❯ optimize-claude

Optimize your Claude

Make Claude Code answer first, write plainly, and stop wasting your attention.

No script, no install. Copy the prompt below, paste it into Claude Code, and Claude sets itself up.

Paste into Claude Code

Optimize my Claude Code setup. Do all four steps, then report what changed.

1. Download the "Attention-kind" output style and the /style command from the attention-span project:
   - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alexgreensh/attention-span/main/output-styles/attention-kind.md → save to ~/.claude/output-styles/attention-kind.md
   - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alexgreensh/attention-span/main/commands/style.md → save to ~/.claude/commands/style.md

2. Set "outputStyle": "Attention-kind" in ~/.claude/settings.json. Edit the JSON structurally — parse it, add or update that one key, keep every other key untouched, write valid JSON back. If the file doesn't exist, create it with just that key.

3. Append this section to my global ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, only if a "## Writing style" heading isn't already there:

## Writing style — STE + Zinsser (all prose, chat included)

Write in ASD-STE100 (Simplified Technical English — the aerospace controlled language: short sentences, active voice, one meaning per word) and follow Zinsser's four principles: Simplicity, Brevity, Clarity, Humanity. Cut the clutter. Keep the writing warm and human — a person wrote it, not a manual.

4. Tell me exactly which files you created or changed, and remind me to restart Claude Code or run /clear so the style takes effect.

Claude does the work and tells you what it touched. Restart Claude Code or run /clear to see the change.

What the prompt does

Four steps, all inside ~/.claude.

Saves the Attention-kind output style to ~/.claude/output-styles/attention-kind.md.
Saves the /style command to ~/.claude/commands/style.md, so you can switch styles later.
Sets one key, "outputStyle": "Attention-kind", in ~/.claude/settings.json. Claude parses the file and rewrites it as valid JSON, so your other settings survive.
Appends one section to ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, and skips it if a ## Writing style heading is already there.

Nothing else is modified. No other directory is touched.

What Attention-kind is

An output style from attention-span by alexgreensh, licensed AGPL-3.0. Claude puts the answer in line one, marks each point with a →, and bolds heavily, so reading only the bold still gives you the whole answer. Plain English throughout.

Their benchmark: replies are about 43% shorter on average, and the answer lands in the first line 75% of the time instead of 3%. Coding is unaffected. Against hidden test suites the pass rate was identical with the style on or off, both 97%, scored by tests rather than by a language model.

Only how Claude talks changes, not how it codes.

What STE and Zinsser are

ASD-STE100 (Simplified Technical English) is the controlled language aerospace manuals are written in: short sentences, active voice, one meaning per word. Zinsser's four principles, from On Writing Well, are Simplicity, Brevity, Clarity and Humanity.

Together they strip the filler out of Claude's prose while keeping it human. A person wrote it, not a manual. The STE tip was surfaced by Dan McAteer (@daniel_mac8).

Undo

Every change is reversible, and you can undo them one at a time.

Run /style default to go back to Claude's built-in style, or delete the outputStyle key from ~/.claude/settings.json.
Delete the ## Writing style section from ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md.
Trash the two downloaded files, attention-kind.md and style.md.