explain

explain is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from synaptiai/agent-capability-standard. It costs 32 tokens per session (2,909 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

An explanation skill for describing a topic, decision, or piece of code with assumptions, reasoning, causes, and supporting evidence.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to teach concepts, clarify decisions, justify recommendations, or document why something works.
Why use it?
It helps readers understand not only the answer, but also how the conclusion was reached and what it depends on.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Part of the agent-capability-standard plugin — 42 skills, 2 hooks shipped together

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/synaptiai/agent-capability-standard/explain
Any agent
npx skills add synaptiai/agent-capability-standard --skill explain
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/synaptiai/agent-capability-standard

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Or install agent-capability-standard, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 42 skills, 2 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/synaptiai/agent-capability-standard/explain.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/synaptiai/agent-capability-standard/explain)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/synaptiai/agent-capability-standard/explain"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/synaptiai/agent-capability-standard/explain.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 32 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,909 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 $0.00032 $0.02909
Opus 5 $0.00016 $0.01455
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00582
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00291

Measured 4d ago against content hash 6c9cbd2474a1, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, 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 4d 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/explain/SKILL.md · 335 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 335 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Intent

Generate a clear, structured explanation of a topic, decision, or concept tailored to the audience level. Include explicit assumptions, causal reasoning, and supporting evidence.

Success criteria:

  • Explanation is clear and understandable by target audience
  • Assumptions are explicitly stated
  • Causal chain shows logical progression
  • Evidence supports key claims
  • No unnecessary jargon or fluff

Compatible schemas:

  • schemas/output_schema.yaml

Inputs

Parameter Required Type Description
topic Yes string or object What to explain (concept, decision, code, etc.)
audience_level No string beginner, intermediate, expert (default: intermediate)
format No string prose, bullets, structured, diagram (default: structured)
focus No string Specific aspect to emphasize
max_length No string Length constraint (brief, standard, detailed)

Procedure

  1. Analyze the topic: Understand what needs explaining

    • Identify the core concept or decision
    • Note the complexity level
    • Determine what background is needed
    • Identify potential confusion points
  2. Assess audience: Calibrate explanation depth

    • Beginner: Define all terms, use analogies
    • Intermediate: Assume basic knowledge, focus on key points
    • Expert: Technical depth, skip fundamentals
  3. Extract key concepts: Identify essential elements

    • Core idea or decision
    • Supporting concepts
    • Technical terms that need definition
    • Related concepts for context
  4. Build causal chain: Show logical progression

    • Starting conditions or premises
    • Each step in reasoning
    • How each step leads to the next
    • Final conclusion
  5. State assumptions: Make implicit knowledge explicit

    • What must be true for explanation to hold
    • Background knowledge assumed
    • Simplifications made
    • Edge cases not covered
  6. Add analogies: Create relatable comparisons

    • Match complexity to audience
    • Use familiar domains
    • Highlight key similarities
    • Note where analogy breaks down

Read the full file on GitHub · 335 lines

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. 4d ago First seen · 335 lines · 32 tokens per session scan A 6c9cbd2474a1

Subscribe to this mod's changes

explain is a skill published in the GitHub repository synaptiai/agent-capability-standard (4 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 32 tokens to every session and 2,909 once invoked, about $0.0002 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.

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