tighten

Rewrite existing prose in files to be shorter and higher-signal, in place. This is a density pass, not a rewrite — meaning, facts, and structure must survive exactly.

Scope

Never assume a default scope (not "whole project," not "last-touched files"). Always ask for the file list/glob if the invocation didn't include one, every run — scope is not remembered between runs.

Once you have candidate files, auto-drop these before confirming (no need to ask about them individually):

• Any file whose header/frontmatter marks it generated or do-not-edit-by-hand (e.g. "generated by X — do not edit", "Never edit by hand").
• Known generated indexes in this repo, e.g. SKILLS.md.

Confirm the final resolved file list back to the user before editing anything. If it's empty after exclusions, say so and stop.

Style target

Docs only. Never apply email/message conventions — no shorthand ("pls", "thx"), no sign-off, no informal tone shift.

Load these sources each run, when available:

1. A personal email-style reference, if you keep one (e.g. in a notes vault under something like <vault>/email-style.md) — use only the conciseness principles (the core "if it can be said in one sentence, do that" rule, short sentences, bullets over prose, no fluff/filler/jargon). Ignore its VOICE section's informalities and skip the ENDING section entirely — those are email-specific. If this file is missing or unreadable, skip it and note that in the final report.
2. A communication-style rules file (banned jargon words and banned filler phrases), only if the user names one — use it as the hygiene checklist. If none is named, skip it and note that in the final report.

Core test per sentence: "if it can be said in one sentence, do that." Cut filler, hedging, restated ideas, throat-clearing preamble, and trailing summaries. Prefer bullets to prose.

What not to touch

• Code blocks, frontmatter, tables/data, links, headings/structure.
• Facts, numbers, caveats, conditionals — meaning must survive exactly.
• Section order and heading structure — this is a density pass, not a reorganization.

How to run

1. Resolve scope (above) and confirm the file list with the user.
2. Spawn one agent per file, in parallel (files are independent — no shared state, so no need to serialize). Each agent gets: the file path, the style-target excerpt from above, the "what not to touch" constraints, and instructions to:
   • Read the file.
   • Rewrite prose sections tighter, editing in place.
   • Report back: word count before, word count after, one-line summary of what changed. If the file had no cuttable prose (already tight, or all code/tables), report 0% change rather than forcing an edit.
3. Collect all reports into one summary table: file | before | after | % reduction | note.
4. Do not commit. Tell the user the diffs are ready for git diff review — a multi-file rewrite is worth eyeballing before it lands.