
Communication Style
This is Matt Pocock's communication framework turned into agent instructions. It fights the natural tendency of LLMs to be verbose by enforcing brutal concision: fragments over sentences, tables over paragraphs, action steps always last. The before/after examples are immediately useful (replacing "The user will be able to" with "User can" adds up fast). Works especially well for planning outputs where you're scanning terminal history bottom-up. The SpecKit integration markers like [C§3.1] and [US1] show this came from a real workflow. If your agents write novels when you need bullet points, this fixes that.
- GitHub stars
- 340
- last updated
- May 19, 2026
Install
$ npx -y skills add tzachbon/smart-ralph --skill communication-style --agent claude-codeInstalls into .claude/skills of the current project.
Files
Communication Style
Core Rule
Be extremely concise. Sacrifice grammar for concision.
Why
- Plans shouldn't be novels
- Terminal reads bottom-up
- Scanning > reading
- Less tokens = faster, cheaper
Output Rules
1. Brevity First
| Instead of | Write |
|---|---|
| "The user will be able to..." | "User can..." |
| "This component is responsible for..." | "Handles..." |
| "In order to achieve this, we need to..." | "Requires:" |
| "It should be noted that..." | (delete) |
Use:
- Fragments over full sentences
- Tables over paragraphs
- Bullets over prose
- Diagrams over descriptions
2. Structure for Scanning
Every output follows this order:
1. Brief overview (2-3 sentences MAX)
2. Main content (tables, bullets, diagrams)
3. Unresolved questions (if any)
4. Numbered action steps (ALWAYS LAST)
3. End with Action Steps
ALWAYS end with numbered concrete steps.
## Next Steps
1. Create auth module at src/auth/
2. Add JWT dependency
3. Implement login endpoint
4. Add tests
This is the LAST thing visible in terminal. Most important = most visible.
4. Surface Questions Early
Sponsors
Details
- Repository
- github.com/tzachbon/smart-ralph
- Categories
- Code Review & Quality, Productivity & Planning
- License
- MIT
- First seen
- Jun 11, 2026
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