A Claude Code mod that asks Claude for its output in a format that is easier to understand. It is based on the idea that we will spend more and more time reading LLM output, so the output format matters.
| Format | What Claude does |
|---|---|
ste |
Writes about 80% of the way to ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English: short sentences, active voice, simple words |
diagram |
Draws a Mermaid diagram, rendered as a picture in a pane you can zoom and pan, with short captions |
html |
Builds a self-contained, interactive HTML page: a preview in the pane, and the live page in your browser |
video |
Makes a 3Blue1Brown-style animated explainer in plain JavaScript (canvas) that opens and plays in Chrome, narrated with your device's text-to-speech (ElevenLabs only if you set ELEVENLABS_API_KEY); a Record button saves it as .webm |
/explain # open the picker band above the prompt
/explain html # every answer as an HTML page from now on
/explain off # back to normal
/explain diagram how git rebase works # one answer only
In html and diagram mode Claude writes the page (or Mermaid source) to .explain/ in your project. The mod screenshots it with headless Chrome, Chromium or Brave and shows the picture in a pane inside Claude Code (needs a terminal with image support, such as Ghostty, kitty, iTerm2 or WezTerm). In the pane, focus it (click or ctrl+x tab) and use i/o to zoom in and out, h j k l (or the arrow buttons) to scroll, r to reset, and v (● live) to open the real, interactive page in the browser; on macOS that Chrome tab refreshes by itself each time Claude updates the page; zoom uses ffmpeg if it is installed. /explain show reopens the last preview, and the pane links to the full interactive page.
The picker band shows explain as [Off] [STE] [Diagram] [HTML] [Video]. Click a format, or focus the band (ctrl+x tab) and press 0-4. The active format is highlighted, and the status line shows it.
Needs Claude Code 2.1.287 or later (check with claude --version). The desktop app bundles its own Claude Code, so it works there once the app ships 2.1.287+; update the app if /explain does not show up. /explain appears after the session's first message. In Claude Code run:
/plugin marketplace add Sumit189/explain-claude-mod
/plugin install explain-as@explain-as
Then start a new session. To try a local copy without installing: claude --plugin-dir ./explain-claude-mod.
This uses Claude Code function hooks, which are in early access. Run the tests with claude plugin test ./explain-claude-mod.