distill

Rebuilds bloated LLM-drafted documents from their inventoried claims and reports every dropped claim.

Updated Feb 17, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/semantic-praxis/barwise --skill distill-semantic-praxis
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: distill
Source: https://github.com/semantic-praxis/barwise/tree/main/.claude/skills/distill
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/semantic-praxis/barwise --skill distill-semantic-praxis

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve? LLM-drafted prose is structurally bloated before it is wordy, so sentence-level trimming lands at 80% of the original length and still reads padded. This Skill rebuilds a document from an explicit inventory of its claims, reasons, instructions, and evidence, then accounts for everything it dropped so no substance is silently lost. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Claim inventory and classification: Extracts every claim, reason, instruction, and piece of evidence, then classifies the remainder into six bloat kinds (padding, restatement, abstraction inflation, hedge sprawl, structural bloat, false parallelism) each with its own fix. - Rebuild with drop accounting: Rewrites the document from the inventory rather than trimming the draft, then reports every dropped item with its reason so nothing disappears silently. - Protected content rules: Never cuts reasons attached to rules, exact enumerations, numbers with the commands that produced them, named alternatives, or stated uncertainty. - Use Case: A 94-word paragraph about error handling distills to 38 words carrying the same four claims, with the dropped synonym doublets reported and the missing rationale flagged as a finding. ## Quick Start Distill this draft design doc down to what it actually claims and tell me everything you dropped.

Frequently Asked Questions about distill

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I shorten an LLM-generated document without losing content?▼

Inventory every claim, reason, instruction, and piece of evidence first, then rewrite the document from that inventory rather than trimming sentences. Walk the inventory against the result afterward and report each dropped item so nothing is lost silently.

Why does trimming sentences fail to fix bloated AI writing?▼

LLM bloat is structural before it is lexical: the draft has more sections and paragraphs than its content justifies. Sentence-level cuts anchor on that skeleton and land near 80% of the original length, still bloated and now choppy.

What content should never be cut when condensing a document?▼

Never cut the reason attached to a rule, exact enumerations like acceptance criteria, numbers with the commands that produced them, named alternatives and why they lost, or stated uncertainty. These are what keep claims falsifiable and rules defensible later.

What compression ratio should a distilled document reach?▼

Padded prose typically lands at 40-60% of its original length, but the ratio is a diagnostic, not a target. Above 80% suggests you kept the draft's structure; below 25% means you should audit the drop list for lost claims.

When should I not use distillation on a document?▼

Do not distill text that is long because it is exact, such as EARS requirements, error messages, licence text, or enumerated edge cases. Also avoid it for claim-dense writing already free of LLM tics, where a correct result barely moves the length.