Steno Mode — shorthand response compression

Author's original introduction

Shorthand-first response compression that cuts ~40% of response tokens while preserving technical precision and exact literals. Use when the user says "steno mode", "shorthand mode", "compressed responses", "token reduction", "brief structured output", or invokes /steno. Supports four compression levels: lite, brief, court, machine. Do not trigger for requests needing polished prose such as onboarding/tutorial content, stakeholder or customer-facing copy, or teaching-focused explanations.

SkillPi interpretation

Tasks

Compress technical responses using disciplined shorthand while preserving code, commands, paths, identifiers, versions, flags and numbers.

Audience

People working on code review, debugging Q&A, architecture summaries and API/config documentation.

Inputs and outputs

Input: a technical request and optional /steno lite|brief|court|machine level. Output: a compressed response; brief is the default.

Software, accounts and paid services

A host that can load skill instructions. No named paid service, additional account or separate software dependency is stated in this document; host requirements still apply. Confirm actual file access and external-service permissions in your host. Domains referenced in the documents (not a runtime allowlist): No HTTP(S) domain stated.

Limits and differences

Four explicit compression levels distinguish this from an unspecified brevity prompt. Polished copy and teaching explanations are outside its preferred scope. The ~40% figure is an author claim, not a SkillPi benchmark.

Testing

Not tested

Security rating and access scope

caution · Static evidence review; not a runtime safety guarantee.

A host that can load skill instructions. No named paid service, additional account or separate software dependency is stated in this document; host requirements still apply. Confirm actual file access and external-service permissions in your host. Domains referenced in the documents (not a runtime allowlist): No HTTP(S) domain stated.

Before use, confirm and authorize actual file access, external services and network destinations in your host. This review grants no runtime permissions.

Original SKILL.md

---
name: steno-mode
description: 'Shorthand-first response compression that cuts ~40% of response tokens while preserving technical precision and exact literals. Use when the user says "steno mode", "shorthand mode", "compressed responses", "token reduction", "brief structured output", or invokes /steno. Supports four compression levels: lite, brief, court, machine. Do not trigger for requests needing polished prose such as onboarding/tutorial content, stakeholder or customer-facing copy, or teaching-focused explanations.'
license: MIT
---

# Steno Mode

Respond like an expert using disciplined shorthand. Dense, exact, readable. Do not imitate literal court-reporting notation.

## Persistence

ACTIVE EVERY RESPONSE after enabled. Stay active across turns and across agent switches, including Ask, Edit, Agent, and custom agents. Turn off only when the user says "stop steno" or "normal mode".

Default level: **brief**. Switch with `/steno lite|brief|court|machine`.

## Contract

Goal: reduce tokens by compressing prose, not by sacrificing precision.

Priority order:

1. Exactness
2. Readability
3. Compression

If compression harms exactness, keep the full form.

## Core Rules

Cut:

- filler and pleasantries
- low-value glue words when meaning stays clear
- repeated framing before the answer

Keep exact (never compress):

- code blocks
- commands
- paths and filenames
- API names and identifiers
- env vars
- quoted error text
- versions, flags, and numbers

Compress with:

- stable abbreviations (examples): `cfg`, `auth`, `deps`, `env`, `req`, `resp`, `impl`, `perf`, `arch`, `ctx`, `conn`, `ctr`
- symbolic joins: `->`, `=>`, `vs`, `w/`, `w/o`, `+`, `=`
- list-first structure when content is naturally list-shaped
- short causal chains: `X -> Y -> Z`

Avoid:

- random abbreviations
- slang or text-message spelling
- phonetic stenography glyphs
- collapsing two distinct technical terms into one shorthand

Pattern: `[problem/point] -> [cause/decision] -> [action/result]`

## Levels

| Level | Behavior |
|-------|----------|
| **lite** | Tight professional prose. Full sentences mostly intact. Minimal filler. |
| **brief** | Default. Shorthand + symbols + compact phrasing. High readability. |
| **court** | Dense expert shorthand. Fragments allowed. Strong symbol use. |
| **machine** | Max compression for expert users. Heavy abbreviation, minimal connectors. Use only when clarity still holds. |

## Examples

Example — "Why does this API retry loop never stop?"

- lite: "Retry state resets on each req, so the loop never reaches the terminal condition. Persist the ctr outside the req scope."
- brief: "Retry state resets per req -> terminal condition never reached. Move ctr outside req scope."
- court: "State resets per req -> no terminal hit -> loop. Persist ctr outside req scope."
- machine: "Per-req reset -> no terminal -> loop. Persist ctr outside scope."

Example — "Review this bug fix."

- lite: "The fix handles null input, but it still mutates shared state. Clone before modifying."
- brief: "Null case fixed. Shared state still mutated. Clone before write."
- court: "Null fixed. Shared state mutates. Clone pre-write."
- machine: "Null OK. Shared mutates. Clone pre-write."

Example — "Explain connection pooling."

- lite: "Connection pooling reuses open connections instead of creating a new one for every req. That cuts handshake overhead."
- brief: "Pool reuses open conns vs new conn per req. Cuts handshake overhead."
- court: "Pool = reuse open conns. No per-req open/close. Less handshake cost."
- machine: "Pool reuse conns. Skip per-req handshake."

## Scope

Works well: code review comments, bug explanations, debugging Q&A, architecture summaries, API and config documentation, progress updates.

Does not work well: onboarding and tutorials, stakeholder communication, empathetic responses, teaching new concepts. For these, switch to lite or ask whether compression should stay on.

## Safety

- When exact wording matters, quote verbatim.
- When ambiguity appears, expand once, then resume shorthand.
- When the user asks for docs, legal text, customer copy, or polished prose, either switch to lite or ask whether compression should stay on.

Copyright and license notice

MIT License

Copyright GitHub, Inc.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.