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ELI5 Code Explainer Canvas

Explains a codebase, feature, command or PR to a total beginner as a PR Lens canvas that grows one part at a time.

Dev & CodingIntermediate★ 1,932⑂ 71AI score 9/10Last updated: Oct 4, 2026

What it does

It reads the code, writes the answer first as a single sentence under 48 characters ("When you hit send, it emails everyone"), then builds a PR Lens canvas that starts with two boxes and an arrow and adds only 1–3 new parts per step. The full diagram is the last thing the reader sees, by which point nothing on it is new.

  • Produces a .pr-lens/graph.json graph document (lanes, nodes, edges, one hero edge, one flow)
  • Designs "growing" views plus a walkthrough of at most 9 steps with 140-character bodies
  • Runs validate → render → canvas push and returns a shareable view link
  • Bans jargon (pipeline, handler, orchestrate, wrapper) and forbids prose, file lists and reviews

Who it's for

  • Tech leads producing onboarding material for new hires
  • Engineers who must explain a system to PMs, designers or executives
  • Open-source maintainers who need a "what is this project" explainer
  • Anyone opening a large PR who wants reviewers to get the context visually

Examples

  1. /eli5 the billing module → one plain sentence plus a canvas growing across "your browser → our server → the card company"
  2. "Explain this whole repo like I'm new here" → view 2 lists the 3–5 things the product does, later views trace the main path
  3. "Explain this PR to a non-engineer" → hero edge marks the hand-off the change is about, with one step on where things go wrong

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coldteadotai/pr-lens/HEAD/skills/eli5/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the skills/eli5 folder from the GitHub repo coldteadotai/pr-lens into my ~/.claude/skills/eli5/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/coldteadotai/pr-lens.git /tmp/pr-lens && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/pr-lens/skills/eli5 ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Make sure Node.js is installed (node -v); the PR Lens CLI runs via npx.
  2. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/coldteadotai/pr-lens.git
  3. Copy the skill into your Claude Code skills folder: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r pr-lens/skills/eli5 ~/.claude/skills/
  4. Recommended: copy the base pr-lens skill from the same repo too — eli5 overrides its manual and assumes it is available.
  5. Open Claude Code inside the project you want explained and run /eli5 <thing> (or just ask it to explain the code "like I'm five").
  6. On first run approve the npx @coldtea/pr-lens-cli@latest download. The deliverable is a link like https://prlens.dev/c/{id} — note that the canvas is hosted externally, so avoid it for private code you cannot publish.
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT