explain-architecture

A software-architecture explainer that maps how an application is organized and shows its structure with text-based diagrams.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to identify the application's overall style, design patterns, data flow, communication methods, and major components.
Why use it?
It makes unfamiliar codebases easier to understand by connecting entry points, routes, business logic, data storage, and outside services.

Command

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add commands/fusengine/agents/explain-architecture
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/fusengine/agents
Per session 19 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 680 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00019 $0.00680
Opus 5 $0.00010 $0.00340
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00136
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00068

Measured 2d ago against content hash 6ee39909ece6, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

explain-architecture scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

plugins/ai-pilot/commands/explain-architecture.md · 95 lines

What it actually says

Explain Architecture

Analyze and visualize system architecture:

  1. Use Explore Agent:

    Use explore-codebase to map the complete system structure

  2. Identify Patterns:

    • Architectural Style: (Monolith/Microservices/Serverless/JAMstack)
    • Design Patterns: (MVC/MVVM/Repository/Factory/Observer/etc.)
    • Data Flow: (Unidirectional/Bidirectional/Event-driven)
    • Communication: (REST/GraphQL/gRPC/WebSockets)
  3. Map Components:

    • Entry points
    • Controllers/Routes
    • Services/Business logic
    • Data layer
    • External integrations
  4. Generate ASCII Diagrams:

    ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │           CLIENT (Browser)              │
    └────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                 │ HTTP/REST
    ┌────────────▼────────────────────────────┐
    │         API Gateway/Router              │
    ├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
    │  ┌───────────┐  ┌────────┐  ┌────────┐ │
    │  │Controller │  │Service │  │ Model  │ │
    │  └─────┬─────┘  └───┬────┘  └───┬────┘ │
    └────────┼───────────┼──────────┼────────┘
             │           │          │
    ┌────────▼───────────▼──────────▼────────┐
    │         Database (PostgreSQL)           │
    └─────────────────────────────────────────┘
    
  5. Document Flow:

    ### Request Flow
    1. Client → API Gateway → Auth Middleware
    2. Route → Controller → Service Layer
    3. Service → Repository → Database
    4. Response ← Transform ← Validate ← Data
    
  6. Create Architecture Report:

    ## 🏗️  Architecture: [Project Name]
    
    ### Overview
    **Style**: [Architecture type]
    **Patterns**: [Detected patterns]
    **Tech Stack**: [Technologies]
    
    ### System Diagram
    [ASCII diagram]
    
    ### Component Breakdown
    #### Presentation Layer
    - [Components]
    
    #### Business Logic Layer
    - [Services]
    
    #### Data Layer
    - [Models/Repositories]
    
    ### Data Flow
    [Flow description with diagram]
    
    ### Dependencies
    - External: [APIs, services]
    - Internal: [Module relationships]
    
    ### Strengths
    - ✅ [Good architectural decision 1]
    
    ### Areas for Improvement
    - ⚠️  [Architectural concern 1]
    

Arguments:

  • $ARGUMENTS focuses on specific subsystem

Example Usage:

  • /explain-architecture auth → Focus on auth subsystem
  • /explain-architecture → Complete system architecture
Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 95 lines · 19 tokens per session scan A 6ee39909ece6

Subscribe to this mod's changes

explain-architecture is a command published in the GitHub repository fusengine/agents (25 stars, last pushed 29d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 19 tokens to every session and 680 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.