Technical writing

Portability (required)

This skill is part of the portable pstack pack.

1. Read the pstack capability contract and the adapter for the active coding agent before any helper delegation.
2. Prefer capability verbs (explore, implement, review, parallel, ask_user, verify, model_role) over vendor tool names.
3. Resolve models through model_role. Never require a vendor-specific model identifier.
4. When helper spawning is unavailable, run the work on the lead agent and state that fan-out was collapsed.

The goal is writing a tired engineer understands on the first read. Four layers get you there, one question each: what kind of document is this, how do sentences address the reader, how much does each sentence carry, and can any sentence be read two ways. Apply all four.

Three rules sit above the layers:

• Cut every word that does no work. If the sentence survives without a word, the word goes. "In order to" is "to". "It is important to note that" is nothing.
• Use the short, everyday word. "Use", not "utilize". "Help", not "facilitate". "Do", not "perform". A long word has to buy its length with precision.
• When a rule makes a sentence worse, fix the sentence another way or leave it alone. The rules serve the reader. A sentence that follows every rule and sounds like a machine wrote it has failed.