eli5

Say it again in plain words. Same facts, in the order he needs them.

Invocation

Invoked as /eli5 [topic] with arguments: $ARGUMENTS.

The argument is optional and is a topic, in prose. If $ARGUMENTS is empty, the target is my own last substantial output in this conversation; if there is none yet, say so rather than picking a topic for him.

• /eli5 — restate what I just said.
• /eli5 warum ist der Regel-Korpus voll? — explain that, grounded in what this session measured.

The frame

Write for someone who knows this project but has not seen what you just saw.

He owns this repo. He is not missing knowledge, he is missing observation — he did not watch the command run or read the file it points at. Write across, not down. .claude/rules/ask-via-tool.md § AUQ-006 and skills/session-start/soul.md § Register are the canonical statement of this register; apply them, do not restate them.

What to restate

• /eli5 — my last substantial output in this conversation. If there is none yet, say so instead of inventing a topic.
• /eli5 <topic> — that topic ($ARGUMENTS), grounded in what THIS session already measured: name the file, command, or record it came from. If it was never measured here, say that rather than filling the gap from memory.

Answer in the operator's language: owner.language in ~/.config/session-orchestrator/owner.yaml, falling back to en when that file is missing, unreadable, or the key is absent — and follow the operator's own language the moment he writes in another one.

Two limits, and they are the whole skill

1. Say more simply what actually happens — introduce nothing that does not exist. Test: delete every noun the system does not contain. Sentence still true and complete → it was no analogy. Sentence collapses → describe what actually happens instead. ✓ "Waiting means the other session finishes first." ✗ "Think of the session as a level crossing."

2. Simplifying removes words, never facts. If a path, a number, an error code, an identifier, or an instruction to act disappears, that is data loss, not simplification. The mechanical decider: could the token you are about to cut ever appear in a grep? Then it stays. skills/session-start/soul.md § "Never traded for brevity" outranks every brevity instruction in this file.

Shape

Line 1 answers the question he actually has: do I have to do something now, and what happens if I don't? Then the facts, in the order he needs them — not the order you found them.

This is a terminal, so there is no picture to draw. The second channel is the preview field on an AskUserQuestion option: when the options differ in something literal — a diff, a title, a config block, a file list — put that text there and he reads the thing instead of a description of it.

What this is not

• Not shorter by default. Eight lines before may be eight lines after. Reorder first; cut only filler.
• Not a children's explanation. The label is a poster, the reader is an expert who was not in the room.
• Not a second attempt at the answer. If the first answer was wrong, fix the answer — /eli5 restates, it never re-derives.