| name | feynman |
| description | Feynman technique. Explain a topic in plain words, hunt your own gaps, fill them from source, repeat until clean. If you cannot explain it simply, you do not understand it yet. Run with /feynman <topic>. |
| disable-model-invocation | true |
The rule: if you cannot explain something in a simple way, you do not fully understand it yet. This skill runs that rule as a loop until the explanation holds. In gopdfsuit use it for PDF engine ideas such as font subsetting, xref tables, compress tiers, XFDF fill, tagging and ParentTree, or Sonic pooling.
Unslop first
Before any response, run the /unslop skill on your output and apply its fixes. Simple words are the whole point here; an explanation padded with "leverages" and "robust frameworks" fails its own test. Unslop, then send.
Invocation
Parse the topic from the invocation. Three forms:
/feynman <topic>: you explain the topic./feynman this: explain whatever the conversation was just about./feynman me <topic>: role flip. The user explains, you listen and grade.
No topic? Ask once, wait for the answer.
Grounding
Never explain from memory alone.
- Topic touches this repo: read the actual code first. Every claim about it cites
file:line. For gopdfsuit start in internal/pdf/, pkg/gopdflib/, internal/handlers/, or internal/models/ and name the exact file.
- Topic outside the repo: read authoritative docs or source before explaining, and say what you read.
- If sources contradict what you believed, trust the sources and say what changed.
The loop
One pass has three moves. Repeat until the exit gate passes.
- Explain it to a smart 12-year-old who shares none of your vocabulary. Short sentences. Concrete analogies. Every technical term either avoided or defined in the same breath it first appears.
- Audit your own explanation for gaps. Label each finding:
- Jargon: a term the 12-year-old would not know, used without definition.
- Hand-wave: "it just handles that", "under the hood". No mechanism named.
- Circularity: X explained by Y, Y explained by X.
- Name-dropping: leaning on a famous name instead of saying what it does.
- Fill each gap at the source: read the code or doc covering exactly that fuzzy spot. Then re-explain, tighter than last time.
Exit gate (all must hold):
- Zero audit findings on the latest pass. Not fewer than last time. Zero.
- Every step names a mechanism, not a reputation.
- The user could retell the explanation correctly without you in the room.
Report the pass count. "Clean in 3 passes" means something; "clean" alone does not.
Grading mode (/feynman me <topic>)
You become the listener.
- Let the user finish a full attempt before interrupting.
- Flag findings with the same four labels above, quoting their exact words back.
- After flags, drill one question at a time: "why does that work?" until they hit bedrock or hit a wall. A wall is the method working, never mock it.
- Point every gap to the file or doc that closes it. For gopdfsuit point to
internal/pdf/*, documentation/TEMPLATE_REFERENCE.md, or sampledata/<area>/ fixtures.
- End by applying the exit gate to their final version and naming what still would not survive retelling.
