wtf

wtf is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin. It costs 63 tokens per session (497 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A plain-language explanation helper for a message, file, link, passage, or selected part of a conversation. It explains the main point, current situation, and any decision or action the reader needs to understand.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to explain technical messages, documents, links, code-related text, or a specific step in a conversation.
Why use it?
It removes the need to reread dense or unfamiliar text to work out what it means. If the target is unclear, it asks a short question instead of guessing.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for Claude Code and Codex: disable-model-invocation in frontmatter, but also agents/openai.yaml present.

Part of the compound-engineering plugin — 37 skills, 1 command shipped together

Good fit Use it to explain technical messages, documents, links, code-related text, or a specific step in a conversation.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/everyinc/compound-engineering-plugin/wtf
About the project

Compound Engineering is a plugin that organizes software work into brainstorming, planning, implementation, review, and recording lessons for future changes. It is used with AI coding agents including Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex, and the catalogue entries provide parts of its agent, skill, command, and hook workflow.

EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin · 25,741 stars · on GitHub · every.to

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.

Any agent
npx skills add EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin --skill wtf
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Or install compound-engineering, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 37 skills, 1 command.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for wtf

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/everyinc/compound-engineering-plugin/wtf/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/everyinc/compound-engineering-plugin/wtf)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/everyinc/compound-engineering-plugin/wtf"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/everyinc/compound-engineering-plugin/wtf/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for wtf

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/everyinc/compound-engineering-plugin/wtf"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/everyinc/compound-engineering-plugin/wtf.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 63 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 497 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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 5.1 $0.00063 $0.00497
Opus 5.5 $0.00025 $0.00199
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00013 $0.00099
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00050

Measured 1mo ago against content hash b90a6a998ed3, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

wtf 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 1mo 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.

skills/wtf/SKILL.md · 34 lines

What it actually says

wtf

The user did not follow something. Explain it the way you would to a smart colleague who was not in the room.

Done: the user can say what the source means and what, if anything, they need to decide or do, without going back to the source.

What to explain

The text the user passed with the invocation decides the target:

  • Nothing passed: your most recent message.
  • A file path or a link: read it, then explain it.
  • A pasted passage: that passage.
  • A short pointer such as "the migration part" or "step 3": only that part of the conversation.

If the target is still unclear, ask one short question instead of guessing.

How to explain

  • Open with the point in one or two sentences: what this says and why the user should care. Write no preamble and no apology for the earlier wording.
  • Then say what it means for them: what happened, what state things are in, and anything they need to decide or do.
  • Explain the source; do not rewrite it. The explanation is shorter than the source because it leaves out whatever the user does not need in order to understand it or act on it. Do not walk a document section by section.
  • Use everyday words. When a technical term matters, keep it and say what it means once, in passing. Keep the exact file names, commands, and values the user will need to use.
  • Keep everything that changes what the user would do: failures, caveats, open questions, and requests. The explanation must not sound more positive or more certain than the source.
  • Add no claims the source does not make. If the source is vague or contradicts itself, say so. If re-reading your own message shows it was wrong, say that and correct it.
  • Plain does not mean childish. Do not force analogies, cheerlead, or talk down.
Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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. 1mo ago First seen · 34 lines · 63 tokens per session scan A b90a6a998ed3

Subscribe to this mod's changes

wtf is a skill published in the GitHub repository EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin (25,741 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 63 tokens to every session and 497 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5.5. 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 2026-09-19.

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