Working with the agent

Concise answers

Conclusion first, short sentences, and no lists of options unless asked.

Free Free to read and free to ask for by email.

Background

• Answering any question from the user (technical or non-technical).
• Writing report text, summaries or formal wording for the user.
• Explaining a decision, a diagnosis conclusion, or a recommendation.

Why it is built this way

Rule 3 caps a simple answer at 1 to 3 sentences before any drafting starts, and rule 9 names the only exemption: a warning about safety, data loss or engineering risk, kept to one or two sentences. With the budget fixed first, the draft can only shrink. Rule 1 then forces the first sentence to be the answer, so every later sentence has to earn its place by explaining a reason, and the pre-send checklist turns that into one edit: if the first sentence is not the answer, rewrite.

Rules 5 through 8 close the boundary from the other end. No restating the question, no closing summary, no menu of option A, option B and option C. Rule 6 permits the sentence this cannot be determined at present only when it also names what is missing, which file, which metric, which decision. Rule 7 asks for report wording that can be pasted as-is, so the reader never has to strip meta commentary. The checklist line about deleting every sentence whose removal loses no information runs the same budget a second time.

Where it bites

• The answer buried in paragraph three A reply that opens with context and reaches the conclusion at the end costs the reader the whole text. Rule 3 caps a simple question at 1 to 3 sentences, and the first checklist item is blunt: if the first sentence is not the answer, rewrite. Trimming the tail leaves the answer where it was.
• A closing summary that repeats the opening Ending with to summarize repeats a conclusion the reader already has. Rule 5 forbids repeating it at the end, and the checklist asks for deleting every sentence whose removal loses no information. An anti-pattern entry names that exact ending, so a reviewer can flag it without arguing about taste.
• Certainty about something unknown An unsure answer phrased as probably, or an unknown one phrased with confidence, both push the reader to act on wrong information. Rule 6 requires the sentence this cannot be determined at present plus the specific missing item, which file, which metric, which decision. The checklist adds the unverified marker, which keeps the gap visible.
• Advice turned into a menu Asked for a recommendation, the reply lists option A, option B and option C and hands the comparison back. Rule 8 allows one answer, with an alternative mentioned only when two options are genuinely hard to separate. The anti-pattern list names the A, B, C case directly, which makes it checkable.

Inside this skill

1. When it applies
2. Core rules
3. Pre-send checklist
4. Anti-patterns (do not produce)

The outline is the skill file's own headings, in the order it uses them.

When to use it

Use when answering a user's question or writing report text: conclusion first, simple and precise language, 1-3 sentences for simple questions, the 'conclusion -> reason -> what to do' structure for explanations, no restating the question, no jargon stacking, no long lists and no multiple plans (unless the user asks for them).

How to use it

1. Ask for the file by email — it is a single SKILL.md.
2. Put it in the skills folder your agent reads, in a directory named concise-response-zh.
3. Start a message with the trigger from the description, or name the skill directly.