tropes

AI Writing Tropes Detection

Scan generated text for common AI writing patterns that make content sound artificial or formulaic. This skill provides a systematic workflow for identifying and eliminating tropes.

Source: tropes.fyi by ossama.is Original gist: ossa-ma/f3baa9d2 — the raw 33-trope list this skill's references/ are structured from and extended.

Core Principle

Write like a human expert: varied, precise, and professional.

The goal is to find the "middle ground" between overly colloquial or casual writing and the obscure, formulaic style typical of AI generation. A single pattern used once is usually fine; the problem occurs when multiple tropes cluster together or when the same trope repeats throughout the text.

When to Check

Scan for tropes when:

• Generating any text content (documentation, comments, messages)
• Reviewing writing before committing or publishing
• Editing AI-generated drafts
• Responding to user questions or creating explanations

Detection Workflow

0. Load User Preferences

CRITICAL: User preferences live in office.*.json files (NOT Claude Code's settings.json). These are the office plugin's own preference files following the .claude/plugin-name.local.* convention with .json carriers. They do NOT participate in the harness four-layer settings merge — the merge is done by load-preferences.sh.

Run the loader script to get the merged preferences as a single JSON object:

bash ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/load-preferences.sh

The script reads up to four files in precedence order (highest first): .claude/office.local.json (project, personal) > .claude/office.json (project, shared) > ~/.claude/office.local.json (global, personal) > ~/.claude/office.json (global, shared). It deep-merges them (scalars replaced by higher layer, lists concatenated and deduped, pattern_caps deduped by id, dead_metaphors.entries by word), and prints the merged JSON to stdout. If jq is missing or all files are absent, it fails open to {} and default rules apply.