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Agent skill

Explain

by entireio in entireio/skills

Explains the intent behind source code by finding original session transcripts.

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Explain

skills CLI
$ npx skills add entireio/skills --skill explain -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install entireio/skills explain --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/entireio/skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/explain .claude/skills/explain && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
explain
GitHub stars
223
Token cost
~548 tokens
SKILL.md length
318 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
12
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Explains the intent behind source code by finding original session transcripts.

  • Works in 3 steps: Verify the entire CLI is installed by… → Use a Haiku agent to identify the commit… → Use a Sonnet agent to read the session…
  • Development work in your project
  • SKILL.md covers Response Format and Process
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Explain is an agent skill from entireio/skills. Explains the intent behind source code by finding original session transcripts. Use explain with a function, file, or line of code to understand why it exists.

Its SKILL.md is about 550 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Development. It works with Git. The repository describes itself as: ✨ Cross-agent skills that help coding agents use Entire context from Checkpoints, sessions, and git history to search past work, explain code, and hand off sessions. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Development work in your project

Example prompts

  • “Use the explain skill to explain the intent behind source code by finding original session transcripts”
  • “/explain”

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Verify the entire CLI is installed by running entire version.
  2. Use a Haiku agent to identify the commit that introduced the code via git blame or git log.
  3. Use a Sonnet agent to read the session transcript via entire checkpoint explain --no-pager --commit COMMIT_SHA.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit fe5266f. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

    • entire.io

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Explain loads about 548 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 42 tokens; SKILL.md has 318 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~42
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~548

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from entireio/skills at commit fe5266f, republished under its MIT licence (© entireio). 318 words, ~548 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/explain/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
explain
description
Explains the intent behind source code by finding original session transcripts. Use explain with a function, file, or line of code to understand why it exists.
argument-hint
<function, file, or line>

Explain Intent

Explain the intent behind source code by tracing it back to the original conversation where it was created. Works with:

  • Functions — Why does this function exist? What problem was it solving?
  • Files — What's the purpose of this file? What requirements drove its creation?
  • Line changes — Why was this specific line added or modified?

Response Format

Begin the first response to this skill invocation with the line:

Entire Explain:

followed by a blank line, then the content.

  • Apply the header to the first response of the invocation only. Do not re-print it on follow-up turns within the same invocation (e.g. after the user answers a clarifying question).
  • Do not include the header on error or early-exit responses (e.g. "Entire CLI is required but not installed", "this file is not tracked by git", "no session transcript was found for this commit"). The header's presence should signal that the skill ran and produced real output.

Process

  1. Verify the entire CLI is installed by running entire version.
    • If the command is not found, stop and tell the user: "The Entire CLI is required but not installed. Install it from https://entire.io/docs/cli and try again."
  2. Use a Haiku agent to identify the commit that introduced the code via git blame or git log.
    • If the file is not tracked by git, stop and tell the user: "This file is not tracked by git, so I can't trace its history."
    • If git blame returns no useful result (e.g., the code is uncommitted), stop and tell the user: "This code hasn't been committed yet, so there's no history to trace."
  3. Use a Sonnet agent to read the session transcript via entire checkpoint explain --no-pager --commit COMMIT_SHA.
    • If the command fails or returns no transcript, stop and tell the user: "No session transcript was found for this commit. It may have been created outside of an Entire session (e.g., a manual commit)."

© entireio, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/explain of entireio/skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit fe5266f

Compare with similar skills

Explain next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Explain compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Explain this skillentireio/skills223—~548Automated safety check: PassMIT
Finishing a Development Branchobra/superpowers296k5 repos~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Code Review ChecklistshareAI-lab/learn-claude-code78k5 repos~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Codebase Knowledge Graph Q&AEgonex-AI/Understand-Anything86k1 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Code Design Rationale Investigatorcursor/plugins10k9 repos~2.6kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Understand Diff AnalysisEgonex-AI/Understand-Anything86k1 repos~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

Similar skills

  • Finishing a Development Branch

    obra/superpowers

    Walks the last step of a branch: confirm tests pass, detect the git environment, ask how to integrate, carry out your choice and clean up the worktree.

    296k GitHub starsUsed in 5 repos~1.9k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Code Review Checklist

    shareAI-lab/learn-claude-code

    Reviews code against a five-part checklist covering security, correctness, performance, maintainability and testing, and reports findings in a fixed format.

    78k GitHub starsUsed in 5 repos~1.1k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Codebase Knowledge Graph Q&A

    Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything

    Answers questions about a codebase by searching a prebuilt knowledge graph of its files, functions, classes and dependencies, not by rereading every source file.

    86k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~1.2k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Code Design Rationale Investigator

    cursor/plugins

    Official

    Digs into why code is shaped the way it is by checking git history, pull requests and connected tools in parallel, then reporting a cited read on the tradeoffs.

    10k GitHub starsUsed in 9 repos~2.6k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Understand Diff Analysis

    Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything

    Reads your git changes or a pull request against a prebuilt knowledge graph of the project to explain what changed, which components are affected and what is risky.

    86k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~1.4k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Understand Explain

    Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything

    Gives an in-depth explanation of one file, function or module by reading the project's knowledge graph and checking that the graph is still fresh.

    86k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~1.3k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

More from entireio/skills

All 12 skills in this repo

  • Review

    entireio/skills

    Review code changes on the current branch using checkpoint transcript context to understand developer intent before auditing the diff.

    223 GitHub stars~1.9k tokensUpdated 8 days ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Address Findings

    entireio/skills

    Address the review findings posted on an Entire trail: fetch the trail's open findings, fix the code, and resolve them on the trail.

    223 GitHub stars~1.6k tokensUpdated 8 days ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Recall

    entireio/skills

    A skill your agent uses when the user describes a task and wants to know whether something similar has been done before, then turn the closest prior session into a task playbook.

    223 GitHub stars~1.6k tokensUpdated 8 days ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Replay

    entireio/skills

    A skill your agent uses when the user wants to step through a feature's checkpoints chronologically, pausing at each step to ask questions.

    223 GitHub stars~1.7k tokensUpdated 8 days ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Search

    entireio/skills

    A skill your agent uses when the user asks to research, investigate, look into, dig into, or search for anything — a topic, feature, bug, decision, or "what do we know about X".

    223 GitHub stars~2.1k tokensUpdated 8 days ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Session Crosslink

    entireio/skills

    A skill your agent uses when an agent session ran outside the repo whose commits should record it — e.g.

    223 GitHub stars~2k tokensUpdated 8 days ago
    Auto-check passed

Works with

Categories

Questions about Explain

What does Explain do?

Explains the intent behind source code by finding original session transcripts. Explain is an agent skill from entireio/skills. Explains the intent behind source code by finding original session transcripts.

When should I use Explain?

Explain fits situations like: development work in your project.

How do I install Explain in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add entireio/skills --skill explain -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/explain in entireio/skills) into .claude/skills/explain in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Explain in Codex?

Run `npx skills add entireio/skills --skill explain -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/explain in entireio/skills) into .agents/skills/explain in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Explain in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add entireio/skills --skill explain -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/explain, .gemini/skills/explain, .github/skills/explain and .opencode/skills/explain in your project.

What does Explain need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Explain is instructions for the agent only.

Does Explain access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. As links in the text: entire.io. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Explain safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Explain use?

Explain is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Explain use?

About 548 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 2.2k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Explain?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Explain: Finishing a Development Branch (obra/superpowers, 296k stars), Code Review Checklist (shareAI-lab/learn-claude-code, 78k stars), Codebase Knowledge Graph Q&A (Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything, 86k stars) and Code Design Rationale Investigator (cursor/plugins, 10k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Explain?

entireio (a GitHub organization) maintains it in entireio/skills, which has 223 GitHub stars. The repository holds 12 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 29, 2026.

Source: entireio/skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.