Cadence

cadence · prose fluency for any AI agent or the command line

Make it sound like you wrote it.

Cadence learns a voice from writing you admire, then writes in it. Underneath, a deterministic detector scores any draft and names every AI tell — so a clean result is something you check, not just trust.

See the voices How the detector works
marketing-draft.txt flagged · grade D

In today's world, finding the right productivity app can be a daunting task. Our cutting-edge platform leverages powerful AI to seamlessly streamline your workflow. Whether you're a busy professional or a student, our comprehensive solution empowers you to do more. It's not just an app, it's a game-changer. When it comes to getting things done, we've got you covered.

Most productivity apps add work instead of removing it. This one starts with your real day. It reads what's due and what's blocking you, then shows the single next thing to do. Students use it. So do people running teams. You won't get a dashboard to admire. You'll get fewer open tabs.

0 · clean100 · slop
0255075100
61 /100
grade D
Real output from skills/cadence/scripts/deslop.mjs

The tell is the rhythm.

Cadence is named for the thing models get wrong first. Flat prose holds one sentence length, leans on words that sound certain but carry nothing, and reaches for the same shapes on reflex. The detector measures each one.

In today's fast-paced landscape, organizations must adapt. Our solution is robust, scalable, and built for the future. It isn't merely software — it's a partner. It's worth noting that, in some sense, results may vary. Every sentence runs about the same length. Every sentence runs about the same length. The variance never moves, and that flatness is the loudest signal of all.

Flat rhythm
Sentence-length variance near zero. The strongest tell, weighted highest.
Hollow confidence
robust, powerful, seamless, comprehensive — words that assert without saying.
Reflexive triad
The three-part list reached for by habit, not because there are three things.
Negation pivot
The "it's not X, it's Y" seesaw, used to manufacture contrast.
Cliché opener
Throat-clearing that delays the first real sentence.
Hedge stacking
Qualifiers piled until the claim disappears.

One idea. The voice does the rest.

A voice is a profile Cadence measures from a sample and writes toward. Below, one brief in five of the ten shipped voices — read for the change in structure, not just the wording. Every score is real output from the detector.

brief · reassure someone who feels they're falling behind their peers

counsel
A philosopher answering a private worry — reframes your question into a better one.

You open the app and everyone is ahead of you. Engaged, promoted, somewhere sunlit. Underneath is a quiet arithmetic: they have more, so I have less, so I must be less.

But notice what that smuggles in. It assumes one shared finish line, and that the people posting are reporting rather than performing. Neither holds. Nobody posts the afternoon they spent staring at the ceiling.

Here is a question to set beside am I falling behind? — behind whom, and toward what? Name the finish line and you usually can't. The race dissolves.

score 0/100 · grade A·rhythm CV 0.57
reckoning
Scene first, then a hard truth. Aphoristic close.

At your ten-year reunion someone will have the house, the title, the symmetrical children, and you will do the math on the drive home. Here is what the math leaves out. Every person in that room ran a different race on a different track, and the clock you keep reading was never theirs to begin with.

The comparison isn't wrong. It is measuring nothing. You are not behind. There is no line to be behind.

score 0/100 · grade A
plain
Say it once, in the fewest honest words.

Everyone you follow is ahead of you. That is what the feed is for. It collects the wins and hides the ordinary Tuesdays, then shows you the total as if it were one person's life. It isn't.

You are measuring your whole self against other people's edited parts. Do one thing today that matters to you. Then do another tomorrow.

score 0/100 · grade A·rhythm CV 0.67
punchy
High contrast — a long build, then a short hit.

You spend an hour scrolling and come away sure everyone has it figured out. They don't. The feed is a trophy case, not a life: the promotions and the beaches and the rings, never the 2 a.m. doubt or the rent that came late.

You are racing people who aren't running. Close the app. Build one real thing this week. That is the whole game.

score 0/100 · grade A·rhythm CV 0.73
measured-academic
Careful first-person reasoning that concedes before it concludes.

It helps to separate two claims that the feeling of falling behind tends to run together. The first is that one's peers have, in fact, achieved more; the second is that such achievement is the right measure of a life. Grant the first, for the sake of argument. The second does not follow.

A timeline records what is legible and public, and stays silent on everything that resists that format, which is to say most of what matters. So even where the comparison is accurate, it answers a question you never meant to ask.

score 0/100 · grade A·rhythm CV 0.47

Ten voices ship with it

counsel A philosopher answering a private worry; reframes your question into a better one.“Name the finish line and you usually can't. The race dissolves.”
reckoning Scene first, then a hard truth.“The comparison isn't wrong. It is measuring nothing.”
measured-academic Careful first-person reasoning that concedes before it concludes.“Grant the first, for the sake of argument. The second does not follow.”
plain Say it once, in the fewest honest words.“You won't get a dashboard to admire. You'll get fewer open tabs.”
punchy High contrast — a long build, then a short hit.“Close the app. Build one real thing this week. That is the whole game.”
seminar A professor demystifying a hard text; direct, wry, and driven by metaphor.“A poem is not a safe you crack. It is a room with the lights off — feel for the switch.”
dispatch Narrative science-journalism: open on a scene, accumulate the detail, then land the idea.“The family never named the experiment. Everyone else called it proof.”
column A calm analytical essay: start from a fact, reason it through, hand over a usable principle.“It's worth pausing on how strange this is. We called the trade progress.”
kin A parent's unsparing letter to a child; anchors every truth in the body, then lands on a short imperative.“Hold your body close. It is the only country you will ever truly own.”
essence First-principles tech-blog writing: strip a domain to its laws, reason up, then land on conviction.“Whoever can put the most mass in orbit writes the rules. Everything else is commentary.”

Add your own with /cadence learn <sample>. Cadence reads the sample, measures its real rhythm with the detector, and writes a profile to voices/<name>.md. Profiles are plain markdown — read them, edit them, share them.

voices/counsel.md · the profile /cadence learn writes, abridged
---
name: counsel
label: Counsel
register: brand
---

Essence  a philosopher answering a private worry: takes the
         question you asked, finds the assumption inside it,
         and hands back a better one.

Rhythm   ~16-word average, very wide swing (CV ~0.74) — a long
         winding sentence, then a three-word verdict.
Devices  reframe to a better question · philosophy, then
         something you can touch · question cascade in the
         reader's voice · self-implication.
Never    closes on reassurance — it closes on a reframe.

A detector you can run yourself.

The engine is plain Node — no dependencies, no network. Run it on any draft and the score comes back the same every time, with every tell named. Nothing about the result asks you to take it on faith.

▍Sentence-length variance
The strongest tell, weighted highest. Flat rhythm is what reads as machine-made.
Banned-phrase list
“In today's world,” “when it comes to,” and the rest of the stock openers and fillers.
Hollow-confidence words
Assertions that carry no content: seamless, robust, powerful, comprehensive.
Triad density · negation pivots
The reflexive three-part list and the “not X, it's Y” seesaw.
Hedge stacking · adverb · em-dash rate
Qualifier pile-ups and the punctuation habits that give a draft away.

Gate it in CI: --strict exits 1 when the score climbs past 25. A clean build is a clean draft.

Five commands.

You type these in Claude Code. Each takes a sample, a brief, or a block of text.

CommandWhat it does
/cadence learn <sample>Reads a book, article, or URL and extracts a reusable voice profile.
/cadence write <brief>Drafts new prose in a chosen voice.
/cadence recast <text>Rewrites existing text into a chosen voice, keeping the meaning.
/cadence deslop <text>Scores text and reports every AI tell — diagnose, then optionally fix.
/cadence voicesLists the voices you've learned plus the shipped seeds.

Recently shipped.

One detector, more places to use it. Newest first.

Install it.

Cadence ships as a Claude Code plugin. Add the marketplace once, install, and the commands are live in your next session.

# 1 · add the marketplace (note the capital C) > /plugin marketplace add wuisabel-gif/Cadence # 2 · install the plugin — name@marketplace > /plugin install cadence@cadence
# 3 · start a fresh session, then try > /cadence voices > /cadence deslop <paste a draft> > /cadence write a 150-word intro in the counsel voice
status v0.2 · the detector and ten seed voices work and are tested
Where it runs: Cadence loads only in Claude Code — the claude command in a terminal, the VS Code / JetBrains extension, or the desktop app's Code mode. Not the claude.ai website or the desktop app's regular chat. If /cadence isn't recognized, you're in a regular chat.

Both steps matter: marketplace add makes Cadence available; install turns it on. Then open a new session — skills load at startup.

Rather click than type? Run /plugin, open the Discover tab, and pick Cadence from the list.

Working on Cadence itself? Skip the marketplace and link the skill straight into your config:

# develop locally $ ln -s "$(pwd)/skills/cadence" ~/.claude/skills/cadence $ npm test # run the test suite

Questions.

The ones that come up most — starting with the one that trips everyone up first.

Where does /cadence work?
Only in Claude Code: the claude command in a terminal, the VS Code / JetBrains extension, or the desktop app's Code mode. Not the claude.ai website or the desktop app's regular chat. If you type /cadence and it isn't recognized, you're in a regular chat — switch to a Claude Code session.
I added the marketplace but nothing happens.
Adding the marketplace only makes Cadence available. You also have to install it: /plugin install cadence@cadence, then start a fresh session.
Will it change my meaning or my layout?
No. Cadence works on the words only. It never alters what a sentence claims or how a document is built — recasting a file leaves every tag, class, and code fence exactly in place.
Is a clean score the same as good writing?
No. The score measures AI fingerprints, not quality. A spotless score on an empty point is still an empty point. Have something to say first; let the low score fall out as a side effect.
Can I use it without Claude Code?
Yes — the detector runs on its own. npx cadence-deslop draft.txt scores any file, a whole folder, or a live URL, with no install and no dependencies.
How do I add my own voice?
/cadence learn <sample> — point it at about 500 words you admire (a file, a paste, or a URL). It measures the rhythm and writes a reusable profile you can call by name.
What does it cost?
Nothing. Cadence is open source under the MIT license, and Claude Code plugins have no store and no fee.