How I deslopify AI writing

12 Jan 2026

Shreyas Prakash headshot

Shreyas Prakash

I recently launched a skill that can be used to deslopify AI content of any form. I built it to remove AI tells from writing so it reads more human, without erasing the author behind it. I found it a bit weird to build this skill, as I was using AI to make it anti-AI, all I can say now is that this is more of an art experiment to see how much AI can strip itself out of any AI-ness in its words and essay outputs.

I published the repo here.

I wanted this to work on real articles, not just a paragraph as a prompt. I also wanted to ensure structure gets preserved. Headings, lists, tables, links, and code blocks stay where they are; the copy inside them is what changes.

My second decision was the constraint source. I tied the skill to Wikipedia’s “Signs of AI writing” page because it is updated frequently and reflects current consensus. The workflow assumes a fresh fetch at invocation time and uses a local fallback list of the wikipedia article if the network is not available.

From there, the workflow is simple:

  • Refresh the AI-tells reference.
  • Open the target file and keep formatting intact.
  • Rewrite sentence-by-sentence, removing tells and formulaic patterns.
  • Validate against the current list and iterate until the tells are gone.
  • Output clean copy only, no scoring or commentary.

I also wanted to cut throat-clearing openers. Wanted to avoid binary “Not X. But Y.” constructions. Vary sentence length and do not end every paragraph with a punchline. State things directly. Skip rhetorical questions. The goal was not to just sound “clever,” it is to sound like a person who knows what they mean.

Another constraint mattered: no new voice. The skill should not invent humor, urgency, or brand tone that was not already there. It keeps meaning, intent, and rhythm while removing the tells.

In practice, Deslopify behaves like a careful editor. It does not add new ideas. It trims, rephrases, and rebalances. The result is copy that reads clean and human while preserving structure.

To use Deslopify, open your Codex / Opencode / Claude Code CLI pointing to a certain folder, and reference the .md file you want to modify:

  1. Invoke it on a file: deslopify article.md

  2. Or paste text directly: deslopify "your draft here"

  3. It preserves structure and returns clean copy only.

  4. It refreshes the Wikipedia tells list when network access is available, otherwise uses cached or fallback lists.

I tried initially for a simple paragraph: this was related to an excerpt on global warming, and I wanted to see how it generated an output deslopified

Original (excerpt):

Global warming represents one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity today. This phenomenon refers to the long-term increase in Earth's average surface temperature, primarily caused by human activities that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere..."

Deslopified output:

Global warming is one of the most urgent challenges we face. It refers to the long-term rise in Earth's average surface temperature, driven largely by human activity that releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Since the late 1800s, the planet has warmed by about 1.1 degrees Celsius, with most of that increase happening in recent decades. Burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial agriculture have raised levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. These gases trap heat that would otherwise escape into space, warming the climate system.

The effects are already visible and will intensify without major intervention. Ice caps and glaciers are melting faster, pushing sea levels higher and threatening coastal cities and island nations. Weather patterns are becoming more extreme, with stronger hurricanes, longer droughts, larger wildfires, and heavier floods. Ocean warming is bleaching coral reefs and disrupting marine ecosystems that millions rely on for food and income. Farming faces pressure as growing seasons shift, water scarcity spreads, and yields become less reliable. The burden falls hardest on poorer countries and vulnerable communities that did the least to cause the problem.

Addressing global warming requires coordinated action at every level. Shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy like solar and wind is essential, along with energy efficiency and protecting forests that absorb carbon. Agreements like the Paris Agreement matter, but implementation is difficult amid competing economic and political interests. Wealthier nations carry added responsibility to cut emissions and fund sustainable development in countries with fewer resources. Innovation, from carbon capture to climate-smart agriculture, helps, but it must be matched by systemic policy and economic change.

The scale is daunting, but there are reasons for hope. Renewable energy costs have dropped sharply, making clean power more competitive. Public concern has risen, especially among younger generations pushing for action. Cities, businesses, and regional governments are adopting ambitious climate policies even when national efforts lag. The transition to a sustainable economy can also bring innovation, jobs, cleaner air, and better health. The choices made in the coming years will shape what kind of world we leave behind.

The result was still premium-mediocre at best, mainly because the topic was also not so spiky and individuated. I could also observe that there is no granulated texture to the writing output, it lacks the personhood and soul that’s something which only humans can replicate (something like the voice of Voldemorts Diary in the Harry Potter series). This skill doesn’t let you emulate “liveness” as that’s something which cannot be defined, and yet it exists. Christopher Alexander talks about this quality at length in the book, Timeless way of building, where he explains the fuzziness in defining a “great” building, it could be defined in so many ways such as being alive, beautiful, perfect etc, but yet there is no single word that could encapsulate it all. Christopher Alexander explains his personal definition struggle as the struggle to break down the difference between what is as is, and what it ought to be. That change becomes only evident when we experience something which is in the state of “ought to be”, when we know some thing is in this state, we can say that it is already in the state, but it’s hard to pin it down with definitions.

And as far as the deslopify skill goes, if you don’t have a formal definition of the rules, it becomes difficult to truly make writing human. But it does remove the usual trite cliches which AI generated writing is commonly used to. So that’s at least like one step lesser to remove all the dirty laundry from the writing.

Subscribe to get future posts via email (or grab the RSS feed). 2-3 ideas every month across design and tech

Read more

  1. Life lessons and hot takes from my 30slifestyle
  2. Building a skill for coherent science illustrations
  3. My agentic engineering workflow (step by step)agentic-coding
  4. Every darn thing is a kekulean loop if you notice itdesign-thinking
  5. Hammock driven developmentagentic-coding
  6. Peculiar ways number three fits into our funny little brainsmental-models
  7. AI sandwich as a defacto principle for anything agentic engineering relatedagentic-coding
  8. How I write essays in 2026writing
  9. Authority in the guise of evidencecritical-rationalism
  10. Map is not the territoryphilosophy
  11. Self hypnosis as a manifestation ritualmeditation
  12. Hegelian dialectic for structured reasoning with AI agentsphilosophy
  13. How I prepare for tough negotiations nowadaysnegotiation
  14. When should we steelthread somethingproduct-development
  15. Learning and re-learning my mother tongue in Malayalam
  16. Breadboarding, shaping, slicing, and steelthreading solutions with AI agentsproduct
  17. Healthy conflict in teams have a tipping pointteam-building
  18. How I deslopify AI writingwriting
  19. How I started building softwares with AI agents being non technicalagentic-coding
  20. Read raw transcriptswriting
  21. Legible and illegible tasks in organisationsproduct
  22. L2 Fat marker sketchesdesign
  23. Writing as moats for humanswriting
  24. Beauty of second degree probesdecision-making
  25. Boundary objects as the new prototypesprototyping
  26. One way door decisionsproduct
  27. Finished softwares should existproduct
  28. How I periodically rank my rough draftsobsidian
  29. Flipping questions on its headinterviewing
  30. Vibe writing maximswriting
  31. How I blog with Obsidian, Cloudflare, AstroJS, Githubwriting
  32. How I build greenfield apps with AI-assisted codingagentic-coding
  33. We have been scammed by the Gaussian distribution clubmathematics
  34. Classify incentive problems into stag hunts, and prisoners dilemmasgame-theory
  35. I was wrong about optimal stoppingmathematics
  36. Thinking like a shipmental-models
  37. Hyperpersonalised N=1 learningeducation
  38. New mediums for humans to complement superintelligenceagentic-coding
  39. Maxims for AI assisted codingagentic-coding
  40. Virtual bookshelvesaesthetics
  41. It's computational everythingtrends
  42. Public gardens, secret routesdigital-garden
  43. Git way of learning to codeagentic-coding
  44. Style Transfer in AI writingagentic-coding
  45. Understanding codebases without using codeagentic-coding
  46. Vibe coding with Cursoragentic-coding
  47. Virtuoso Guide for Personal Memory Systemsmemory
  48. Writing in Future Pastwriting
  49. Publish Originally, Syndicate Elsewhereblogging
  50. Poetic License of Designdesign
  51. Idea in the shower, testing before breakfastsoftware
  52. Technology and regulation have a dance of ice and firetechnology
  53. How I ship "stuff"software
  54. Writing is thinkingwriting
  55. Song of Shapes, Words and Pathscreativity
  56. How do we absorb ideas better?knowledge
  57. Read writers who operatewriting
  58. Brew your ideas lazilyideas
  59. Trees, Branches, Twigs and Leaves — Mental Models for Writingwriting
  60. Compound Interest of Private Noteswriting
  61. Conceptual Compression for LLMsagentic-coding
  62. Meta-analysis for contradictory research findingsdigital-health
  63. Proof of workproduct
  64. Gauging previous work of new joinees to the teamleadership
  65. Task management for product managersproduct
  66. Beauty of Zettelswriting
  67. Stitching React and Rails togetheragentic-coding
  68. Exploring "smart connections" for note takingwriting
  69. Deploying Home Cooked Apps with Railssoftware
  70. Repetitive Copypromptingwriting
  71. Questions to ask every decadejournalling
  72. Balancing work, time and focusproductivity
  73. Hyperlinks are like cashew nutswriting
  74. Brand treatments, Design Systems, Vibesdesign
  75. How to spot human writing on the internetwriting
  76. Can a thought be an algorithm?product
  77. Opportunity Harvestingcareers
  78. How does AI affect UI?design
  79. Everything is a prioritisation problemproduct
  80. How I do product roastsproduct
  81. The Modern Startup Stacksoftware
  82. In-person vision transmissionproduct
  83. How might we help children invent for social good?social-design
  84. The meeting before the meetingmeetings
  85. Design that's so bad it's actually gooddesign
  86. Lessons learnt interview prepping for product rolesinterviewing
  87. Obsessing over personal websitessoftware
  88. English is the hot new programming languagesoftware
  89. Better way to think about conflictsconflict-management
  90. The role of taste in building productsdesign
  91. Dear enterprises, we're tired of your subscriptionssoftware
  92. Products need not be user centereddesign
  93. World's most ancient public health problemsoftware
  94. Pluginisation of Modern Softwaredesign
  95. Let's make every work 'strategic'consulting
  96. Making Nielsen's heuristics more digestibledesign
  97. Startups are a fertile ground for risk takingentrepreneurship
  98. Insights are not just a salad of factsdesign
  99. Minimum Lovable Productproduct
  100. Methods are lifejackets not straight jacketsmethodology
  101. How to arrive at on-brand colours?design
  102. Minto principle for writing memoswriting
  103. Importance of Whytask-management
  104. Quality Ideas Trump Executionsoftware
  105. Why I prefer indie softwareslifestyle
  106. Use code only if no code failscode
  107. Self Marketing
  108. Personal Observation Techniquesdesign
  109. Design is a confusing worddesign
  110. A Primer to Service Design Blueprintsdesign
  111. Rapid Journey Prototypingdesign
  112. Visualise detailed file structures on CLIcli
  113. Do's and Don'ts of User Researchdesign
  114. Design Manifestodesign
  115. Complex project management for productproducts
  116. How might we enable patients and caregivers to overcome preventable health conditions?digital-health
  117. Pedagogy of the Uncharted — What for, and Where to?education
  118. Future of Ageing with Mehdi Yacoubiinterviewing
  119. Future of Tacit knowledge with Celeste Volpiinterviewing
  120. Future of Rural Innovation with Thabiso Blak Mashabainterviewing
  121. Future of Equity with Ludovick Petersinterviewing
  122. Future of work with Laetitia Vitaudinterviewing
  123. Future of Mental Health with Kavya Raointerviewing
  124. Future of unschooling with Che Vanniinterviewing
  125. How might we prevent acquired infections in hospitals?digital-health
  126. The why to endure any howentrepreneurship
  127. Design education amidst social tribulationsdesign
  128. How might we assist deafblind runners to navigate?social-design