Skip to content
Get packs

Explain How and Why

Explains how and why code or a recent window of work is shaped as it is, grounded in source evidence.

Source Download skill
Repository
EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin
Stars
25,850
Licence
MIT
Files
10 files

What it does

When you ask why something in a project works the way it does, or what happened over a stretch of work, this skill tells the agent to gather evidence from the source and produce a grounded explanation. It separates documented rationale from the agent's own inference and lists what remains unknown. It can also produce a standalone explainer document, and it can dispatch helper subagents to trace behavior or recap a window of activity.

Great for

  • Developers trying to understand an unfamiliar codebase or past design decisions
  • Team leads who want a grounded recap of recent changes
  • People preparing a teaching document for colleagues

Skip it if

  • Requests for a judgment or recommendation, which the skill itself says belong to ce-pov instead (different scope)
  • Explanations that must be fully accurate for high-stakes decisions without human review, since the agent may still miss implementation details it did not inspect

Try asking

  • “Explain how and why the authentication flow in this repo is structured the way it is”
  • “Recap what changed in the last two weeks of work on this project”
  • “Write an HTML explainer for new engineers on how the build pipeline works”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Explain How and WhyInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 10 original files, the MIT licence and an attribution note.

    ce-explain.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip ce-explain.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip ce-explain.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Name the subject precisely, such as a file, function, or time window, so the evidence pass stays scoped
  • State the intended reader or use, since depth and format adapt to it
  • Ask for an archived artifact only when you want one saved under the repo's docs folder

What's inside

  • references/agents/behavior-trace-scout.md
  • references/agents/work-recap-scout.md
  • references/check-in.md
  • references/destinations.md
  • references/explainer-html.md
  • references/explainer-markdown.md
  • references/intake.md
  • references/orchestration.md
  • references/publishing.md
  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin under the MIT licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.