article-workshop

---
name: article-workshop
description: "Use when the user starts a piece of writing or has raw material to shape into an article. Not for code docs or agent docs."
user-invocable: false
---
# Article workshop
Job: Turn raw thought into a finished article the reader never gets lost in.
Takes: a topic, or a material file.   Gives: a growing material file, then a separate article file.

## Steps

1. Find the stage.

   | State | Open in this skill |
   |---|---|
   | Starting a piece, or ideas still need drawing out | `gather.md` |
   | Material exists and needs shaping into an article | `assemble.md` |

2. Follow that file. Two rules hold in both.

## The file rule

Re-read the file before every write, because the user may have edited it. Keep their edits absolutely: never revert or smooth them, and let them redirect what comes next.

## The reader ledger

For assembling, keep a running list of what the reader has at each point.

- Agree first what the audience already knows. That is the starting ledger.
- Add each concept as the piece establishes it, the idea and any name for it together.
- Nothing appears before it is established. This covers ideas with no jargon attached, not only terms.
- When something tempting has no foundation, either add an earlier part that lays one, or move the concept into what readers are assumed to know. Weigh the readers that excludes against an opening full of definitions.

## Done when

- Gathering: the material file holds the user's thinking, unordered, with one compact metaphor pushed for, and every user edit intact.
- Assembling: the user has called it finished, nothing in the article relies on anything the reader wasn't given, and the material file is unchanged.

• SKILL.md 2 KB
• assemble.md 2 KB
• gather.md 1 KB