ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English
Hacker ApprovedControlled language in Productivity & writing
People recommend it as a restricted writing style for AI assistants, giving clearer, less verbose replies. Critics say its limited vocabulary can make technical terms vague and that it uses many tokens.
People recommend it as a restricted writing style for AI assistants, giving clearer, less verbose replies. Critics say its limited vocabulary can make technical terms vague and that it uses many tokens.
51 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 39
- criticize it
- 12
- approval share
- 76%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 39 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Reduces verbosity and AI-sloppy output
“Just this one line in AGENTS.md has given better results to reduce if not eliminate verbosity and grandeur.”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “My agent.md to improve LLM-assisted code quality” “The generated output is more tolerable to read, and is less confusing.”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English” “I hate the long and verbose do strings or docs LLMs spit out.”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English” - Comment from 8 Oct 2026 in “Zerobrew: A faster alternative to Homebrew”
Clear, easy-to-understand writing
“It's a very clear and understandable way of writing that puts priority on clarity.”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Humanising LLM Outputs Is Dumb” “sentences that are clear and explanatory, easier to double-check”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Don't be a meat proxy” “This prevents models from speaking in incomprehensible language.”
Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “Caterpillar Technical English agent skill” Quick to add to prompts
“I found that just mentioning ASD-STE100 can get you 72% of the way there”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Can an AI Model Obey a Strict Style Guide?” “just mentioning ASD-STE100 spec in certain prompts makes them useful”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English” “Just tell it to exclusively write briefly and in ASD-STE100.”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “Anthropic's best AI model struggles to attract users as cheaper tools thrive” - Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “How to Spot AI Writing”
Keeps code reviews and cruft manageable
“I've had to setup enforcement + templates (use ASD-STE100) to keep the cruft down.”
Comment from 14 Aug 2026 in “Why does Opus 5 feel worse to work with?” “ASD-STE100 makes automated code reviews tolerable.”
Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “My agent.md to improve LLM-assisted code quality”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Vague wording replaces precise terms
“ASD-STE100 can be counterproductive since its vocabulary is restricted and it often replace accurate technical terms with simple but vague phrases.”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Clean up Claude 5's token vomit with a separate LLM” “STE encourages simplification and tons of repetition of words that is discouraged by college professors.”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English” Gains are small or inconsistent
“Overall a significant quality increase in my opinion, but nothing earth shattering”
Comment from 31 Jul 2026 in “Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English” “it helped a bit, but it's still too verbose for my taste”
Comment from 14 Aug 2026 in “Why does Opus 5 feel worse to work with?” Built for aircraft manuals, poor for code
“It's designed for aircraft maintenance manuals, not software - the two don't share the same vocabulary”
Comment from 8 Oct 2026 in “GPT‑6 and Intelligent UI for everyone” “it actually isn't a good fit for code”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “"Please just use plain English, I don't understand what you're saying."” Burns tokens and bloats context
“STE100 is good for specs and explanations but it works best with a glossary or terms. will burn tokens.”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “My agent.md to improve LLM-assisted code quality” “asking Claude to write a skill encoding ASD-STE100 after seeing it pop-up in your social feed is not doing much at all”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English” “the skill is redundant and only pollutes your context window”
Comment from 31 Jul 2026 in “Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English” - Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “I-have-ADHD: A skill to stop coding agents from burying the answer”
What people said
40 of the 52 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it comes with heavy constraints on clean writing style that I often find a lot more readable”
“I feel i get much improved writing for work stuff with instructions to use ASDSTE-100”
“It's designed for aircraft maintenance manuals, not software - the two don't share the same vocabulary”
“It makes it so much more polished and so much less AI-sloppy.”
“it outputs using ASD-STEM100 as I recommend”
“It’s been really productive and I’ve been asking my agents to communicate using it more and more.”
“Skills just make the entire process bloated beyond belief”
“STE is a much more natural language than whatever Anthropic's models produce”
“it is perfect for explaining logical flows and how something works”
“Just tell it to exclusively write briefly and in ASD-STE100.”
“ASD-STE100 makes automated code reviews tolerable.”
“STE100 is good for specs and explanations but it works best with a glossary or terms. will burn tokens.”
“Just this one line in AGENTS.md has given better results to reduce if not eliminate verbosity and grandeur.”
“ASD-STE100 can be counterproductive since its vocabulary is restricted and it often replace accurate technical terms with simple but vague phrases.”
“Works a little bit, but give it a bit of context and the model's training takes over”
“I've had a lot of success combating this by adding”
“When technical language is necessary instruct the agents to use ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English.”
“I've had to setup enforcement + templates (use ASD-STE100) to keep the cruft down.”
“Only report to me in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English.”
“it helped a bit, but it's still too verbose for my taste”
“show me an example of the thing you are making in the README”
“This prevents models from speaking in incomprehensible language.”
“It's a very clear and understandable way of writing that puts priority on clarity.”
“I found that just mentioning ASD-STE100 can get you 72% of the way there”
“sentences that are clear and explanatory, easier to double-check”
“What an enormous difference your tip makes in the reply style and structure”
“"Reply with ASD-STE100" has been a God-send.”
“the skill is redundant and only pollutes your context window”
“Overall a significant quality increase in my opinion, but nothing earth shattering”
“When writing plans or documentation use: ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English”
“But it's very useful and skills is a good way to share promots”
“adhering to a proven style guide”
“just mentioning ASD-STE100 spec in certain prompts makes them useful”
“STE encourages simplification and tons of repetition of words that is discouraged by college professors.”
“asking Claude to write a skill encoding ASD-STE100 after seeing it pop-up in your social feed is not doing much at all”
“The generated output is more tolerable to read, and is less confusing.”
“I hate the long and verbose do strings or docs LLMs spit out.”
“it actually isn't a good fit for code”
“It sounds like doing a few passes on industrial product documentation with this might be beneficial.”
“The fix for this is to say: only report to me in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.