What is error-message-explainer?

A beginner-focused guide that explains compiler, upload, and library errors for Arduino, ESP32, and RP2040 microcontroller projects. It translates error messages into plain English and suggests likely fixes, including examples.

Use it when diagnosing compilation failures, upload problems, missing libraries, undefined names, type mismatches, or board-specific errors.

Microcontroller toolchains often produce terse errors that are difficult to interpret. The guide helps identify what went wrong, why it happened, and what to check next.

How wedsamuel1230/electronic-mcp-server configures Claude Code and Cod

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to wedsamuel1230/electronic-mcp-server. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wedsamuel1230/electronic-mcp-server/main/.github/skills/error-message-explainer/SKILL.md

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wedsamuel1230/electronic-mcp-server

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.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/wedsamuel1230/electronic-mcp-server/error-message-explainer/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/wedsamuel1230/electronic-mcp-server/error-message-explainer)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/wedsamuel1230/electronic-mcp-server/error-message-explainer"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/wedsamuel1230/electronic-mcp-server/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.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/wedsamuel1230/electronic-mcp-server/error-message-explainer"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/wedsamuel1230/electronic-mcp-server/error-message-explainer.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 66 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.

When invoked 2,556 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 86% copy Near-identical to another mod 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.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5.1	$0.00066	$0.02556
Opus 5.5	$0.00026	$0.01022
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00013	$0.00511
Haiku 4.5	$0.00007	$0.00256

Measured 2mo ago against content hash 5c322368c1b9, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, 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 2mo 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

This is a copy

86% identical to error-message-explainer — 30 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

.github/skills/error-message-explainer/SKILL.md · 422 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 422 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

Quick Start

Analyze error from file:

uv run scripts/parse_errors.py --file error_log.txt

Analyze single error:

uv run scripts/parse_errors.py --message "error: 'LED' was not declared in this scope"

Interactive mode:

uv run scripts/parse_errors.py --interactive

Pipe from compiler:

arduino-cli compile 2>&1 | uv run scripts/parse_errors.py --stdin

How to Use This Skill

When user pastes an error message:

Identify the error type from patterns below
Explain what it means in simple terms
Show the specific fix with code example
Explain WHY this error happens (educational value)

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

Example - Typo:

// WRONG
int ledpin = 13;      // lowercase 'p'
digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);  // uppercase 'P' - DIFFERENT!

// CORRECT
int ledPin = 13;
digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);

Example - Missing Include:

// WRONG - Servo not defined!
Servo myServo;

// CORRECT
#include <Servo.h>
Servo myServo;

2. "expected ';' before..."

error: expected ';' before 'xyz'

Meaning: Missing semicolon on the previous line.

Fix: Add ; at end of the line ABOVE the error.

// WRONG - error points to line 3
int x = 5       // ← missing ; here!
int y = 10;

// CORRECT
int x = 5;
int y = 10;

Read the full file on GitHub · 422 lines

Files

What ships with it

2 files 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.

2mo ago First seen · 422 lines · 66 tokens per session scan A 5c322368c1b9

Subscribe to this mod's changes

error-message-explainer is a skill published in the GitHub repository wedsamuel1230/electronic-mcp-server (1 stars, last pushed 10mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 66 tokens to every session and 2,556 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 86% identical to error-message-explainer, differing in 30 lines, and is treated as a copy.

Debugging Hardware and IoT

error-message-explainer next to 6 skills from other repositories
Mod	Type	Stars	Last push	Licence	Scan	Tokens	Works with
error-message-explainerwedsamuel1230/electronic-mcp-server	Skill	1	10mo ago	MIT	A	66	Claude Code, Codex
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gke-ai-troubleshooting-tpu-vbar-oomgoogle/skills	Skill	22k	yesterday	Apache-2.0	A	125	Claude Code, Codex
doca-flowNVIDIA/skills	Skill	3.9k	yesterday	Apache-2.0	A	224	Claude Code, Codex
competition-firmware-layoutzhaoxuya520/reverse-skill	Skill	44k	1mo ago	MIT	A	110	Codex
diagnose-driver-installNVIDIA/deepops	Skill	1.5k	yesterday	BSD-3-Clause	A	47	Claude Code, Codex
catc-troubleshootautomateyournetwork/netclaw	Skill	715	yesterday	Apache-2.0	A	114	Claude Code

electronic-mcp-server: Skill for Claude Code