Skill: /workflow-stage-draft

Three-stage drafting pipeline. Outputs a clean, voice-corrected, style-checked draft that's ready for /publish-post to take over.

When to use

• User says "draft a post on X" / "write this up as a blog" / "prepare a draft on Y".
• A /learned or /weekly-learnings run surfaced a publishable thread and the user wants to develop it.
• An existing draft needs a voice + style pass before publishing.

When NOT to use

• The piece is already drafted AND voice-corrected → call /publish-post directly.
• Capturing notes, not drafting → use /log or the obsidian skill.
• Ghost-writing in a different voice → use /ghost first, then this workflow.

Steps

Stage 1: First draft — step draft

Two paths depending on the input:

• From an idea / outline (no existing draft): write a first draft in Shane's voice, anchored on whatever vault evidence exists. ~600–1200 words. Save to Inbox/Draft - <slug>.md.
• From an existing draft (user pastes or names a vault note): read it; skip drafting; proceed to humanize.

Output: draft file in vault Inbox. Checkpoint: confirm draft direction before voice pass.

Stage 2: Voice pass — step humanize — invokes humanize

Removes AI-typical patterns (hedging, list-iness, em-dash overuse, throat-clearing) and restores Shane's conversational rhythm. Preserves technical precision.

Output: humanized draft (in-place edit to the Inbox file). Checkpoint: skim before style pass.

Stage 3: Style pass — step style — invokes ms-style-pass

Applies Microsoft Writing Style Guide term preferences, bias-free language rules, and heading conventions. Doesn't touch voice.

Output: style-corrected draft (in-place edit). Checkpoint: confirm draft is publish-ready before handoff.

Handoff (NOT a step — explicit to user)

After style, print:

─── Draft staged ───
File: Inbox/Draft - <slug>.md
Word count: <N>

Ready for /publish-post when you are. That skill will:
  - generate brand artifacts (blog hero, OG card, LinkedIn companion)
  - run any final style checks
  - publish to shane.logsdon.io

Or, to iterate first: edit the draft directly and re-run /workflow-stage-draft --resume-from humanize.

Resume protocol

Default: run draft → humanize → style in order, with checkpoints between each.

--resume-from <step>: skip every step before <step> and begin from <step>. The named step itself runs.

If <step> is not in {draft, humanize, style}, print:

Invalid resume-from step: <step> Valid steps: draft, humanize, style

…and stop.

Required state when resuming

Before running the resume step, confirm the listed inputs exist. If anything is missing, prompt the user for it.

• --resume-from draft — same as a fresh run; needs the topic / outline / source note.
• --resume-from humanize — needs an existing draft file (in Inbox/ or pasted in conversation). If the user names a different file, accept it; otherwise default to Inbox/Draft - <slug>.md. Confirm the file path before running humanize.
• --resume-from style — needs a draft that has already been through humanize (or that the user explicitly says is voice-correct). Confirm the file path; warn if the file looks unedited (no recent changes since draft).

Examples:

/workflow-stage-draft --resume-from humanize # user edited the draft manually, re-run voice pass /workflow-stage-draft --resume-from style # voice is fine, just want the style pass

Other flags

• --no-pause to run end-to-end (use only when you've already iterated and just want a final pass).

Failure handling

If humanize flags content it can't safely de-AI without losing technical accuracy, it stops and surfaces the conflict to the user. style then operates on whatever humanize produced. On any failure, print the failed step plus the resume command (/workflow-stage-draft --resume-from <step>).