explain

explain is a skill for Claude Code from Marcel-Bich/marcel-bich-claude-marketplace. It costs 0 tokens per session (624 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guided explanation tool for unpacking a term, statement, or reference in detail when the user writes "???" or runs its command.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to clarify technical ideas, decisions, or earlier parts of a conversation. It is also useful when a user points to one specific subject and wants it explained.
Why use it?
It helps when a short answer or unfamiliar phrase is not enough to understand the subject. It adds concrete examples and explains the consequences.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the credo plugin — 26 skills, 15 commands, 6 hooks shipped together

Good fit Use it to clarify technical ideas, decisions, or earlier parts of a conversation. It is also useful when a user points to one specific subject and wants it explained.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/marcel-bich/marcel-bich-claude-marketplace/explain
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 Marcel-Bich/marcel-bich-claude-marketplace --skill explain
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Marcel-Bich/marcel-bich-claude-marketplace

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install credo, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 26 skills, 15 commands, 6 hooks.

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 explain

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/marcel-bich/marcel-bich-claude-marketplace/explain/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/marcel-bich/marcel-bich-claude-marketplace/explain)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/marcel-bich/marcel-bich-claude-marketplace/explain"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/marcel-bich/marcel-bich-claude-marketplace/explain/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 explain

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/marcel-bich/marcel-bich-claude-marketplace/explain"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/marcel-bich/marcel-bich-claude-marketplace/explain.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 0 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 624 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 $0.00000 $0.00624
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00312
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00125
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00062

Measured 11d ago against content hash bdf42b954c85, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-11, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

explain 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 11d 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/credo/skills/explain/SKILL.md · 50 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 50 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Explain in Depth

Give a thorough, structured explanation of a subject the user wants to understand better. The subject is whatever the user pointed at: a reference, a statement, or a term. This skill exists because a short "?" or a raw pointer is not a literal question - it is a request to unpack the thing properly.

When to use

  • The user writes ??? on its own - they did not understand the last thing and want it explained properly.
  • The user writes ??? directly after a reference, a statement, or a term (for example the audit gate ???) - explain that specific thing, not the surrounding sentence.
  • The /credo:explain [subject] command is run - explain the given subject, or, if none is given, the thing the user was just pointing at.

Core principle: it is not a literal question

??? and /credo:explain are a request to EXPLAIN the referenced thing, not a question to answer verbatim. Do not reply "yes/no" or treat the ? marks as asking whether something is true. Identify the subject, then explain it. If the subject is genuinely ambiguous (nothing recent to point at, no argument given), ask one short clarifying question first, then explain.

Output structure (fixed - always all four parts)

Answer in exactly these four labeled parts, in this order, every time:

  • What - what the subject means. State plainly what is being referred to.
  • Why - why it is that way, or why it matters. The reasoning or purpose behind it.
  • Example - one concrete, specific example that makes it tangible.
  • Consequences - what follows from it: effects, trade-offs, and what happens if it is ignored or done differently.

Keep each part focused. Prefer a concrete example over an abstract restatement. Do not add, rename, drop, or reorder the parts - all four are mandatory, even for a small subject (give a short answer under each rather than omitting one).

Guardrails

  • Match the language of the surrounding conversation for the explanation itself; the four labels stay as What / Why / Example / Consequences.
  • Explain the subject only - do not turn the explanation into unrelated advice or actions.
  • Honesty applies: if part of the subject is genuinely unknown, say so under the relevant part rather than inventing detail.

Read the full file on GitHub · 50 lines

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. 11d ago First seen · 50 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A bdf42b954c85

Subscribe to this mod's changes

explain is a skill published in the GitHub repository Marcel-Bich/marcel-bich-claude-marketplace (13 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 624 tokens. 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.

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