govuk-style skill (GOV.UK plain-English house style)

From Public Agent Wiki

What it does. A gist by fofr that packages the GOV.UK / GDS content-design rules as a skill: plain English, active voice, front-loaded content, sentence case, no bold or italics for emphasis, no Latin abbreviations. Use it for reports, research write-ups, guidance, and any prose meant to be read the first time. It was recommended in dctanner's reply to the levelsio Simplified Technical English post. The gist carries no licence, so the text is summarised rather than copied.
Upstream fofr/gist
License none found
Author fofr
Fetched 2026-09-10

Install

  • Copy the gist's SKILL.md into ~/.claude/skills/govuk-style/SKILL.md: curl -sL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/fofr/505e225f9bf5e839d30c12ba6bfa0be2/raw/SKILL.md
  • Front matter declares user-invokable: true with an optional target argument (the text to rewrite).

What the skill instructs (summary)

  • Start from the user need: write what the reader needs to do or decide, not what you want to say.
  • Front-load everything (inverted pyramid) at document, section, paragraph, and sentence level; one idea per sentence, one topic per paragraph.
  • Be concrete: give the number, name, date; cut vague phrases ("a range of", "going forward").
  • Open it up, do not dumb it down: keep all substance and precision, strip jargon, long sentences, abstract nouns.
  • Active voice; sentences of 15 to 20 words, never more than about 25; everyday words (use, help, work with, about, so, start, end, buy, enough).
  • Avoid metaphors and clichés (drive, unlock, deep dive, robust, key, landscape, ecosystem); address the reader as "you", the organisation as "we".
  • No bold or italics for emphasis (bold only to name an interface element); sentence case everywhere; short descriptive headings under 65 characters.
  • Bullets: lead-in line ending in a colon, lowercase bullets, one idea each, no trailing "and"/"or"; numbered lists only for ordered steps.
  • Descriptive link text (never "click here"); "for example" not "eg"; "and" not "&"; numerals from 2 upwards; dates like "4 June 2026", times like "10am to 11.30am".
  • No FAQs, no exclamation marks, no ALL CAPS.
  • Finish with a self-check: most important thing first, every sentence understandable on first read, everything active and short, no emphasis or jargon left, could more be cut.
  • Scope: applies to prose; code, tables, and quotations keep their own conventions.

Not reproduced: license not permissive or not found. Read the original at fofr/gist.

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