exmergo/skill-no-em-dashes

no-em-dashes

<img width="1112" height="744" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2e5fdb6a-3f8d-494e-bcdf-ac9fdd4c0dbd" />

A Claude Code skill that produces writing with zero em dashes, and, just as important, writing built out of sentences that never reach for one in the first place.

Heavy em-dash use has become one of the most recognizable fingerprints of machine-written text. Many readers now skim a dash-laden paragraph and think "a bot wrote this." This skill keeps prose reading as a person's, and it forces tighter, more deliberate sentences along the way.

Built and shared in the open by Exmergo, the team building AI agents for data analytics. See more of our work at exmergo.com/open-research.

Install (Claude Code)

Option 1: As a plugin (recommended)

This skill is published through the Exmergo Skills marketplace. Add the catalog once, then install the skill. Inside Claude Code:

1. Add the marketplace

/plugin marketplace add exmergo/exmergo-skills

2. Install the skill as a plugin

/plugin install no-em-dashes@exmergo-skills

The skill then loads automatically and runs whenever Claude writes or edits prose for you. To update later, run /plugin marketplace update exmergo-skills.

Option 2: Manual copy

If you would rather not use the plugin system, copy the skill folder into your skills directory:

git clone https://github.com/exmergo/skill-no-em-dashes
cp -r skill-no-em-dashes/skills/no-em-dashes ~/.claude/skills/   # personal, every project
# or, project-scoped:
cp -r skill-no-em-dashes/skills/no-em-dashes .claude/skills/

Claude Code auto-discovers any folder containing a `SKI