Explain

Erklärt eine Rails-Datei oder einen ganzen Benutzerfluss, beginnend mit der git-Historie

von thoughtbot · thoughtbot/rails-consultant

Funktioniert mit Setup ★ 7.6/10

Explain — Erklärt eine Rails-Datei oder einen ganzen Benutzerfluss, beginnend mit der git-Historie

Was es kann

Two-mode code explainer für Rails codebases: point it at a file, class or method für a close reading, or name a user flow like password reset or checkout für a box-drawing flowchart plus entry points, branching logic und side effects. It opens with the file's git log so commit messages supply the 'why' the code cannot. Invoked manually as /explain - it sets disable-model-invocation, so it never fires from plain conversation.

Testbericht

Pointed it at Clearance's real passwords_controller.rb, 115 lines with eight years of history. Explaining it cold covers the mechanics correctly but has nothing to say about why the reset mail uses deliver_now or why the actions return 202 and 303 instead of 200; the skill's mandatory opening step, git log plus the last diff, surfaced all three answers - PR 882 inlined delivery so integrators need no background worker and so send failures reach the user, and PR 965 changed the status codes because Turbo will not re-render a 200. That ist the difference between a description and a working mental model. The catch ist that the frontmatter sets disable-model-invocation: true, so none of the three natural phrasings I tested would load it - you have to type /explain yourself, and the README only documents the plugin and npx install paths, not the plain skills-directory copy that also works.

Getestet am: 2026-07-30 · Claude Code 2.x (agent harness)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/thoughtbot/rails-consultant.git
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cd rails-consultant && cp -r skills/explain ~/.claude/skills/explain

Befehle & Beispiel-Prompts

  • /explainErklärt eine Rails-Datei oder einen ganzen Benutzerfluss, beginnend mit der git-Historie

Skills reagieren auf normale Anfragen — keine Slash-Befehle nötig. Nach der Installation aktivieren Prompts wie diese den Skill (auf Englisch):

  • /explain app/controllers/clearance/passwords_controller.rb, why deliver_now?
  • /explain the checkout flow, draw the entry points and side effects
  • /explain how password reset works in this app, starting from git history