Attention Span output styles for Claude Code: answer-first, skimmable replies

What they did

They installed Attention Span, a small collection of Claude Code output styles, to change how the agent talks rather than how it codes. Each style is a single markdown file dropped into the output-styles directory and switched on. They picked Attention-kind as the flagship: Claude answers first, keeps replies short, drops jargon, spaces every point with a → marker, and bolds the words that matter so skimming the bold alone still conveys the answer. They compared a default 430-word database recommendation against the same answer in 94 words under the style, confirming the engineering substance stayed intact while delivery got tighter. Spartan (terse, zero warmth) and Rundown (TL;DR briefings) were kept as alternates for different moods or tasks.

How it went

Replies got dramatically shorter and easier to skim — the sample answer dropped from roughly 430 words to 94 with the same recommendation and reasoning intact. The style is a single markdown file, so switching on or off is trivial, and the repo's hidden-test benchmark claims work stays unchanged. Polish is high for a small personal tool; it is a prompt-level style, not a plugin with tooling.

Worth knowing

Only affects Claude Code's conversational output, not code quality or tool behavior. Requires placing the markdown file in the correct output-styles directory and enabling it per session or project. Terseness can hide nuance on genuinely complex questions, so you may want to switch styles for deep debugging. No automated install script is described in the excerpt.

Wiring

Clone or download alexgreensh/attention-span, copy the desired markdown file from output-styles/ into your Claude Code output-styles location (project-level or user-level), then select it via the output style setting or the /output-style command in Claude Code. No build step, no dependencies, no API keys. The style file is plain markdown instructions that prepend to the system prompt, so it composes with normal tool use. To revert, switch back to the default style or remove the file.

Try it yourself

Add the Attention-kind output style from alexgreensh/attention-span to this repo's Claude Code setup. Create the output-styles directory if missing, drop in the Attention-kind markdown file, and enable it for this project. Then answer this question in that style to verify: 'Should we split our monolith into microservices this quarter?' Keep the answer under 120 words, answer first, use → bullets, and bold the key words.