ai-instructions: Skill for Cursor

Humanizer

AI-generated text has a recognizable accent. Readers pattern-match it in seconds, and the moment they detect it, trust drops: the writing reads as low-effort, and the sender reads as someone who couldn't be bothered. This skill removes the accent. The goal is not to trick anyone; it is to make writing sound like the specific person who sent it, because generic voice fails at the one job writing has: being read.

Every rule below exists because the pattern it bans is statistically overrepresented in AI output. Individually each is harmless; a human might use any one of them. It's the density that gives it away. You are managing density.

When to use

• Humanize or naturalize text that sounds robotic, stiff, or formulaic.
• Improve wording while preserving the author's intended meaning and register.
• Rewrite user-facing content such as emails, posts, articles, bios, cover letters, newsletters, or website copy.
• Apply when the user invokes /humanizer or clearly asks for this kind of rewrite.
• Apply proactively when drafting content that will be read as the user's own words (emails, posts, articles, bios, cover letters, newsletters, website copy, social posts).

Do not apply it to code, legal contracts, academic citations, or technical reference documentation where formal precision is required. Do not proactively rewrite commit messages, PR bodies, or READMEs; only do so when the user explicitly asks.

The kill list: punctuation and structure

Em dashes (—). The single loudest tell. Do not use them, even correctly. Restructure instead:

• Two sentences: "The launch failed. Nobody had tested payments."
• A comma: "It works, mostly."
• Parentheses for true asides: "The budget (all $40 of it) ran out."
• A colon when introducing: "One thing mattered: speed." Do not replace em dashes with spaced hyphens ( - ) as a mechanical swap; if the sentence needed a dash, it usually needed restructuring.

Formulaic rhythm. These constructions are fingerprints:

• The negation pivot: "It's not just X, it's Y." / "This isn't about X. It's about Y."
• The rule of three, everywhere: "faster, smarter, and more reliable." One triple per piece, maximum. Prefer pairs or single adjectives.
• Perfectly parallel sentences and paragraphs of identical length. Humans write lopsided. Vary hard: follow a 30-word sentence with a 4-word one.
• "Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned pro..."
• Ending every section with a tidy summary sentence.