De-slop: remove every em-dash + banned words across all modules + capstone (#94)

Co-authored-by: claude <claude@jpaul.io>
Co-committed-by: claude <claude@jpaul.io>

modules/21-skills-teaching-the-ai-your-playbook/README.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Module 21 — Skills: Teaching the AI Your Playbook
+# Module 21: Skills: Teaching the AI Your Playbook
 
 > **Stop re-explaining your own procedures.** A skill is a repeatable workflow written down once,
 > committed, and invoked on demand, so the AI does the thing *your* way, the same way, every time,
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
   writes to.
 - **Module 4:** the AI lives in your editor/CLI and reads your files directly. A skill is a file it
   loads; a browser chat can't pick one up automatically.
-- **Module 5 — the one this builds on directly.** You committed an always-on instructions file that
+- **Module 5, the one this builds on directly.** You committed an always-on instructions file that
   tells the AI how the project works in general. This module is its **structured big sibling**: the
   same write-it-down-and-commit instinct, but for *specific repeatable procedures* invoked on demand.
 - **Module 13:** what a real test is (and why "it didn't crash" isn't one). The lab's procedure
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ This is the distinction to lock in, because the two are siblings and easy to con
 | | **Committed instructions file (Module 5)** | **Skill (this module)** |
 |---|---|---|
 | Scope | How the project works, *in general* | How to do *one specific procedure* |
-| When it loads | **Always on** — read every session | **On demand** — invoked when relevant |
+| When it loads | **Always on**: read every session | **On demand**: invoked when relevant |
 | Shape | Ambient briefing: conventions, commands, don't-touch list | A playbook: when-to-use, inputs, ordered steps, done-criteria |
 | Analogy | The standing house rules posted on the wall | A labeled recipe card you pull out when you cook that dish |
 
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ On paper this is just "write a runbook." The AI-specific twist is what changes t
   is how you make *complete* the default instead of a thing you have to keep catching.
 - **The skill outlives the model.** Swap models next quarter and the playbook carries over unchanged.
   You encoded the *procedure*, not the prompt that happened to coax it out of this month's model. The
-  workflow is the durable skill; the model is the swappable part — here, literally.
+  workflow is the durable skill; the model is the swappable part; here, literally.
 
 ---
 
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ seen, producing all four parts without you listing the steps.
   ask Claude Code (`claude` in the project; sub your own agent) to initialize it and commit a
   baseline, then confirm with `git log` that the first commit landed.
 
-### Part A — Install the skill
+### Part A: Install the skill
 
 1. Copy this module's starter skill, `lab/add-command-skill.md`, into your `tasks-app` repo wherever
    your tool expects procedures. If your tool auto-discovers a folder, put it there under a clear name
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ seen, producing all four parts without you listing the steps.
    git log --oneline -1   # the skill commit, by name
    ```
 
-### Part B — Invoke it
+### Part B: Invoke it
 
 4. Start a **fresh** AI session in your editor and invoke the skill the way your tool does it: its
    slash command / skill name, or plainly: *"Follow `add-command.md` to add a `clear` command that
@@ -215,14 +215,14 @@ seen, producing all four parts without you listing the steps.
    - add a `CHANGELOG.md` line;
    - stage code + test + changelog into one commit, **without** `tasks.json`.
 
-### Part C — Verify it followed the playbook
+### Part C: Verify it followed the playbook
 
 6. Don't take the AI's word for it. Check against the skill's own done-criteria:
 
    ```bash
    python -m unittest          # green, and a clear-related test is present
    python cli.py add "x" && python cli.py clear && python cli.py list   # -> (no tasks yet)
-   git show --stat HEAD        # one commit: tasks.py, cli.py, test_tasks.py, CHANGELOG.md — no tasks.json
+   git show --stat HEAD        # one commit: tasks.py, cli.py, test_tasks.py, CHANGELOG.md; no tasks.json
    ```
 
    If a step was skipped, that's the lab working: it shows you exactly where your wording was too soft.
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ seen, producing all four parts without you listing the steps.
    diff, and run it again on a second command (`high <index>` to flag a task, say). **A skill you
    improve once and reuse forever is the deliverable**, not the one `clear` command.
 
-### Part D — See it as a reviewable, reusable asset
+### Part D: See it as a reviewable, reusable asset
 
 7. Look at what you built:
 
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ seen, producing all four parts without you listing the steps.
    git log -p -- add-command.md        # full patch history: the file's creation, plus the Part C tighten if you made one
    ```
 
-   (`git log -p` surfaces the skill's own patches no matter what you committed *after* tightening it —
+   (`git log -p` surfaces the skill's own patches no matter what you committed *after* tightening it,
    unlike `git diff HEAD~1`, which would be empty here because the most recent commit added the second
    *command*, not a change to the skill.) Each entry in that history *is* a change to how your team adds
    commands: readable, attributable, revertable. In a
@@ -250,10 +250,10 @@ seen, producing all four parts without you listing the steps.
 
 ## Where it breaks
 
-- **A skill is guidance, not enforcement — same caveat as Module 5.** It strongly biases the AI; it
+- **A skill is guidance, not enforcement; same caveat as Module 5.** It strongly biases the AI; it
   doesn't bind it. The agent can still skip a step, especially a soft one, especially late in a long
   session. The steps that *can't* be skipped are the ones backed by **CI (Module 14)**: the test the
-  skill tells it to write only truly gates anything once a pipeline runs it on every push. Write the
+  skill tells it to write only gates anything once a pipeline runs it on every push. Write the
   done-criteria as hard checks, and let CI be the backstop.
 - **Skills rot.** A playbook that says "tests run with X" after you've moved to Y will confidently
   march the AI off a cliff. Skills are code-adjacent: review them, update them, delete the ones you no

modules/21-skills-teaching-the-ai-your-playbook/lab/add-command-skill.md

@@ -1,14 +1,14 @@
 # Skill: Add a new tasks-app command, end to end
 
 > A reusable playbook. Don't paste this whole file into a chat and hope. Point your agentic tool at
-> it by name — "follow `add-command.md` to add a `clear` command" — or drop it wherever your tool
+> it by name ("follow `add-command.md` to add a `clear` command"), or drop it wherever your tool
 > auto-discovers procedures (a skills/commands folder). The steps are the same either way.
 
 ## When to use this
 
 Invoke this whenever the task is **"add a new subcommand to the `tasks-app` CLI."** It exists so a
 new command lands the *same* way every time: real code, a real test, a changelog line, and a clean
-commit — never just the code with the rest forgotten.
+commit; never just the code with the rest forgotten.
 
 If the task is *not* "add a CLI command" (a bug fix, a refactor, a docs change), this skill does not
 apply. Don't force it.
@@ -17,18 +17,18 @@ apply. Don't force it.
 
 Ask for these if they weren't given:
 
-- `COMMAND_NAME` — the subcommand word, e.g. `clear`.
-- `WHAT_IT_DOES` — one sentence of intended behavior, e.g. "remove all tasks."
+- `COMMAND_NAME`: the subcommand word, e.g. `clear`.
+- `WHAT_IT_DOES`: one sentence of intended behavior, e.g. "remove all tasks."
 
 ## Project facts (so you don't have to rediscover them)
 
 - Core logic lives in `tasks.py` (the `TaskList` class). The CLI front end is `cli.py`. State
-  persists to `tasks.json` — **never edit `tasks.json` by hand; it's generated.**
-- Tests live in `test_tasks.py` and run with `python -m unittest`. Standard library only — no
+  persists to `tasks.json`. **Never edit `tasks.json` by hand; it's generated.**
+- Tests live in `test_tasks.py` and run with `python -m unittest`. Standard library only; no
   third-party packages, no new dependencies.
 - The human-facing change log is `CHANGELOG.md`, newest entry on top.
 
-## Procedure — do these in order, do not skip
+## Procedure: do these in order, do not skip
 
 1. **Core logic in `tasks.py`.** If the command needs new behavior on the task list, add a small
    method to `TaskList` (e.g. `clear()`). Keep it minimal; match the existing style. If the command
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ Ask for these if they weren't given:
    A test that passes against a broken implementation is worse than no test.
 
 4. **Run the tests.** `python -m unittest` from the project root. Do not claim success until it's
-   green. If it fails, fix the code — not the test — and run again.
+   green. If it fails, fix the code, not the test, and run again.
 
 5. **Smoke-test the CLI.** Actually run it: `python cli.py COMMAND_NAME`, then `python cli.py list`
    to confirm the visible result. Paste what you ran and what it printed.
@@ -60,8 +60,8 @@ Ask for these if they weren't given:
 - `python -m unittest` is green and includes a new test that actually exercises `COMMAND_NAME`.
 - `python cli.py COMMAND_NAME` does `WHAT_IT_DOES` and you've shown the output.
 - `CHANGELOG.md` has a new top line for the command.
-- One commit contains the code, the test, and the changelog line — and nothing else (no
+- One commit contains the code, the test, and the changelog line, and nothing else (no
   `tasks.json`, no unrelated reformatting).
 
-If any of those is missing, the skill isn't finished. Report which step failed and stop — don't
+If any of those is missing, the skill isn't finished. Report which step failed and stop; don't
 paper over it.

modules/21-skills-teaching-the-ai-your-playbook/lab/tasks-app/cli.py

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ Run it:
     python cli.py list
     python cli.py count
 
-State is kept in tasks.json next to this file. The same minimal app from Module 1 onward — the
+State is kept in tasks.json next to this file. The same minimal app from Module 1 onward; the
 target your "add a command" skill extends.
 """