explaining-code SKILL.md skillA
explaining-code from ampcode/official-plugins is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add ampcode/official-plugins/explaining-code@git:20261028.9b9cc49Pins git:20261028.9b9cc49 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- ampcode/official-plugins
- Path
skills/explaining-code/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 6
- Latest version
- git:20261028.9b9cc49, committed Oct 28, 2026
- First version recorded
- Oct 3, 2026
- Size
- 7,863 bytes
- Repository stars
- 21
- License
- none declared
Explains code, system behavior, and code changes with plain technical prose, interactive before and after diagrams, pseudocode, call trees, and diffs. Use for architecture walkthroughs, when asked how something works, or when explaining what a change does: a diff, a commit, a pull request, or the work just done in this thread.
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# Explaining code Help the user understand how code or a system works, or what a change does. Lead with the behavior in plain technical prose. Name the functions, components, data, APIs, and ownership boundaries that matter. Define a technical term when the user may not know it. Keep necessary detail, but cut preamble and filler. ## Choosing the level A system has levels, and each level has its own vocabulary. Orchestration code talks about requests, jobs, sessions, and who hands work to whom. Plumbing code talks about fields, payloads, and parsers. Systems code talks about buffers, pointers, locks, and lifetimes. Pick one level and use its nouns and verbs in the lead sentence and the drawing. - For a question about how something works, use the level the question asks about. "How does sign-in work?" is answered in sessions, redirects, and tokens, not in the cookie parser. - For a change, use the level of the code it changes. A fix in orchestration code is explained as what its parts now do together. A fix to memory handling is explained in buffers, owners, and lifetimes. - Go one level lower only for the mechanism the reader needs to trust the explanation, in one …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add ampcode/official-plugins/explaining-code@sha256:e3b40229a971c250The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261028.9b9cc49, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_tz3xndjcbz2iknzr)
2 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 6 versions of this file, between Oct 3, 2026 and Oct 28, 2026, about one every 5 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20261028.9b9cc49 latest | 2026-10-28 | 9b9cc49 | 7,863 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261013.f7e3881 | 2026-10-13 | f7e3881 | 8,696 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261005.38515f0 | 2026-10-05 | 38515f0 | 7,043 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261005.1a74790 | 2026-10-05 | 1a74790 | 7,444 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261005.8bbf4e5 | 2026-10-05 | 8bbf4e5 | 6,079 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20261003.0884fcc | 2026-10-03 | 0884fcc | 5,021 B | A | view |
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (7863 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
ampcode/official-plugins · 21 stars · license none declared · pushed 2026-11-01 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_tz3xndjcbz2iknzr GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=ampcode/official-plugins/explaining-code GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/e3b40229a971c250f41754a20d6f23e8a2d607636d516337bdaf731a92695b9b
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.