eli5

eli5 is a skill for Claude Code from quay/ai-helpers. It costs 68 tokens per session (433 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A simple-explanation skill for technical concepts, using plain language, a concrete analogy when useful, and a short code example. ELI5 means “explain like I'm five,” but this version is aimed at engineers who want a clear mental model without condescension.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when someone asks for an ELI5 explanation, a breakdown of a concept, or a concrete example of how something works.
Why use it?
It turns difficult or unfamiliar topics into a short explanation with an example that can be run or inspected. This helps readers understand how a concept works rather than only memorizing a definition.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter.

Part of the dev plugin — 16 skills, 1 command shipped together

Good fit Use it when someone asks for an ELI5 explanation, a breakdown of…

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/quay/ai-helpers/eli5
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 quay/ai-helpers --skill eli5
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/quay/ai-helpers

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install dev, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 16 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 eli5

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/quay/ai-helpers/eli5.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/quay/ai-helpers/eli5)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/quay/ai-helpers/eli5"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/quay/ai-helpers/eli5.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 68 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 433 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 $0.00068 $0.00433
Opus 5 $0.00034 $0.00217
Sonnet 5 $0.00014 $0.00087
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00043

Measured yesterday against content hash 4d06e89b17bf, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

eli5 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.

plugins/dev/skills/eli5/SKILL.md · 47 lines

What it actually says

ELI5 — Explain Like I'm 5

Distill $ARGUMENTS into a short, clear explanation with a concrete code snippet or example. The audience is a senior engineer who wants the mental model, not a tutorial.

Format

Every response follows this structure:

1. One-liner (required)

One sentence: what it is, in plain terms.

2. Analogy (optional)

A one-sentence analogy only if it genuinely clarifies. Skip if forced.

3. Code snippet or concrete example (required)

A short, runnable snippet or real-world example that demonstrates the concept. Prefer examples in the current project's primary language and domain. Annotate with 1-2 inline comments only where non-obvious.

4. The gotcha (optional)

One sentence on the most common misconception or sharp edge, if one exists.

Rules

  • Keep the entire response under 15 lines of prose (code doesn't count toward this).
  • Never pad with disclaimers, caveats, or "it depends" hedging.
  • Never explain what the user already knows — skip straight to the part they're asking about.
  • If the question is about something in the current codebase, reference the actual code, not a hypothetical.
  • Match the user's depth: if they ask "how does SSA work in controller-runtime", assume they know what controllers are.

Depth escalation

If the user asks for more detail, add ONE level of depth — internal mechanics, edge cases, or a second code snippet. Don't repeat the original explanation.

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 First seen · 47 lines · 68 tokens per session scan A 4d06e89b17bf

Subscribe to this mod's changes

eli5 is a skill published in the GitHub repository quay/ai-helpers (3 stars, last pushed 19d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 68 tokens to every session and 433 once invoked, about $0.0003 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 2026-09-04.

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