outline-before-prose
Outline documents before drafting them — the argument skeleton that gets alignment cheaply, the one-line-per-section discipline, and the review-the-outline step that saves rewriting the prose. Use when asked help me start this document, outline before I write, why do my docs get rewritten from scratch in review, or get sign-off before drafting. Produces the outline with each section's claim (not topic), the reader-and-decision header, the outline review step, and the expansion rules.
npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill outline-before-prose --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Outline Before Prose Skill Documents get rewritten in review because the *structure* was wrong — and structure feedback arrived after two days of prose polishing. The outline-first discipline moves that feedback to hour one: a skeleton where every section is a one-line *claim* (not a topic), a header naming the reader and the decision, and a five-minute outline review with the key stakeholder before any paragraphs exist. Prose expands an approved outline in one pass; prose written first defends itself against restructuring forever. ## What This Skill Produces - **The header** — reader, the decision/action the doc exists to produce, and the length budget - **The claim outline** — each section as the sentence it will argue, in order, with the evidence it will carry noted - **The outline review step** — who sees the skeleton, what question they're asked, before drafting starts - **The expansion rules** — how the approved outline becomes prose without growing new sections in the dark ## Required Inputs Ask for these if not provided: - **The doc's job** — what the reader should *do* after reading (approve, decide, follow, stop worrying); docs without a job become tours - **The reader,
- What This Skill Produces
- Required Inputs
- Framework: The Skeleton Rules
- Output Format
- The Skeleton
- The Review Step
- Expansion Rules
- Quality Checks
- Anti-Patterns
What does the outline-before-prose skill do?
Outline documents before drafting them — the argument skeleton that gets alignment cheaply, the one-line-per-section discipline, and the review-the-outline step that saves rewriting the prose. Use when asked help me start this document, outline before I write, why do my docs get rewritten from scratch in review, or get sign-off before drafting. Produces the outline with each section's claim (not topic), the reader-and-decision header, the outline review step, and the expansion rules.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill outline-before-prose --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills, a repository with 1,255 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.