Agent skill

Explain First Interrogator

by GarethManning in GarethManning/education-agent-skills

Require the learner to explain a concept in their own words before the AI evaluates or extends it.

Custom licenceAuto-check passedAI & LLM Engineering

Install Explain First Interrogator

skills CLI
$ npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill explain-first-interrogator -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install GarethManning/education-agent-skills explain-first-interrogator --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/GarethManning/education-agent-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/student-learning/explain-first-interrogator .claude/skills/explain-first-interrogator && 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-first-interrogator
GitHub stars
837
Token cost
~3.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,045 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
160
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Custom licence

At a glance

Require the learner to explain a concept in their own words before the AI evaluates or extends it.

  • Works in 4 steps: The skill requires the AI to accurately… → The explain-first structure can… → Mechanical or textbook-perfect… → …
  • AI & LLM Engineering work in your project
  • SKILL.md covers What This Skill Does, Evidence Foundation, System Prompt and Example Transcript, plus 1 more section
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Explain First Interrogator is an agent skill from GarethManning/education-agent-skills. Require the learner to explain a concept in their own words before the AI evaluates or extends it. Ensures the AI works from the learner's understanding rather than providing an explanation from scratch.

Its SKILL.md is about 3.7k 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 AI & LLM Engineering. The repository describes itself as: 165 evidence-grounded AI skills for teachers, school leaders and EdTech builders—pedagogy, learning science, curriculum, assessment and regeneration. Claude, Codex and Hermes.

When your agent uses it

  • AI & LLM Engineering work in your project

Example prompts

  • “/explain-first-interrogator”

Workflow steps

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

  1. The skill requires the AI to accurately identify which part of the learner's explanation is weakest. If the AI probes a correct element…
  2. The explain-first structure can frustrate learners who genuinely have zero footing. The warm-start protocol addresses this, but some…
  3. Mechanical or textbook-perfect explanations are hard to probe without seeming arbitrary. If a learner correctly reproduces a textbook…
  4. Self-explanation benefits diminish when explanations are very short. A learner who gives a one-sentence answer that happens to be correct…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 6bbbce4. 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

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    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 First Interrogator loads about 3.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 58 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,045 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~58
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~3.7k

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

Its licence (Custom licence) doesn't allow us to republish the file, so here is its outline and opening line. It has 1,045 words (~3,666 tokens).

“Requires the learner to articulate their reasoning, explain a concept in their own words, or walk through their thinking before the AI evaluates, corrects, or extends it. The AI probes the weakest part of the explanation — it never rewrites…”

— opening of SKILL.md by GarethManning, Custom licence
name
explain-first-interrogator
disable-model-invocation
false
user-invocable
true
effort
medium
skill_id
student-learning/explain-first-interrogator
skill_name
Explain-First Interrogator
domain
student-learning
domain_number
20
version
1.0
audience
student
evidence_strength
strong

Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/student-learning/explain-first-interrogator of GarethManning/education-agent-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 6bbbce4

Compare with similar skills

Explain First Interrogator 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 First Interrogator compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Explain First Interrogator this skillGarethManning/education-agent-skills837—~3.7kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Agent BuildershareAI-lab/learn-claude-code78k5 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Add Uint Supportpytorch/pytorch104k2 repos~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
LLM Benchmarking with lm-evaluation-harnessOrchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs13k8 repos~3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Segment Anything Model GuideOrchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs13k8 repos~3.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
1passwordtrpc-group/trpc-agent-go1.9k14 repos~656Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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Questions about Explain First Interrogator

What does Explain First Interrogator do?

Require the learner to explain a concept in their own words before the AI evaluates or extends it. Explain First Interrogator is an agent skill from GarethManning/education-agent-skills. Require the learner to explain a concept in their own words before the AI evaluates or extends it.

When should I use Explain First Interrogator?

Explain First Interrogator fits situations like: AI & LLM Engineering work in your project.

How do I install Explain First Interrogator in Claude Code?

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

How do I install Explain First Interrogator in Codex?

Run `npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill explain-first-interrogator -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/student-learning/explain-first-interrogator in GarethManning/education-agent-skills) into .agents/skills/explain-first-interrogator in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Explain First Interrogator 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 GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill explain-first-interrogator -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-first-interrogator, .gemini/skills/explain-first-interrogator, .github/skills/explain-first-interrogator and .opencode/skills/explain-first-interrogator in your project.

What does Explain First Interrogator need to run?

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

Does Explain First Interrogator access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Explain First Interrogator 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 First Interrogator use?

Explain First Interrogator has a licence file (the repository's licence) that doesn't match a standard licence. Read it on GitHub before reusing the skill.

How many tokens does Explain First Interrogator use?

About 3.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 15k 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 First Interrogator?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Explain First Interrogator: Agent Builder (shareAI-lab/learn-claude-code, 78k stars), Add Uint Support (pytorch/pytorch, 104k stars), LLM Benchmarking with lm-evaluation-harness (Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs, 13k stars) and Segment Anything Model Guide (Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs, 13k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Explain First Interrogator?

GarethManning (a GitHub user) maintains it in GarethManning/education-agent-skills, which has 837 GitHub stars. The repository holds 160 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on August 28, 2026.

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