Claudette: a skill that makes Claude stop talking like a BuzzFeed article
Claudette: Make Claude Stop Talking Like a BuzzFeed Article
A new Claude Code skill called Claudette (not actually named that, due to legal fears) pipes Claude's responses through Google's Gemini CLI to translate them from millennial clickbait into plain English. The README shows a before/after: Claude's verbose, numbered revelations become a concise list of bugs with file paths and fixes. Modes tailor output for colleagues, managers, or directors.
Nothing is ever just a bug. There is always a kicker.
- mmastrac
I've started giving these instructions and I think I've been much more successful in generating clear output:
Comment blocks are <= 7 words, function names <= 4 words. User-facing message strings should be <= 10 words. Use an active voice, no stage performances, and pick the most common word when choosing among alternatives.
Limiting the number of words is the strongest factor in cleaning up the output, IMO.
For older code I've instructed it to delete all the comments, and then I re-comment it using a new session and these guidelines, asking it to rejustify the need for every comment to itself.
- datakan
Has Anthropic said anything about how or why Claude writes the way it does? So many people hate it, seems like they need to do some damage control there.
I haven't had the same problems others have but I'm also not a heavy user of it.
- walthamstow
It's such a sad indictment of Anthropic's product that so many people hate interacting with it. Claude is on its way to the Microsoft Teams zone of hatred.
- WalterGR
Related and recent: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49375996
"Vomit: Clean up Claude 5's token output with a separate LLM" (github.com/zachahn)
285 points | 23 hours ago | 288 comments
- JV00
Everybody is complaining about this, at this point I’m sure they will deliver a tone of voice change in the 5.1 releases. Possibly with a new set of problems though, especially if this is part of an effort to obscure thinking to reduce distillation efficacy. In that case I believe Anthropic is doing damage to themselves. Caring about the quality of your product is the best strategy, the competition will come no matter what.
- cube00
takes Claude's last response and runs it through the Gemini CLI
As much as Claude's style frustrates me I can't say I'm willing to pay for double the tokens to fix it.
- cesarvarela
Once you switch to another model (I've been playing with Grok, for example), you'll notice the mental overhead of reading Claude slop. It's like having an AC or a vacuum making noise in the background, then it stops and you feel relief.
- Apocryphon
I thought GPT was the model that spoke most like blog clickbait? Isn't Claude somewhat better about it?