Voice-faithful rewrites for people who want AI to sound like them, not like a committee laminated a thesaurus.
Paste messy notes. Get sharp prose that still sounds like you. That should not be controversial. Apparently we needed a tool anyway.
In Codex, paste this:
Use $skill-installer to install Dittobot from GitHub repo RegionallyFamous/dittobot. Use path "." and install it as "dittobot".
Then start a new Codex session and paste the mess:
Use $dittobot on this:
[paste the draft, notes, rant, email, announcement, post, caption, or half-formed thought]
That is the streamlined path: let Codex install the skill, then use the skill. No git ceremony. No tiny terminal archaeology expedition before you can fix a sentence.
Dittobot is a Codex skill that edits from your source instead of inventing a new voice. It finds the point, protects facts and uncertainty, keeps useful rough edges, and cuts bland AI tells.
It is not a ghostwriter. It is a voice-preserving editor: your claims, your taste, your stance, your rhythm, just cleaned up enough that the reader does not have to excavate the point with a tiny shovel.
It also checks the reader's job. The clean version should make the point, stakes, limits, and next action clear after one pass.
For hard work, it expands into a silent 20-pass editorial loop. For proof, the repo ships a 100-case regression suite, model-free rewrite audits, privacy-first failure fixtures, compact voice profiles, fact fences, and public release scorecards.
Normal use is still simple: paste the mess and get the clean version.
The answer is not "never use AI." The answer is "teach the tool your voice."
This started because I watched the dumbest possible version of the argument show up in real life: people saw bad AI writing and jumped straight to "nobody should use AI for writing." The evidence was the usual stuff: too verbose, too generic, weird grammar, dash crimes, and that unmistakable smell of a draft trying to sound important while saying almost nothing.
I agreed with the diagnosis and hated the prescription. Bad AI writing is real: bloated, generic, fake-confident, and weirdly proud of saying almost nothing. I get why people hate it. I hate it too.
But banning AI because bad AI writing exists treats the worst workflow as the only workflow. That is a very confident way to lose the plot.
If your AI writes badly, the answer is not to throw away the tool. The answer is to teach it taste.
The better move, the more hopeful move, and frankly the less exhausting move is to encode taste.
The AI-writing backlash has a point. People have seen enough soulless, padded, fake-confident slop to be annoyed. Good. Stay annoyed. Just aim the annoyance at the right thing.
- "AI writing has no soul." Correct, if you ask it to invent one. Dittobot starts from your words. The stance, rhythm, humor, pressure, and weird little phrase are already there.
- "It is too verbose." Bad AI writes like it is being paid by the clause. Dittobot cuts filler and returns the rewrite without a lecture unless you ask for one.
- "It all sounds the same." Yes, if everyone accepts the first generic draft. Dittobot keeps dry jokes, justified edge, warmth, awkwardness, and useful rough edges.
- "It makes things up." That is a real failure mode. Dittobot does not add numbers, customers, citations, examples, legal certainty, or convenient details that were not in the source.
- "It hides who wrote it." Editing is not the same as outsourcing authorship. Dittobot keeps your claims, taste, and decisions in charge.
- "The dashes give it away." Dashes are not the crime. Predictability is. Dittobot can obey no-dash rules, but the deeper fix is cadence and taste.
The problem is not using AI. The problem is accepting the first bland answer, then blaming the whole category because nobody steered.
Source:
ok the launch note is somehow both too long and says nothing. what i actually mean is we fixed the importer bug, people can retry failed rows now, and i need it to sound calm but not like a haunted changelog
Dittobot notices:
- The facts are "importer bug fixed" and "failed rows can be retried."
- The voice marker worth keeping is "haunted changelog."
Rewrite:
We fixed the importer bug. People can retry failed rows now, so the launch note should be calm and useful, not a haunted changelog.
Source:
In today's rapidly evolving landscape, our robust platform empowers teams to unlock seamless collaboration and drive meaningful impact.
Dittobot notices:
- The sentence sounds confident but says almost nothing.
- Inventing specifics would make it worse.
Rewrite:
We are updating the platform so teams can find the work, make a decision, and move on. The draft still needs specifics: what changed, who it helps, and what people can do now.
Source:
This draft is not bad. It just walks into the room and immediately apologizes for existing.
Dittobot notices:
- The image is the point.
- A smoother rewrite would be worse.
Rewrite:
The draft is not bad. It just walks into the room and immediately apologizes for existing. The idea works; the framing is getting in its way.
Source:
I think we probably need to send notice within 10 business days, but I am not counsel and the clause had weird carveouts.
Dittobot notices:
- "Probably," "I think," and "not counsel" are precision, not clutter.
- The rewrite must not turn uncertainty into legal certainty.
Rewrite:
I think we may need to send notice within 10 business days. I would not state that as definitive, though, because I am not counsel and the clause had unusual carveouts.
Source:
I am a little angry that people saw bad AI writing and decided the answer was banning the tool, but I am also genuinely excited because we can teach it taste instead of pretending pencils are holy now.
Dittobot notices:
- The anger and hope both matter.
- The rewrite should be sharp without turning into a personal attack.
Rewrite:
I am annoyed that people saw bad AI writing and decided the answer was banning the tool. But I am also genuinely excited, because we can teach it taste instead of pretending pencils are holy now.
Start inside Codex:
Use $skill-installer to install Dittobot from GitHub repo RegionallyFamous/dittobot. Use path "." and install it as "dittobot".
Terminal fallback:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RegionallyFamous/dittobot/main/install.sh | bashRequires curl, tar, and Python 3. It installs a copy, backs up an existing Dittobot install, and does not use sudo.
Other useful install paths:
- Pinned GitHub CLI install:
gh skill install RegionallyFamous/dittobot dittobot@v0.2.0 --agent codex --scope user - Uploadable skill ZIP: download
dittobot-skill-v0.2.0.zipfrom Releases and upload it anywhere local skill uploads are supported.
If you want to edit Dittobot locally and have Codex see changes immediately:
git clone https://github.com/RegionallyFamous/dittobot.git
cd dittobot
python3 scripts/install.pyThen:
Use $dittobot on this:
[paste the messy draft, notes, rant, email, announcement, post, caption, or half-formed thought]
Most of the time, that is enough. Add instructions only for hard constraints like exact word count, no dashes, a specific audience, options, diagnosis-only mode, or a request to show what changed.
Dittobot's quality story is not "trust me, it feels good." The repo checks voice preservation, protected facts, uncertainty, claim fidelity, exact word counts, no-dash constraints, and anti-generic behavior.
The scorecard is intentionally boring: complete-suite gates, stable failure codes, hashes, package checks, and public-safe reporting.
Taste up front. Receipts in the back.
The manuals live in the wiki so the README can stay focused on the why and the examples:
- Install
- Validation
- Dittobot Lab
- Voice Profiles
- Privacy And Fixtures
- Live Eval And Scorecards
- Release Checklist
The critique is worth taking seriously. Research on human-AI co-writing has found that writers care about preserving authentic voice, and other work has found AI suggestions can flatten writing toward dominant styles. Dittobot is a practical answer to that risk: keep the speed, reject the flattening.
- "It was 80% me, 20% AI": Seeking Authenticity in Co-Writing with Large Language Models
- AI Suggestions Homogenize Writing Toward Western Styles and Diminish Cultural Nuances
- Digital.gov: Principles of plain language
- CPSC: Plain Language Principles
The name is a playful nod to Ditto from Pokemon: transformation without losing the original shape. Also, "ditto" is a perfectly normal English word, so please do not sue me, Nintendo. Dittobot is unofficial and unaffiliated.
SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later.
Copyright (C) 2026 Regionally Famous.
Dittobot does not claim ownership of text you write, rewrite, or edit with it. Your drafts and outputs are yours.