README Style Guide

Write concise, direct README files for experienced engineers.

Voice

Prose style is not defined here. The clanker-prose plugin's prose-contract owns it, injected via a SessionStart hook pointer to its two sections:

• Ghostwriting for Other Humans - a README is read by another human, so it takes the ghostwriting contract: minimum facts, one fact per sentence, the deletion test on every word
• Banned Patterns in All Writing - the catalog of forbidden words and constructions, including hype vocabulary, opposing phrases, phantom-foil contrast, emojis, and emdashes

This skill covers what belongs in a README and in what order.

Principles