writing-guidelines — Claude Code skill: docs prose review
A skill that reviews docs and prose against a written style guide. You get findings with line numbers instead of hunting through the file yourself.
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill writing-guidelines -a claude-codeWhat writing-guidelines does
The skill gives the agent a fixed review loop: read the file or glob you name, compare it against the writing guidelines, report findings in the terse file:line form. The rules themselves aren't baked into the skill. Before every review the agent pulls the current document with WebFetch from the vercel-labs/writing-guidelines repo, so edits to the guide land without reinstalling anything.
Inside there's a single SKILL.md with four steps: fetch the guidelines, read the files, check every rule, print the output. The argument is a file or pattern, declared as ``. Pass nothing and the agent asks what to look at. One command installs it for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI or OpenCode.
The guide belongs to Vercel's repo. Bring your own style guide and the skill will still measure your text against that one, not yours — in that case keep your rules next to it and change the address in SKILL.md. Worth installing if you maintain docs or a blog in a shared repo and want drift caught before a human reads it. For a single paragraph, just ask the agent directly.
What it helps with
- run a docs page against each rule in a written style guide
- get a list of style violations anchored to line numbers
- check a section's voice and tone before publishing
- pick up updated rules without reinstalling the skill
- review a set of
.mdfiles by glob in one pass
Example prompts for the agent
- review `docs/getting-started.mdx` against the writing guidelines
- audit the prose in `README.md`
- check `docs/**/*.md` and report findings as file:line
How to install writing-guidelines
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill writing-guidelines -a claude-code2Manually: put the files in place
~/.claude/skills/writing-guidelines/SKILL.mdCopy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/writing-guidelines/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill writing-guidelines -a codex2Manually: put the files in place
.agents/skills/writing-guidelines/SKILL.mdFor all projects use ~/.agents/skills/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill writing-guidelines -a cursor2Manually: put the files in place
.cursor/skills/writing-guidelines/SKILL.mdCursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/
1GitHub CLI
gh skill install vercel-labs/agent-skills writing-guidelines2Manually: put the files in place
.github/skills/writing-guidelines/SKILL.md1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill writing-guidelines -a gemini-cli2Platform CLI
gemini skills install https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills --path skills/writing-guidelinesManually: put the files in place
.devin/skills/writing-guidelines/SKILL.mdThe legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works
Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill writing-guidelines -a opencodeClaude.ai
Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills
From the same set6
The whole set →Similar
Questions about writing-guidelines
How do I install writing-guidelines in Claude Code?
Run npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill writing-guidelines -a claude-code. The skill file lands at ~/.claude/skills/writing-guidelines/SKILL.md.
What does writing-guidelines do?
It takes the files you point at, checks them against the writing guidelines, and returns a list of findings with line numbers. The rules are re-fetched each time, so they don't go stale with the skill.
Does it need network access?
Yes. The agent retrieves the rules document from the vercel-labs/writing-guidelines repo with WebFetch. Offline, it has no current rule set to apply.
