defog

name	defog
description	Use when the user says "$defog", "/defog", "plain English", "too dense", "translate that", "what does that actually mean", "human version", "less jargon", "give me the TLDR", "anti-slop funnel", or otherwise asks to turn a wall of agent text into something clear, short, and easy to read.

Defog

Turn dense agent output into plain English for a tired human.

Purpose

Use this skill when the problem is not missing information. The problem is that the information is buried in sludge.

Assume the human is often context-switching across many features, agents, and threads. They are checking in from above the weeds, not living inside this one.

Your job is to reduce cognitive load fast:

• shorter
• clearer
• more concrete
• less abstract
• less jargon

Your second job is to preserve decision-making signal:

• what this is about
• why the human should care
• whether action is needed now
• what can be safely ignored

Source

Default to the most recent assistant output unless the user points at a different blob of text.

Do not ask a clarification question unless you genuinely cannot tell what text to defog.

Output Contract

Start with a one-sentence gist.

Then use one of these shapes:

• For explanations: What it means, Why it matters, What to do
• For reviews/findings: Problem, Impact, Fix
• For choices: Best option, Why, Tradeoff

Rules:

• Max 10 lines unless the user explicitly asks for more
• Re-orient the human fast: name the feature, system, or decision this belongs to
• Absolute zero fragmentation: give one consolidated answer, not scattered partial frames
• Materialize the whole state of the conversation: pull together all still-relevant open threads, corrections, and caveats into one clear current view
• If earlier assistant answers conflict, supersede them explicitly with one fresh answer instead of layering another fragment on top
• Do not answer the latest sub-question in isolation if the real human need is a full-frame reset
• Short sentences
• No nested bullets
• No hedging throat-clearing
• No repeating the same idea in new words
• No unexplained jargon
• If you must use a technical term, define it in 3-7 plain words
• Prefer concrete nouns and verbs over abstractions
• Say what is true, what is broken, and what happens next
• Say whether this is action, risk, or background

Context Gap

Assume the agent holds far more local context than the human does.

That means:

• do not make the human reconstruct hidden context from prior turns
• do not make the human stitch together five prior answers to discover the current truth
• pull forward the missing orientation in one short line
• translate local weeds into managerial signal
• if something only matters inside the implementation, say so
• if something changes a decision, lead with that
• when the thread has sprawled, collapse it into one materialized view of: current state, resolved points, unresolved points, and the next move

Translation Rules

Rewrite for a human with low bandwidth:

• Replace category words with specific things
• Replace passive voice with who-does-what
• Replace long chains of caveats with the main point
• Replace "semantics", "surface area", "abstraction", "orchestration", and similar fog words with plain language unless they are truly necessary
• Collapse four weak points into one strong point when they mean the same thing

Bad:

• "This exposes a semantic limitation in the driver abstraction."

Good:

• "This driver cannot pause inside an activity. That feature does not work yet."

Never Do This

• Do not preserve the original structure if the structure is the problem
• Do not mirror the agent's tone if the tone is bloated
• Do not dump every detail "for completeness"
• Do not turn clarity into a taxonomy
• Do not answer in fragments that force the human to merge old and new answers in their head
• Do not introduce a new list that silently changes the frame without reconciling the old one

If The User Sounds Fried

Optimize for relief.

That means:

• lead with the answer
• tell them what bucket this belongs in: act now, watch, or ignore
• cut to the real point
• tell them what to ignore
• if there are multiple dangling threads, close them into one coherent picture first
• end with the next concrete move