plain-language

A set of techniques for making writing easier to understand, such as short sentences, active voice, simple words, and less jargon. It is based on plain-language writing principles.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to simplify documentation, instructions, explanations, and other text written for people with different levels of technical knowledge.
Why use it?
It helps readers understand information on the first pass instead of rereading dense or technical wording.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/stefan-jansen/claude-code-toolkit/plain-language
Any agent
npx skills add stefan-jansen/claude-code-toolkit --skill plain-language
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/stefan-jansen/claude-code-toolkit

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 39 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,709 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00039 $0.01709
Opus 5 $0.00019 $0.00855
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00342
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00171

Measured 3d ago against content hash f1f74f3f5608, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

plain-language scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

examples/writing/skills/plain-language/SKILL.md · 244 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 244 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Plain Language

Purpose: Write clearly and directly using active voice, simple sentences, and minimal jargon.

Origin: Plain Writing Act of 2010 (US), Plain Language Movement

Use When: Drafting and reviewing content to maximize clarity (Phases 4-5)


Core Principle

Plain language means readers understand immediately what you're saying - no rereading required.

Why It Matters

  • Comprehension: 80% of readers prefer plain language (Bailey 2017)
  • Efficiency: Plain language reduces reading time by 25-40% (Redish 1985)
  • Accessibility: Technical audiences still prefer clarity over jargon

The Four Rules

1. Use Active Voice (>80% target)

Passive: Subject receives action ("The error was caught by the test") Active: Subject performs action ("The test caught the error")

Why Active is Better:

  • Shorter (fewer words)
  • Clearer (who does what)
  • More direct (action-oriented)

Examples:

❌ PASSIVE:
"The bug was discovered by the QA team"
"Performance improvements were made to the API"
"A decision will be made by the committee"

✅ ACTIVE:
"The QA team discovered the bug"
"We improved API performance"
"The committee will decide"

Detection Pattern: "was/were/is/are + past participle + by"

When Passive is Okay:

  • Unknown actor: "The system was compromised"
  • Actor irrelevant: "Errors are logged automatically"
  • Emphasizing recipient: "The president was elected by landslide"

2. Shorten Sentences (<25 words average)

Principle: Long sentences increase cognitive load and reduce comprehension.

Targets:

  • Average: <25 words per sentence
  • Maximum: Avoid >35 word sentences
  • Variety: Mix short (10-15) and medium (20-25) sentences

Techniques:

❌ LONG (42 words):
"After extensive research and consideration of multiple
frameworks over several months using various criteria
including performance, ecosystem size, learning curve,
and community support, we determined that React offers
the best balance for our team's needs."

✅ SPLIT (2 sentences, 23 + 14 words):
"Our evaluation of 5 frameworks over 3 months ranked
React highest across 12 criteria, including performance,
ecosystem, and learning curve. React offers the best
balance for our team's needs."

Read the full file on GitHub · 244 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 3d ago First seen · 244 lines · 39 tokens per session scan A f1f74f3f5608

Subscribe to this mod's changes

plain-language is a skill published in the GitHub repository stefan-jansen/claude-code-toolkit (85 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 39 tokens to every session and 1,709 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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