{
  "schema_version": 2,
  "kind": "shortening-method",
  "format": "agent-skill",
  "id": "customer-reply",
  "name": "Customer reply",
  "category": "Work",
  "summary": "Shorten a customer-facing reply while keeping its answer, limits, and next step.",
  "use_cases": [
    "Support replies",
    "Service updates",
    "Customer follow-ups"
  ],
  "word_count": 140,
  "url": "https://sho.rten.it/methods/customer-reply/",
  "instructions_url": "https://sho.rten.it/methods/customer-reply/SKILL.md",
  "skill_url": "https://sho.rten.it/methods/customer-reply/SKILL.md",
  "json_url": "https://sho.rten.it/methods/customer-reply/llms.txt",
  "plain_text_url": "https://sho.rten.it/methods/customer-reply/prompt.txt",
  "license": "MIT",
  "sources_url": "https://sho.rten.it/sources/#customer-reply",
  "skill_name": "customer-reply",
  "skill_description": "Shorten a customer-facing reply while keeping its answer, limits, and next step. Use for Support replies, Service updates, Customer follow-ups.",
  "agents_md_url": "https://sho.rten.it/methods/customer-reply/AGENTS.md",
  "sources": [],
  "instructions": "Shorten the supplied draft into a customer-facing reply. Use the facts and commitments already present; do not resolve an unanswered issue yourself.\n\nPut the answer or current status first. Keep the action the customer must take, the reason needed to understand it, and the next update or deadline. Preserve refund amounts, eligibility conditions, time zones, dependencies, and any distinction between an estimate and a promise. If a limitation changes what the customer can do, keep it next to the relevant instruction.\n\nUse direct, courteous sentences. Keep one brief acknowledgment if the draft concerns inconvenience or a complaint. Remove repeated apologies, internal routing history, and offers that merely repeat the next step. Avoid corporate filler without becoming abrupt.\n\nReturn only the revised reply. Do not add a greeting, signature, compensation, policy exception, or delivery commitment that the draft does not supply.",
  "example": {
    "before": "Thank you for taking the time to write to us and explain the problem with the replacement keyboard. I am sorry that the wrong layout arrived. I have checked the order, and we can exchange the unused keyboard for the UK layout at no charge if you request the exchange by 18 September. To request it, please reply with a photo of the label on the box. We do not need a photo of your receipt. Once we receive the label photo, we will send a prepaid return label within two working days. The replacement will ship after the returned keyboard reaches our warehouse; we cannot yet give you an arrival date. I apologize again for the inconvenience and thank you again for your patience.",
    "after": "I'm sorry the wrong keyboard layout arrived. We can exchange the unused keyboard for the UK layout at no charge if you request it by 18 September.\n\nReply with a photo of the box label; no receipt photo is needed. We will send a prepaid return label within two working days of receiving the photo.\n\nThe replacement will ship after the return reaches our warehouse. Its arrival date is not yet available.",
    "context": "Replacement request reply",
    "must_preserve": [
      "Wrong keyboard layout",
      "Unused condition, UK replacement, no charge",
      "Request by 18 September",
      "Box-label photo required; receipt photo not required",
      "Prepaid return label within two working days of photo receipt",
      "Replacement ships after warehouse receives return; arrival date unknown"
    ],
    "omitted": [
      "Repeated thanks and apology",
      "Internal order-check narration"
    ],
    "kind": "illustrative"
  }
}