I built a Claude Code skill that strips AI slop from writing and adds soul back in

Artur Schaback — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 10:59:51 +0000

I built a Claude Code skill that strips AI slop from writing — and adds soul back in

Wikipedia's editors maintain a guide called Signs of AI writing. It catalogs patterns observed across thousands of AI-generated texts. NPR, TechCrunch, and FlowingData have all called it the best reference for spotting machine-written prose.

The patterns are painfully recognizable once you see them.

"In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, organizations are leveraging robust AI solutions to foster innovation and drive sustainable growth."

That's not a sentence. That's a random walk through the top 20 AI vocabulary words.

Existing tools use the Wikipedia guide to detect and strip these patterns — banned phrases, structural clichés, sentence-level rules. They do detection and removal. They strip the bad stuff out.

deslop-the-copy goes further.

Three passes, not two

Pass 1: Kill AI patterns

Four categories of tells, removed on sight:

Content patterns — significance inflation ("stands as a testament"), promotional language ("groundbreaking", "nestled in the heart of"), vague attributions ("experts argue"), formulaic conclusions.

Language patterns — the full AI vocabulary list (robust, leverage, navigate, landscape, paradigm, delve, foster, synergy), copula avoidance ("serves as" instead of just "is"), negative parallelisms ("it's not just about X, it's about Y"), rule-of-three overuse, synonym cycling, filler phrases.

Style patterns — em dash overuse (zero tolerance, not even one), boldface overuse, inline-header vertical lists, Title Case headings, emojis in headings.

Communication artifacts — chatbot language ("I hope this helps!"), knowledge-cutoff disclaimers, sycophancy, meta-signposting ("let's explore", "here's the thing").

Pass 2: Add soul

This is the part other tools skip. After stripping the AI patterns, the text can be clean but lifeless. Pass 2 makes it human:

Vary sentence rhythm aggressively — mix 3-word fragments with 25-word sentences
Add opinions where appropriate
Use contractions everywhere (scan every sentence, contract what a native speaker would)
Start sentences with And, But, So
Leave rough edges and trust the reader

Pass 3: Final audit

One question: "What would make someone suspect AI wrote this?" Fix anything that still feels off. Zero em dashes, contractions in place, meaning preserved.

Before and after

Before:

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, artificial intelligence stands as a transformative force that is fundamentally reshaping how businesses navigate the complexities of modern commerce. From small startups to large enterprises, organizations are leveraging robust AI solutions to enhance their operational efficiency, foster innovation, and drive sustainable growth. It's not just about automation — it's about reimagining what's possible.

After:

AI is changing how businesses work. Companies of all sizes are using it to cut costs, speed up processes, and try things they couldn't before. That matters. But we're still figuring out the real risks, and not everyone benefits equally.

Install it

cd ~/.claude/skills
git clone https://github.com/skyzer/deslop-the-copy.git

Then just tell Claude: "deslop this" or "make this not sound like AI."

Open source, MIT licensed: github.com/skyzer/deslop-the-copy

DEV Community: Artur Schaback