The Claude skill that operates like a senior content strategist — and replaces $400+/month of SaaS in the process.
Pubcraft turns Claude into a senior writer + SEO strategist with current 2026 knowledge of every major publishing surface: Google's E-E-A-T rules, LinkedIn's 360Brew algorithm, X's open-source Grok ranking, Reddit's culture-by-subreddit, YouTube's stair-step hooks, podcasting's cold-open teaser, Ghost's ActivityPub layer, Perplexity's citation patterns, Hacker News mod logic, the EU AI Act, and 16 other surfaces.
It does the research, cites every number, enforces a banned-words list, and explains why it flags each issue (Sept 2025 Quality Rater Guidelines, March 2026 core update, AI-detection classifiers, platform norms). Output is production-grade Markdown: comparison tables, ✅/❌ audits, prioritized fix lists, schema code blocks. It tells you when a draft isn't publication-ready and what a compliance officer still needs to review.
Default LLM output is statistically the most-penalized content on the internet right now.
Google's March 2026 core update sharpened SpamBrain enforcement; AI content farms lost 60–90% of organic visibility. Page #1 organic CTR drops by 34.5% when an AI Overview appears (Semrush, 10M-keyword study). Medium suspends accounts for AI-only earning. LinkedIn deboosts generic GPT prose with its 360Brew classifier. Reddit downvotes the moment "It's important to note that…" hits the page.
Yet most "AI writing" tools optimize for the wrong thing: producing text that looks finished. That's the trap.
Pubcraft optimizes for content that survives the platform, reads as authentically human, gets cited by AI search, and doesn't get the user sued in regulated verticals. The output is sometimes shorter than you expected, opinionated, and structurally different from the blog post you typed in.
That's intentional. That's what works in 2026.
Each rule below traces to a primary source. Full bibliography in SOURCES.md.
🔬 Mandatory web research before drafting.
Runs web_search and web_fetch against the live SERP, the actual People-Also-Ask, and primary sources (BLS, Federal Reserve, regulatory filings, peer-reviewed research). Every number in the output has a working URL. Statistics that can't be verified get deleted, not approximated.
Why: Sept 2025 Quality Rater Guidelines flag "rephrased existing content with no original information" as Lowest Quality.
🎯 Platform-native, not "social copy." A LinkedIn post and a Reddit post share zero structural conventions. Pubcraft loads only the rules for the surface you asked for: 1,300–1,900 chars on LinkedIn, 240–270 chars on X, 200–800 words on Reddit (most subs), 21–34 seconds on TikTok, 80-char title on Hacker News, full five-piece launch package on Product Hunt. Why: Each ratio comes from the platform's own ranking signal: X open-source weights (reply ≈ 27× like), LinkedIn 360Brew, OpusClip 118k-video study for short-video.
🚫 An anti-slop style guide that actually bites. 40+ hard-banned words (delve, tapestry, pivotal, leverage, robust, multifaceted, navigate, unlock, …). Banned structure: "It's not just X — it's Y." Em-dashes capped at one per 500 words. Mandatory two falsifiable specifics (names, dates, numbers) per 500 words. Self-audit runs before delivery. Why: Originality.ai, GPTZero, Copyleaks flag perplexity + burstiness; "Not X, but Y" appears in ~3% of LLM output vs. <0.1% of human-edited prose.
⚖️ YMYL and regulated-vertical compliance, surfaced automatically.
Ask for a mortgage article and pubcraft surfaces TILA, Reg Z, RESPA, ECOA, Fair Housing, SAFE Act/NMLS, inserts [COMPLIANCE TBD] placeholders for vertical disclaimers, and tells you a human compliance officer needs to review before publishing. Same for medical (FDA/FTC), legal (state bar), investment (SEC/FINRA), insurance (state DOI), cannabis, gambling.
Why: Google QRG treats YMYL trust as the dominant E-E-A-T pillar; named credentialed authors gained 15–25% in the March 2026 core update.
🤖 Built for AI search citation, not just clicks. Dedicated GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) reference covers what gets cited by ChatGPT (~64.5% of AI search), Gemini (~21.5%), Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. ChatGPT referrals convert at ~14.2% versus ~2.8% from organic. Being cited matters more per visit than ranking. Includes the empirical pattern that brands are ~6.5× more cited via third-party mentions than their own domain. Why: Princeton GEO study (statistics-with-context cited 3–4× more), Sedestral 2026 conversion data, Ahrefs/BrightEdge brand-mention analyses.
📜 2026-current AI disclosure rules. TikTok C2PA. YouTube synthetic-content toggle. Meta auto-labeling. EU AI Act Article 50 (effective Aug 2, 2026, fines up to €15M or 3% global turnover). California SB 942 / AI Transparency Act (effective Jan 1, 2026, covered providers). The JUMBF-stripping reality on LinkedIn / X / Bluesky / Threads cross-posts and the hybrid embed + visible-label + sidecar pattern that survives it. Pubcraft knows which apply per surface and per audience. Why: EU AI Act Article 50, California SB 942, C2PA Content Bindings spec, YouTube mandatory disclosure (May 21, 2025), TikTok C2PA auto-labeling (1.3B+ videos since Jan 2025).
📦 Progressive-disclosure architecture. The skill is split across 21 reference files and loaded on demand. Per-task context is ~400 lines, not 1,300. Faster, cheaper, more focused. Why: Anthropic's Agent Skills design pattern. Load only what the task needs.
A real LinkedIn post, generic-AI vs pubcraft:
Excited to share some thoughts on the evolving landscape of B2B marketing in 2026. In today's fast-paced world, it's more crucial than ever to leverage data-driven insights and craft compelling narratives that resonate with your target audience.
Through my work with several pivotal clients, I've come to believe that authentic engagement is the cornerstone of sustainable growth. By harnessing the power of personalization and embracing a multifaceted approach, brands can navigate the complexities of today's marketplace and unlock unprecedented opportunities.
What are your thoughts? Drop a comment below! 👇
LinkedIn's 360Brew classifier deboosts this on sight. Tier-1 banned words (leverage, harness, navigate, unlock, multifaceted, pivotal, evolving). Tricolons. Zero specifics. Engagement bait.
A founder DM'd me Tuesday with the same problem I've now seen 11 times this quarter:
They're spending $14K/month on paid LinkedIn, getting solid CTR (1.8%), and closing zero deals.
Their dashboard says the campaign works. Their bank account says it doesn't.
Here's what's actually happening in 2026, and why it's getting worse:
LinkedIn's targeting got materially better in late 2024. The 360Brew model knows who your ICP is. The clicks you're paying for are real ICP humans.
The problem isn't reach. It's that those same humans are seeing 40+ B2B ads a week and the bar for "this is worth a 30-min call" has moved.
What's working for the three clients I have at >$80K MRR right now:
– Cutting paid spend by 60–70%. – Reallocating to one well-researched comparison post per week. – Pinning that post for two weeks while reps share it 1:1 with named prospects.
One client went from 4 demos/month at $11K spend to 23 demos/month at $3K spend over Q1. Same ICP. Different shape.
Curious if anyone running paid LI right now is seeing the inverse: paid still pulling weight without an organic substance layer underneath. If so, what's working?
Specific scenario in the first 210 chars (the "see more" cutoff). Real numbers. Takes a position. Genuine question, not engagement bait. Zero Tier-1 banned words. Em-dash count: 0.
| Signal | Generic AI | Pubcraft |
|---|---|---|
| Tier-1 banned words | 7 | 0 |
| Concrete numbers | 0 | 12+ |
| Specific scenario in first 210 chars | No | Yes |
| Takes a position | No | Yes |
| CTA shape | Engagement bait | Genuine question |
Same brief. Different planet.
Worked examples for X, Reddit, and Product Hunt: skills/pubcraft/examples/
| Surface | What pubcraft knows |
|---|---|
| SEO articles | 2024–2026 spam policies, Sept 2025 Quality Rater Guidelines, E-E-A-T, schema (Article in, HowTo out, FAQ-from-PAA, Dataset for first-party data), Core Web Vitals 2026 targets, on-page metadata (title 50–60 chars, meta 120–158 chars, H1↔title alignment), length-scaled internal linking, URL/IA placement (/research/, /[hub]/, /blog/), original-data report format with methodology + Limits |
| GEO / AEO / LLMO | Citation-magnet patterns for ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini; technical floor (server rendering, schema, robots.txt for AI crawlers); brand-mention strategy |
| 360Brew algorithm, dwell-time priority, link penalties, document carousels, named-scenario teardowns | |
| X (Twitter) | Open-source Grok ranking weights (reply ≈ 27× like, conversation ≈ 150× like), Premium boost economics, long-form vs. thread tradeoffs, Grok sentiment layer |
| Subreddit decision tree, specificity test for titles, comment-led marketing, branded-subreddit play, ban-bait moves | |
| Product Hunt | Curated featuring criteria, full five-piece launch package (tagline, description, gallery, first comment, response templates) |
| Newsletters (Substack / Beehiiv / Ghost) | Distribution mechanics across all three; Notes/Boosts/ActivityPub; post-MPP open-rate honesty; Ghost 6.0's social web layer; when each platform wins |
| Medium | Boost as the only meaningful distribution lever, AI-only-earning ban policy, what's surviving in 2026 |
| Hacker News | Front-page score formula, second-chance pool, Show/Ask/Launch HN conventions, comment craft |
| YouTube long-form | Five-system algorithm (Browse, Suggested, Search, Subs, Shorts), satisfaction signals, A/B testing reality, MrBeast stair-step + Veritasium open-loop + tutorial three-act structures, thumbnail/title craft, mandatory AI disclosure (May 21, 2025), inauthentic-content rule (July 15, 2025), RPM by category |
| Podcasts | Solo and interview architecture, mandatory cold-open teaser, full-essay show notes for SEO, Apple auto-transcripts, the 2026 video-podcast reality (YouTube #1), monetization beyond CPM, NotebookLM disclosure norms |
| Short-video (TikTok / Reels / Shorts) | Length sweet spots, 3-second hook templates, Hook→Problem→Solution→CTA architecture, mandatory C2PA AI disclosure |
| Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon | Now-tab discovery, custom feeds, Starter Packs, Mastodon cultural rules (alt-text, CWs, CamelCase hashtags) |
| Quora | State of the platform in 2026, where it still pays off, where it doesn't |
| Indie Hackers | The canonical "I built X in N months and it makes $Y" milestone format |
| Dev.to / Hashnode | Canonical-URL strategy, code-block ratios, why hallucinated APIs are unforgivable |
| Compliance | Financial, investment, medical, legal, insurance, cannabis/gambling/alcohol, plus EU AI Act Article 50 (Aug 2, 2026) and California SB 942 / AI Transparency Act (Jan 1, 2026); JUMBF-stripping caveat for cross-platform repost (LinkedIn / X / Bluesky / Threads) with the hybrid embed + visible-label + sidecar pattern; escalation callouts for urgent-variant resources across health/financial/legal/investment |
Pubcraft is a standard Claude Agent Skill. It works in every surface that supports custom skills.
Fastest path (any agent, via skills.sh):
npx skills add thevrus/pubcraftThe skills CLI drops pubcraft into the right directory for whatever agent it detects (Claude Code, Cursor, and others). No clone, no manual copy.
Plugin marketplace (recommended):
/plugin marketplace add thevrus/pubcraft
/plugin install pubcraft@pubcraftDirect copy:
git clone https://github.com/thevrus/pubcraft.git
cp -r pubcraft/skills/pubcraft ~/.claude/skills/ # personal (all projects)
cp -r pubcraft/skills/pubcraft .claude/skills/ # project-onlyThe VSCode and JetBrains Claude Code extensions read from the same ~/.claude/skills/ directory, so a single install covers all of them.
Skill managers like Chops auto-discover skills dropped into ~/.claude/skills/.
Custom skills are available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans (not the free tier). The Mac and Windows desktop apps share the web client's skill registry, so a single upload covers both.
One-click install (recommended):
- Click the button above to download
pubcraft.skill(the latest release artifact, auto-built from each tag). - In Claude, open Customize → Skills → Upload skill (also reachable as Settings → Capabilities → Skills; Anthropic renames this panel occasionally — if you don't see it, check the
/command menu forSkills). - Select the
pubcraft.skillfile and toggle the skill on. - Type
/pubcraftor just describe what you want to publish. The skill activates automatically when you ask Claude for any public-facing content.
Heads up: Claude expects an uploaded skill to be a ZIP that contains a folder with
SKILL.mdinside (notSKILL.mdat the root). The released.skillis shaped correctly. If you build your own ZIP from a clone, zip theskills/pubcraft/folder, not its contents.
Manual install (if your network blocks GitHub releases or you want to modify the skill first):
- Clone the repo and run
npm run buildto producedist/pubcraft.zip. - Or download the source as a ZIP, then re-zip
skills/pubcraft/on its own. - Upload that ZIP via the same Upload skill dialog.
Org-managed install (Team/Enterprise admins): upload pubcraft.skill via the workspace-level skills panel and the skill becomes available to every member without per-user setup.
If you are building your own agent on the Claude Agent SDK, point the SDK's skill loader at skills/pubcraft/. Pubcraft is a plain skill folder (SKILL.md plus references/ and examples/), so any compliant runtime picks it up.
Ask: "Write a 200-word LinkedIn post about a marketing experiment that flopped." If loaded, Claude asks a clarifying question (audience, vertical) and refuses to write "Excited to share…" A generic response means the skill isn't loaded; check the install path.
Ask Claude like any writer. Pubcraft activates automatically and routes to the right platform rules.
Write a 1,500-word guide on negotiating medical bills, targeting "negotiate medical bill".
Draft a Reddit post for r/Entrepreneur about a $40K marketing experiment that failed.
Write a 30-second TikTok script: "I tested 5 SEO tools — here's the one that actually moved rankings."
Optimize this article for AI search — I want to be cited in Perplexity and AI Overviews.
skills/pubcraft/
├── SKILL.md # universal context (~245 lines, always loaded)
├── SOURCES.md # bibliography for every claim — used to cite mechanisms
├── references/ # 21 platform/topic files, loaded on demand
│ ├── style-guide.md # anti-AI-slop rules + "Why these rules exist" — load-always
│ ├── output-formatting.md # Markdown templates, ASCII charts, Mermaid — load-always
│ ├── seo-article.md # article structure + production checklist
│ ├── geo.md # AI-search citation strategy
│ ├── compliance.md # regulated-vertical handling
│ ├── youtube-long-form.md # full upload package (script, thumbnail, title, description)
│ ├── podcast.md # solo + interview, show notes, monetization
│ ├── newsletters.md # Substack / Beehiiv / Ghost
│ └── … # one file per remaining platform
└── examples/ # worked ❌/✅ samples per major platform
├── linkedin-example.md
├── x-example.md
├── reddit-example.md
└── product-hunt-example.md
A typical task loads SKILL.md + style-guide.md + output-formatting.md + one platform reference, about 400 lines. SOURCES.md loads only when Claude cites a specific source.
- Generate "publication-ready" content for regulated verticals. Legal, financial, and medical drafts always end with
[COMPLIANCE TBD]placeholders and an explicit recommendation to route through a human compliance officer. - Write internal docs, README files, or code comments. Different rules apply.
- Post for you. Pubcraft drafts. You ship.
- Promise rankings or featuring. No skill can. Algorithms move; human judgment intervenes; the work compounds over months.
- Run launch operations (hunter outreach, waitlist mobilization, scheduling). That's a separate problem.
- Human compliance review for regulated verticals.
- Quarterly reverification. Platform algorithms shift: LinkedIn changes quarterly, X's open-source algorithm refreshes monthly, Google ships 2–4 core updates a year.
- A real credentialed reviewer byline on YMYL articles.
- The first 60 minutes of engagement on Reddit, X, and LinkedIn after publishing. Pubcraft writes the post; you have to be online.
Issues and PRs welcome. Voice is intentionally opinionated; generic-ifying PRs will be declined.
If you spot algorithm or platform changes that contradict what's in the skill, open an issue with a primary source. The whole point is that the rules are current.
MIT. See LICENSE.
Version: 0.6.3 · Last research date: May 2026 · Author: thevrus