technical-article-writer

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from review. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: technical-article-writer
description: "Write compelling technical articles and blog posts for developer audiences. Use this skill whenever the user asks to write a blog post, technical article, or any long-form technical content. Also trigger when the user says 'write about [technical topic]', 'help me draft an article', 'turn this into a blog post', 'write a post about', 'I want to publish something about', or mentions writing for a developer audience. Covers the full pipeline: idea sharpening, hook/title generation, article structure, body drafting, and editing. Even if the user just says 'I want to write about X' without specifying format, use this skill. Do NOT use for platform-specific optimization, newsletter strategy, or ghostwriting voice matching."
user-invocable: true
license: MIT
compatibility: Designed for Claude or similar AI agents.
metadata:
  author: samber
  version: "1.2.0"
  openclaw:
    emoji: "📝"
    homepage: https://github.com/samber/cc-skills
allowed-tools: Read Edit Write Glob Grep Agent WebFetch WebSearch AskUserQuestion
---

# Technical Article Writer

Write technical articles that developers actually want to read. This skill combines structural frameworks from technical writing, hook engineering from copywriting, and practitioner-tested patterns for developer content.

## Core philosophy

Most technical articles fail because of structural problems, not bad ideas: burying the lede, mixing content types, weak openings, no clear motivation, or trying to cover too much.

Developer audiences have a built-in BS detector. The best technical content leads with specificity and honesty. It sounds like a smart colleague explaining something interesting, not a marketer pitching. Acknowledge your expertise level, solve a specific problem, use real examples.

---

## Workflow

Follow these phases in order. Each phase produces a concrete artifact the user reviews before moving on. **Phase 1 is mandatory — always ask the user the intake questions and wait for answers before writing anything.** If the user already provided some context, extract what you can and ask only about missing pieces.

### Phase 1: Idea sharpening (interview)

**Stop and ask.** Before writing anything, present the intake questions below to the user and wait for their answers. Do not skip this phase, do not infer silently, and do not start drafting until you have explicit answers or confirmation on every item. Ask the user (or extract from context and confirm):

1. **Topic**: What specific thing are you writing about?
2. **Objective**: What's the primary goal of this article? Use `AskUserQuestion` to present these options (push back if the user picks more than one — a single primary CTA converts far better than competing asks):
   - Newsletter subscription / audience growth
   - Personal branding / thought leadership / authority in a niche
   - Product or service signup / free trial
   - Direct purchase
   - Lead generation (download, gated asset, whitepaper)
   - Demo or sales call booking
   - Community join (Discord, Slack, forum)
   - Engagement (reply, share, comment, restack)
   - Reader support (paid subscription, tip, sponsorship)
   - No conversion goal (purely informational / educational)

   The objective shapes the CTA, how much you give away vs. tease, and where conversion points sit. It will be passed directly to the `copywriting-cta` skill in Phase 5b.

3. **Audience**: Who reads this? (junior devs, senior engineers, CTOs, general tech, DBA, frontend developer...)
4. **Content type**: Which pattern fits? (see `references/article-structures.md` for full templates)
   - The Bug Hunt / We Rewrote It in X / How We Built It / Lessons Learned
   - Thoughts on Trends / Benchmark / Tutorial / Explainer
5. **Length target**: Short (800-1200), Medium (1500-2500), Long (3000+)
6. **One-sentence thesis**: The single claim or takeaway. If the user can't state this, help them.

If the user already provided most of this, extract fr