https://github.com/pasunboneleve/oiticica-style
A century-old style manual, converted into a taxonomy of Codex writing skills.
https://github.com/pasunboneleve/oiticica-style
agents codex developer-tools editing llm-tools oiticica prose skills style-guide writing-style
Last synced: 2 days ago
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A century-old style manual, converted into a taxonomy of Codex writing skills.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/pasunboneleve/oiticica-style
- Owner: pasunboneleve
- Created: 2026-05-15T03:29:41.000Z (27 days ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-05-21T06:08:34.000Z (21 days ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-05-21T12:17:43.286Z (21 days ago)
- Topics: agents, codex, developer-tools, editing, llm-tools, oiticica, prose, skills, style-guide, writing-style
- Language: Python
- Homepage:
- Size: 234 KB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 0
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- Contributing: docs/CONTRIBUTING.md
- Agents: AGENTS.md
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README
# Oiticica style skills
[](https://github.com/pasunboneleve/oiticica-style/actions/workflows/skill-ci.yml?query=event%3Apull_request)
[](https://github.com/pasunboneleve/oiticica-style/tags)
A catalogue of [Codex](https://developers.openai.com/codex/cli) writing skills
adapted from José Oiticica’s *Manual de Estilo*.
Oiticica’s method is unusually agent-friendly: name one virtue or vice of
style, define it sharply, then test prose against examples. This repository
translates that method into modern English skills for Codex.
The result is not a single “write better” instruction. It is a working taxonomy
of style: correctness, concision, clarity, harmony, originality, vigor, and the
smaller failures that damage them.
José Oiticica, philologist, teacher, anarchist, and author of Manual de Estilo, in a 1924 police-archive photograph.
## Why this exists
Most writing advice compresses too much. “Be clear” is true, but useless unless
clarity is broken into inspectable failures: ambiguity, anacoluthon,
accumulation, weak punctuation, bad rhythm, vague diction.
Oiticica’s method gives agents a better unit of work than a general prose
summary. Each skill isolates one writing operation so an agent can apply, test,
and revise against it.
A century-old style manual becomes a working taxonomy of Codex skills.
## Quickstart
Link the skills into Codex and Claude:
```bash
bash scripts/link_skills.sh
```
This creates symlinks under:
```bash
~/.codex/skills
~/.claude/skills
```
The script links only skill directories. It does **not** install `AGENTS.md`,
`CLAUDE.md`, or project-level instructions.
After linking, start Codex and invoke a skill by name, for example:
```text
Use oiticica-style to diagnose and revise this paragraph.
```
or invoke a narrower principle directly:
```text
Use oiticica-concision to tighten this paragraph without losing meaning.
```
or:
```text
Use oiticica-ambiguity to find sentences that allow more than one reading.
```
## Skills
### General router
- [`oiticica-style`](src/oiticica-style/SKILL.md): Orchestrates the principle skills by identifying genre, eliminating defects, and applying qualities only where the passage needs them.
### Forms of composition
- [`oiticica-description`](src/oiticica-description/SKILL.md): Description is a sequence of aspects.
- [`oiticica-narration`](src/oiticica-narration/SKILL.md): Narration is a sequence of facts or episodes.
- [`oiticica-dissertation`](src/oiticica-dissertation/SKILL.md): Dissertation is a sequence of opinions.
### Major qualities
- [`oiticica-style-qualities`](src/oiticica-style-qualities/SKILL.md): Style has six essential qualities: correctness, concision, clarity, harmony, originality, and vigor.
- [`oiticica-correctness`](src/oiticica-correctness/SKILL.md): Correctness observes the grammatical tradition of the language being used.
- [`oiticica-concision`](src/oiticica-concision/SKILL.md): Concision expresses aspects, facts, or opinions with the fewest words compatible with the other qualities.
- [`oiticica-clarity`](src/oiticica-clarity/SKILL.md): Clarity transmits thought in the form most easily understood.
- [`oiticica-harmony`](src/oiticica-harmony/SKILL.md): Harmony is the euphonic adjustment of words in the phrase and phrases in the period.
- [`oiticica-originality`](src/oiticica-originality/SKILL.md): Originality presents aspects, facts, or opinions personally, without imitating another's processes or mannerisms.
- [`oiticica-vigor`](src/oiticica-vigor/SKILL.md): Vigor is energy of expression in aspects, episodes, or conceptions.
### Faults of correctness
- [`oiticica-solecism`](src/oiticica-solecism/SKILL.md): Solecism is an error of syntax.
- [`oiticica-spelling`](src/oiticica-spelling/SKILL.md): Cacography is an error of writing; in English practice, treat it as spelling and orthographic error.
- [`oiticica-word-formation`](src/oiticica-word-formation/SKILL.md): Deformation is an error in the form of a word.
- [`oiticica-confused-words`](src/oiticica-confused-words/SKILL.md): Crossing is the exchange of similar words.
- [`oiticica-foreignism`](src/oiticica-foreignism/SKILL.md): Barbarism is abusive use of foreign words or constructions.
- [`oiticica-latinism`](src/oiticica-latinism/SKILL.md): Latinism is foreignness drawn from Latin diction or syntax.
- [`oiticica-gallicism`](src/oiticica-gallicism/SKILL.md): Gallicism is foreignness drawn from French diction or syntax; in English, treat any imported construction by English idiom.
- [`oiticica-archaism`](src/oiticica-archaism/SKILL.md): Archaism is use of an old word or construction now out of use.
- [`oiticica-neologism`](src/oiticica-neologism/SKILL.md): Neologism is a recently created or introduced word or expression.
### Faults of clarity
- [`oiticica-ambiguity`](src/oiticica-ambiguity/SKILL.md): Ambiguity is a structure that allows more than one meaning when only one is intended.
- [`oiticica-anacoluthon`](src/oiticica-anacoluthon/SKILL.md): Anacoluthon is a break in logical order, usually by changing the expected subject or construction.
- [`oiticica-accumulation`](src/oiticica-accumulation/SKILL.md): Accumulation is excess and crossing of aspects, facts, or opinions in one period.
- [`oiticica-brachylogy`](src/oiticica-brachylogy/SKILL.md): Brachylogy is the opposite vice of accumulation: too many short, disconnected phrases with forced pauses.
- [`oiticica-precision`](src/oiticica-precision/SKILL.md): Precision uses the exact word or construction for an idea or emotion.
- [`oiticica-semicolon`](src/oiticica-semicolon/SKILL.md): The semicolon separates related clauses where a comma is too weak and a period too final.
- [`oiticica-comma`](src/oiticica-comma/SKILL.md): The comma marks coordination, interpolation, parenthesis, apposition, enumeration, ellipsis, inversion, and similar local relations.
### Faults and resources of sound
- [`oiticica-cacophony`](src/oiticica-cacophony/SKILL.md): Cacophony is an ugly or inconvenient sound produced by word contact.
- [`oiticica-assonance`](src/oiticica-assonance/SKILL.md): Assonance is repetition of vowel sounds.
- [`oiticica-alliteration`](src/oiticica-alliteration/SKILL.md): Alliteration is repetition of consonant sounds.
- [`oiticica-hiatus`](src/oiticica-hiatus/SKILL.md): Hiatus is collision of vowel sounds in adjacent syllables or words.
- [`oiticica-meter`](src/oiticica-meter/SKILL.md): Meter is measured language; Oiticica uses scansion to train the ear for rhythm.
- [`oiticica-prose-rhythm`](src/oiticica-prose-rhythm/SKILL.md): Harmony in prose comes from varied rhythmic groups arranged to fit sense.
### Force and figure
- [`oiticica-image`](src/oiticica-image/SKILL.md): An image is an aesthetic relation between objects, phenomena, or actions.
- [`oiticica-inversion`](src/oiticica-inversion/SKILL.md): Inversion alters logical word order to give relief, rhythm, or emphasis.
- [`oiticica-antithesis`](src/oiticica-antithesis/SKILL.md): Antithesis is the opposition of two truths that clarify each other.
## What is included
Each skill contains:
- `SKILL.md` — the rule, boundary, examples, and application notes.
- `agents/openai.yaml` — agent UI metadata.
- `references/notes.md` — source notes identifying the public-domain English texts used for positive and negative examples.
Positive examples are sourced from public-domain English texts, such as
Shakespeare, the Federalist Papers, and other classic works. Source notes mark
whether each eval passage is quoted, paraphrased from a source model, or
invented as a weak contrast.
## Development
Validate the generated skills and README skill coverage:
```bash
python3 -m py_compile scripts/generate_skills.py
python3 scripts/generate_skills.py --check
bash -n scripts/link_skills.sh
direnv exec . bash scripts/validate_skills.sh oiticica-concision
```
Use `scripts/validate_skills.sh` with changed skill names so unrelated skill
evals do not run. The wrapper downloads the latest released `skilpel`
executable to `~/.local/bin/skilpel` and prints human-readable validation
results by default; set `SKILPEL_OUTPUT=json` when a machine-readable summary
is needed.
## Contributing
This repository is generated from structured source material. Do not edit
generated skill files casually.
See [`docs/CONTRIBUTING.md`](docs/CONTRIBUTING.md) for how to add a skill,
choose public-domain English examples, regenerate files, and run validation.
## License
Code and original text in this repository are licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.
Archival images are not covered by the repository software license unless
explicitly stated. The José Oiticica DOPS image is reproduced as a historical
archival document with source attribution.
José Oiticica, police/prontuário photograph, 1924. Source: Arquivo Público do
Estado do Rio de Janeiro (APERJ), Prontuário do Departamento de Ordem Política
e Social (DOPS), via CeDInCI.