better-writing

Improve UX writing for interface labels, errors, empty states, settings, notifications, and product voice consistency.

Install

npx skills add https://github.com/jakubkrehel/skills --skill better-writing

Copy patterns

Templates for destructive flows and status copy, and recipes for plurals and locale formatting.

Destructive flows

Situation	Copy
Reversible, frequent action	Toast: "Project archived" with an `Undo` action
Irreversible, one item	Title: "Delete 'Q3 report'?" Body: "This permanently deletes the report and its 4 comments." Buttons: `Delete report`, `Cancel`
Irreversible, many items	Title: "Delete 12 files?" Body: "You can't undo this." Buttons: `Delete 12 files`, `Cancel`
Affects other people	Body names who: "The 8 members of Design lose access."
Account, workspace or repository	Field label: "Type 'acme-web' to confirm". The button stays disabled until it matches

An undo toast carries an action, so how long it stays on screen is better-accessibility's.

Status copy

State	Pattern	Example
In progress	Verb in `-ing` plus the object	"Saving changes…", "Loading invoices…"
Done	Object plus past-tense verb, no "successfully"	"Changes saved", "Invite sent to sam@example.com"
Failed	What didn't happen, then the next step	"Changes not saved. Check your connection and try again."
Unavailable	Why, and what unlocks it, beside the control	"Add a payment method to publish"
Partial	Counts for both outcomes	"9 of 12 files uploaded. Retry 3 failed files"

Keep the in-progress and done strings parallel, so "Saving changes…" resolves to "Changes saved".

Plurals and placeholders

Write one message per sentence in ICU MessageFormat, which most i18n libraries read. The variable sits inside the sentence and the translator moves it:

=0 matches the number zero exactly. one and other are plural categories, and a translator adds few or many where the language needs them. Without a library, pick the category with new Intl.PluralRules(locale).select(count).

Locale formatting

Never hand-build a number, date or list. Pass the user's locale to Intl:

Value	Call	`en-US` output
Currency	`new Intl.NumberFormat(locale, { style: "currency", currency: "EUR" })`	`€4,320.00`
Unit	`new Intl.NumberFormat(locale, { style: "unit", unit: "megabyte" })`	`12 MB`
Date	`new Intl.DateTimeFormat(locale, { dateStyle: "medium" })`	`Jun 30, 2026`
Relative time	`new Intl.RelativeTimeFormat(locale, { numeric: "auto" }).format(-1, "day")`	`yesterday`
List	`new Intl.ListFormat(locale, { type: "conjunction" })`	`Ana, Ben, and Cy`

Intl.ListFormat follows each locale's own comma and conjunction rules, so never join names with ", " and " and " by hand.

Design engineering

Frameworks & libraries