. "Experts believe", "Industry reports suggest", "Some critics argue". Name the source or delete.

Language

AI vocabulary. Additionally, crucial, delve, enduring, enhance, fostering, garner, interplay, intricate, landscape (abstract), pivotal, showcase, tapestry (abstract), testament, underscore, vibrant. Replace with plain words.
Fancy ways to say "is". "serves as", "stands as", "boasts", "features". Say "is" or "has".
"Not just X, but Y." State the point directly instead.
Rule of three. Don't force ideas into groups of three. Use the natural number.
Synonym cycling. Protagonist, main character, central figure, hero all in one paragraph. Pick one, repeat it.
False ranges. "from X to Y" where X and Y aren't on a meaningful scale. List topics directly.

Style

Em dash overuse. Avoid em dashes entirely. Use periods or commas only (no parentheses, no en dashes, no hyphen-as-dash substitutes). If a thought needs separation, end the sentence or use a comma.
Colon overuse. Colons are fine before a list or example, not as mid-sentence connectors. "If you're coming from traditional automation: instead of registering event handlers, you describe conditions" adds nothing with the colon. Rewrite to let the point stand on its own without comparison framing. "Describing when the scheduler should fire works best as plain English." Same meaning, no crutch punctuation.
Boldface overuse. Don't bold every proper noun or acronym.
Inline-header lists. The tell is a bold label and colon that restates the line: "Performance: Performance improved...". Convert those to prose. A bold lead-in that ends in a period, names the item, and is followed by genuinely new detail ("Schema in TypeScript. Tables live in one file.") is fine, not a tell.
Title case headings. Use sentence case.
Decorative emojis. Remove from headings and bullets.
Curly quotes. Use straight quotes.

Communication artifacts

Chatbot phrases. "I hope this helps!", "Let me know if...", "Of course!", "Certainly!", "Found the smoking gun!" Remove.
Sycophantic tone. "Great question! You're absolutely right!" Respond directly.

Filler

Filler phrases. "In order to" becomes "To". "Due to the fact that" becomes "Because". Delete "It is important to note that".
Excessive hedging. "could potentially possibly be argued that it might" becomes "may".
Generic conclusions. "The future looks bright." State specific plans or facts.

Jargon

Abstract metaphor nouns. Substrate (base), wedge, wedge in (add), vector (way, method), locus, vantage, nexus, primitive as a noun, harness as a metaphor, surface as in "API surface", bedrock, scaffolding as a metaphor, modality, paradigm, gold-plating (more than the job needs), ratchet as a metaphor (the mechanism's real name, or a limit that only tightens), evacuate for moving code (move out), endgame (the last phase), north star, flywheel. These read as technical but usually have a plainer concrete word. Pick the concrete word.

Plain speech

Say what it does, not how it feels. "the database stays close at hand", "SQL you can read", "types that follow your schema" name a feeling. The fix names the mechanism or a number: ".toSQL() returns the exact string sent to the database", "a column rename fails the build". Ask what the sentence tells the reader to do or know, then write that. If you can't restate it as a concrete instruction, fact, or number, cut it. One more check: if the sentence could appear unchanged in another project's docs, it says nothing about this one. Cut it.
Shorten or split dense sentences. If the reader has to backtrack to parse a sentence, break it in two or drop clauses. One idea per sentence.
Active voice. Prefer it. Catch "is/are/was/were + past participle" and name the actor: "queries are validated" becomes "the compiler validates queries", "the file is parsed by the loader" becomes "the loader parses the file". Passive is fine only when the actor is unknown or genuinely doesn't matter.
Cut adverbs, or use a stronger verb. "runs quickly" becomes "is fast" or the number, and "significantly improves" becomes the measured delta. An adverb propping up a weak verb means the verb is wrong.
Prefer the plain word. "utilize" and "leverage" become "use", "facilitate" becomes "help", "numerous" becomes "many", "in the event that" becomes "if". The fancier synonym is rarely clearer.
Mannered prose. Metaphor or flourish where a literal phrase exists: aphorisms ("wire it or delete it"), rhetorical fragments for effect, personified code ("the plan holds it"), figurative verbs ("rides along", "stands on"), stock framing phrases. "A dial worth turning" becomes "a parameter worth varying". Say what you mean. Rule 26 covers the metaphor nouns.
Over-compression. Dropped articles, verbless fragments, symbol-speak, and abbreviations that make the reader decode instead of read. "Parser rejects bad date → exit 2, no write" becomes "The parser rejects a bad date, exits with code 2, and writes nothing." Write whole sentences with their articles and verbs, and spell out arrows and abbreviations.