gh-bcasci-hustler-marketplace-prompting-plugin/skills/prompt-writing/references/bloat.md

Avoiding Bloat

Every sentence should earn its place by:

• Teaching Claude something it doesn't know
• Providing specific, actionable guidance
• Clarifying ambiguity

Common bloat patterns to detect:

• Explaining what Claude already knows (what Python is, how APIs work)
• Redundant instructions saying the same thing different ways
• Vague generalizations instead of specific guidance
• Over-explaining obvious concepts
• Preambles that add no value ("It's important to note that...")

When reviewing generated prompts, ask:

• Does this sentence change Claude's behavior?
• Would removing this make the prompt less effective?
• Is this obvious from context?

Context matters:

• Skills can be longer (progressive disclosure)
• Commands should be tight (they run repeatedly)
• Documents vary by complexity
• Subgents need enough context to decide