ark-explain

ark-explain is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from pedroknigge/arkgate. It costs 17 tokens per session (3,501 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A plain-language guide to this project's architecture and its rules file, with an HTML report. It also explains which setup or automation command to use at each stage.

In plain words
What is it for?
Learning the folder structure, understanding a specific rule, investigating a blocked gate, and reviewing architecture gaps.
Why use it?
It helps you understand why a gate blocked a change and what remains incomplete, instead of treating a green check as proof that the architecture is finished.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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 skills/pedroknigge/arkgate/ark-explain
Any agent
npx skills add pedroknigge/arkgate --skill ark-explain
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/pedroknigge/arkgate

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

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 ark-explain

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/pedroknigge/arkgate/ark-explain.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/pedroknigge/arkgate/ark-explain)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/pedroknigge/arkgate/ark-explain"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/pedroknigge/arkgate/ark-explain.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 17 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,501 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 $0.00017 $0.03501
Opus 5 $0.00009 $0.01750
Sonnet 5 $0.00003 $0.00700
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00350

Measured yesterday against content hash 9bfd28cfde0e, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

ark-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 yesterday.

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.

templates/agent-skills/ark-explain/SKILL.md · 242 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 242 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

/ark-explain — Understand this project's architecture

Not a first-run door. Teach / HTML tour only. Session 0 → /ark-adopt. Map → /ark-explore. Apply → /ark-autopilot. Do not send the user to leftover /ark-contract or /ark-fix.

The user wants to understand the architecture, a specific rule, or why the gate blocked them.

Improvement compass (process preflight)

When doctor is available, read doctor.improvementCompass (or the human Improvement compass section). Name 1–3 residual lenses in plain language before skill-shopping. Always notAScore — never invent 0–10 scores or Excellent/Good ranks.

What the user should feel next: fewer blocked AI writes, clearer folders, safer domain — then jargon.

Anti false-done: empty plan A + residual lenses / design-weak → Incomplete? yes. Green edges alone are not “architecture finished.”

AI-easy architecture: ports over concrete I/O in domain; one concern per module; golden pattern for new files; place before write (/ark-place / prepare-write).

Out of scope (honest): scalability/performance, full app-security tooling (SAST), and full resilience patterns are out-of-scope lenses — say so; do not invent Ark enforcement for them.

Tour by lenses (teach, not score). Prefer showcase HTML + doctor compass section when explaining residual.

When / not when

Use /ark-explain when… Do not use it when…
Plain-language tour of layers/rules/report Decision-grade recon / dual-plan → /ark-explore
“Why did the gate block me?” pedagogy Apply fixes → /ark-autopilot
Generate / walk HTML showcase report Fitness numbers only → /ark-coverage; brownfield action → /ark-adopt
Your job is to teach with this repo's real data and leave a shareable visual artifact.

Dual engine (mandatory)

Engine Role
Deterministic CLI / MCP / contract sensors — exit codes, plan kinds, coverage numbers, install status
Exploratory You open this repo's real files and product surface before concluding

Read the full file on GitHub · 242 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. yesterday Changed · +1 lines 9bfd28cfde0e
  2. 4d ago First seen · 241 lines · 17 tokens per session scan A d65a7050aefe

Subscribe to this mod's changes

ark-explain is a skill published in the GitHub repository pedroknigge/arkgate (1 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 17 tokens to every session and 3,501 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 2026-08-31.