how

How

On Codex, read the platform mapping, including its per-skill notes, before following this skill.

On GitHub Copilot, read the platform mapping, including its per-skill notes, before following this skill.

On Muse, read the platform mapping, including its per-skill notes, before following this skill.

Explore the codebase to answer "how does X work?" questions. Produce architectural explanations at the level of a senior engineer onboarding onto a subsystem, enough to build a working mental model, not so much that it reads like annotated source code.

Every spawn is a Agent subagent with subagent_type: "general-purpose" and readonly: true. Explorers use the how explorer line in pstack-models.md (default in Models), and every explainer uses the how explainer line (default in Models). Set model to that line's value, or to the default if the sheet or the line is missing. Leave model unset when the value is auto or inherit-parent. If the Agent tool rejects a slug, use the default and say so. If it rejects the default, use the closest valid slug of the same family from its error message. Pick each subagent's reasoning level for the job, per the Subagents section of the poteto-mode skill.

1. Assess complexity

If the scope is ambiguous, state your interpretation and explore. The user can redirect.

• Simple (a single module, a small utility, a narrow question such as "how does function X work"): no explorers. Spawn one explainer that explores and explains in one pass, built from references/explainer-prompt.md without the explorer-findings section. Go to step 4.
• Complex (a subsystem spanning multiple files or services, a cross-cutting feature, a full architectural overview): go to step 2.

When in doubt, take the simple path.

2. Explore (complex only)

Decompose the question into 2 to 4 angles, each a distinct slice of the subsystem. Spawn all explorers in a single message, each with references/explorer-prompt.md and its angle filled in.

3. Synthesize (complex only)

Once all explorers have returned, spawn one explainer with references/explainer-prompt.md and every explorer's findings filled in.

4. Present

Present the explainer's output. Light edits for clarity or context from the conversation are fine. Do not substantially rewrite it.

Output format

The explanation uses the sections defined in references/explainer-prompt.md, dropping any that do not apply: Overview, Key Concepts, How It Works, Where Things Live, Gotchas.

Models

Role defaults, stamped from plugins/pstack/models.json (edit there, rerun tools/generate.mjs). A matching role line in the pstack-models.md override sheet overrides each at runtime; /setup-pstack writes it and lists its path per runtime.

• how explorer: opus
• how explainer: opus

Reasoning effort

A role value in the override sheet may name a reasoning effort after its model, as in opus @xhigh. Levels on Claude Code: low, medium, high, xhigh, max. Which ones apply depends on the model. A value without @ takes the sheet's default effort line, a level or session, and session when the sheet has no such line. session sets no effort, so the dispatch is the usual one. Strip the suffix before reading the model: inherit-parent or auto still omits model at every level, and a model name is passed as model. Pass the level as the dispatch's effort field and keep the subagent_type you would otherwise use. That is effort on the Claude Code Agent call and reasoning_effort on Codex's spawn_agent. On Muse it is effort on a Workflow child; a subagent_spawn dispatch keeps the session's effort.