error-message-explainer

error-message-explainer is a skill for Claude Code from wedsamuel1230/arduino-skills. It costs 80 tokens per session (2,806 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide that translates Arduino and embedded-system errors into plain English. It covers build, upload, board, power, and runtime failures.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to understand compiler messages, failed uploads, boot problems, and runtime errors in Arduino IDE, Arduino CLI, PlatformIO, or vendor tools.
Why use it?
It helps separate code problems from connection, hardware, and power problems, so you can choose the right fix for your board.

Skill for Claude Code

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

Part of the arduino-skills plugin — 33 skills shipped together

Good fit Use it to understand compiler messages, failed uploads, boot problems, and runtime errors in Arduino IDE, Arduino CLI, PlatformIO, or vendor tools.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/wedsamuel1230/arduino-skills/error-message-explainer
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 wedsamuel1230/arduino-skills --skill error-message-explainer
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wedsamuel1230/arduino-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install arduino-skills, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 33 skills.

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 error-message-explainer

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/wedsamuel1230/arduino-skills/error-message-explainer/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/wedsamuel1230/arduino-skills/error-message-explainer)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/wedsamuel1230/arduino-skills/error-message-explainer"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/wedsamuel1230/arduino-skills/error-message-explainer/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 error-message-explainer

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/wedsamuel1230/arduino-skills/error-message-explainer"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/wedsamuel1230/arduino-skills/error-message-explainer.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 80 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,806 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. Third-party audits
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector pass 7 Sept 2026
How audits are shown
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 $0.00080 $0.02806
Opus 5 $0.00040 $0.01403
Sonnet 5 $0.00016 $0.00561
Haiku 4.5 $0.00008 $0.00281

Measured 11d ago against content hash 90aec1a81060, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

error-message-explainer 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.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (scripts/parse_errors.py), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

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.

Origin

Copies of this mod

1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:

skills/error-message-explainer/SKILL.md · 438 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 438 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Error Message Explainer

Translates cryptic compiler errors into actionable fixes for Arduino/ESP32/RP2040 projects.

Resources

This skill includes bundled tools:

  • scripts/parse_errors.py - Automated error analysis with 20+ error patterns
  • ../../docs/board-support/uno-r4-family.md - Shared Uno R4 board-family caveats

Quick Start

Analyze error from file:

uv run --no-project scripts/parse_errors.py --file error_log.txt

Analyze single error:

uv run --no-project scripts/parse_errors.py --message "error: 'LED' was not declared in this scope"

Interactive mode:

uv run --no-project scripts/parse_errors.py --interactive

Pipe from compiler:

arduino-cli compile 2>&1 | uv run --no-project scripts/parse_errors.py --stdin

How to Use This Skill

When user pastes an error message:

  1. Identify the error type from patterns below
  2. Explain what it means in simple terms
  3. Show the specific fix with code example
  4. Explain WHY this error happens (educational value)
  5. If the target is Uno R4 family and the failure touches WiFi, OTA, USB, or board recognition, open ../../docs/board-support/uno-r4-family.md

Recovery Boundary

Before recommending a reset, erase, bootloader repair, or reflash, capture the exact board/revision, tool and library versions, port, power path, and last known-good image. Use the router recovery reference for failed uploads, boot failures, power faults, or corrupted firmware. Do not call a compile fix a hardware or system fix.

Common Compilation Errors

1. "'xyz' was not declared in this scope"

error: 'xyz' was not declared in this scope

Meaning: Compiler doesn't recognize the name xyz.

Common Causes & Fixes:

Cause Fix
Typo in variable/function name Check spelling, C++ is case-sensitive!
Variable used before declaration Move declaration before first use
Missing #include Add required library header
Function defined after it's called Add forward declaration or move function up

Read the full file on GitHub · 438 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. 11d ago First seen · 438 lines · 80 tokens per session scan A 90aec1a81060

Subscribe to this mod's changes

error-message-explainer is a skill published in the GitHub repository wedsamuel1230/arduino-skills (21 stars, last pushed 21d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 80 tokens to every session and 2,806 once invoked, about $0.0004 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 2026-08-30.

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