Excerpt Writer

What it does

Reads a finished post and generates a WordPress excerpt plus platform-sized blurbs (a short teaser for the blog archive, a tweet-length version, and a longer one for LinkedIn or Facebook), each written to stand alone rather than being a truncated copy of the same sentence. Character limits per platform are enforced explicitly, not eyeballed.

Install

This skill isn't packaged in an installable registry. It's a plain SKILL.md file you can copy directly. Copy it from the SKILL.md tab and save it at the path for your assistant:

Use it in your AI assistant

Claude Code

.claude/skills/excerpt-writer/ (or ~/.claude/skills/excerpt-writer/ for all projects)

GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

.github/skills/excerpt-writer/

OpenAI Codex

.codex/skills/excerpt-writer/

Cursor

.cursor/skills/excerpt-writer/ (or ~/.cursor/skills/excerpt-writer/ globally)

Compatibility

Any WordPress site. No special plugin required; writes to the core excerpt field, or to a page builder's excerpt/summary field if one is in use.

The complete SKILL.md for this skill:

---
name: excerpt-writer
description: Use when a user needs a post excerpt, archive teaser, or a social media blurb sized for a specific platform. Triggers on "write an excerpt", "give me a blurb for this", or "summarize this for Twitter/LinkedIn".
---

# Excerpt Writer

## When to use
A post is finished and needs a short standalone teaser, either for the WordPress excerpt field, the blog archive listing, or a social post promoting it.

## Procedure
1. Read the finished post in full; do not work from the title alone.
2. Write a WordPress excerpt (1 to 2 sentences, under 160 characters) that makes someone want to click through, not a truncated first paragraph.
3. If social blurbs are requested, write a separate version for each platform requested, respecting its real length norms (short and punchy for X/Twitter, slightly longer and more conversational for LinkedIn or Facebook).
4. Make each version stand alone as its own piece of copy rather than a shortened copy of the others, since the same three sentences read as lazy across multiple platforms.
5. Present all requested versions together, labeled by destination, for the user to pick or edit before publishing.

## Guardrails
- Do not invent details, numbers, or outcomes not present in the source post just to make an excerpt punchier.
- Do not exceed the platform's practical length norms even if the character limit technically allows more; a wall of text under a link gets skipped.