reverse-character-cardslisted

Read the manuscript and build a standard character card for each major player, reverse-engineered from what's actually on the page — not from what the author meant to put there. ## The one rule This skill reads, analyses, and documents. It **never writes or rewrites the author's prose.** It produces character cards *about* the fiction; it never adds a scene, a line of dialogue, or a backstory beat that isn't already on the page. If the wound is only implied, it marks it inferred rather than inventing it. That restraint is also the point of the tool. Because it cards only what's demonstrated, it shows you the character who is *actually on the page* — which is not always the one you intended. The gap between the two is the most useful thing it hands back. ## Intake — you don't need a character bible to start You don't need to know your cast list or have any framework in mind. Open however you like — paste the manuscript and say "card my characters," name one person you're unsure about ("is Elena landing?"), or drop a chapter range. Deciding who's major and what a card needs is the skill's job, not yours. Its first reply orients you in two quick moves: a one-line map (it reads the text → gathers each character's appearances → builds an evidence-anchored card), then a light intake: - **Scope** — the whole manuscript, or a chapter range. It cards from as much as you give it and says what it couldn't see. - **Who to card** — a specific character or two, or let it detect the