Skill Vault · Learn and understand
Ask for the explanation you were missing
Revisit a confusing answer with the context and plain language you need.
An answer you want explained more clearly.
Skill name /wait-what
Your next step
Try it for yourself
You’ll need: An answer you want explained more clearly.
Paste as a reply to the answer that lost you.
This is a one-off starter for the approach. Installing the full Skill adds its complete instructions.
Wait—what? Re-pitch your last answer with the context I am missing, use plain English and the vocabulary we have already agreed, then give me the one next thing I should understand.
What happens nextThe new answer supplies the missing context and one next thing to understand.
Use it again
Add the full Skill.
The starter lets you try the approach. Installation adds the complete instructions to your AI coding tool.
Copy the setup instructionsFor Codex or Claude Code on your computer
Your next step
Ask your agent to help you install it
You’ll need: Node.js with npx, Git, and the agent you choose. A project folder where you want the Skill available.
Paste this into Codex or Claude Code with your project open. Your agent will help you review and install the package.
Review files and permissions before accepting an install. Adding a Skill does not run it.
Help me install /wait-what from MattEspo23/skills v0.1.2 in this project.
Review the package instructions and supporting files first. Include these Skills: wait-what.
Use the command for the agent I am using:
Add to Codex:
npx skills@latest add 'MattEspo23/skills#v0.1.2' --skill wait-what --agent codex --copy
Add to Claude Code:
npx skills@latest add 'MattEspo23/skills#v0.1.2' --skill wait-what --agent claude-code --copy
Show me where the files will go before making changes. Preserve existing Skills and customizations. Stop if the release, supporting Skills, or target agent cannot be verified. Do not run the Skill or change external services during setup.
After installation, explain how I can use /wait-what and what access it needs.
What happens nextYour agent should review and add /wait-what, then explain how to use /wait-what. Stop if a dependency or version cannot be verified.
No additional supporting Skill is required by this package. Source version: v0.1.2.
Prefer a terminal command?
Add to Codex
npx skills@latest add 'MattEspo23/skills#v0.1.2' --skill wait-what --agent codex --copy
Add to Claude Code
npx skills@latest add 'MattEspo23/skills#v0.1.2' --skill wait-what --agent claude-code --copy
Installing copies the instructions into your chosen agent. It does not run the Skill or configure project tools.
Keep the package’s supporting files, LICENSE and NOTICE together with the Skill instructions.
Full notes & source materialThe complete original text, examples and reference details.
These are the complete original notes. Planned videos and services mentioned here may not be available yet; the actions above reflect what you can use on this site now.
Ask the agent to re-pitch its last message with missing context and plain language.
Watch
Skill Vault video planned · Video planned
Install
Public release v0.1.2 — install the latest source or pin the tested release.
Install latest
npx skills@latest add MattEspo23/skills --skill wait-what
Reproducible install
npx skills@latest add 'MattEspo23/skills#v0.1.2' --skill wait-what
Clean installs are verified for Codex and Claude Code. The installer copies editable files into the selected agent; review every Skill before giving it tool access.
This is the public, editable adapted baseline. Its deeper Espo-specific revision and Skill Vault video are planned; the released source can be installed now.
What it does
wait-what is what you type when a message didn't land. The agent then re-pitches what it just said. It adds the context you were missing, writes in plain English, and uses the vocabulary from your project's CONTEXT.md.
The skill is three lines long. That is the design, not an unfinished draft. Skills that fight verbosity fail by growing: a four-hundred-line concision skill still leaves the model verbose, because the model reads the volume, not the plea. This one carries a single precise leading word and nothing else.
When to reach for it
You invoke it by typing /wait-what. The agent will not reach for it on its own, and it shouldn't. Only you know when you stopped following.
Use it the second you notice you're skimming. The agent has drifted into jargon it invented, stacked five acronyms, or explained a decision whose premise you never saw. It fixes the conversation you're already in. To stop the jargon arriving at all, use grill-with-docs, which builds the shared language upfront.
The name is the mechanism
The leading word is wait. "Be concise" is an instruction about the agent's output, and the model obeys it by clipping words and losing you further. Wait is about your state. It says comprehension failed here. An agent that hears "be brief" writes telegrams. An agent that hears "wait, you lost me" backs up and explains.
That difference is the whole skill. Every popular fix for verbosity names the output: /tldr, /no-fluff, /talk-normal. The model over-corrects into a caveman register that is shorter and no clearer. Naming the listener asks for both halves at once: fewer words and the context you were missing.
The skill says re-pitch that, not "that last message". What lost you is usually bigger than one paragraph, so the agent decides how far back to go.
It plugs into the language you already have
The body reuses the leading words already in your global CLAUDE.md and your project's CONTEXT.md. ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English sets the register. The ubiquitous language supplies the nouns. The skill, CLAUDE.md and CONTEXT.md reach for the same tokens, so invoking it is not a new instruction. It is a reminder of one the agent already agreed to.
If you have no CONTEXT.md, the skill still works. You lose only the domain-vocabulary half.
It's working if
- The re-pitch is shorter and clearer, not shorter and blunter.
- It adds the premise you were missing, instead of only deleting words.
- Project nouns replace invented ones. The terms in your
CONTEXT.mdcome back. - You can use it twice in a row, and it does not degrade into terseness.
Where it fits
You can use wait-what at any point, in any conversation, inside any other skill. It repairs one message after the fact. The real cure is a shared language agreed upfront, and that is grill-with-docs: a grilling session that runs domain-modeling as it goes, so the words you both use land in your CONTEXT.md. If you're unsure which skill fits the moment, ask-espo routes you.
Try it once
Use the core behavior in one conversation before installation. The repeatable Skill package is the primary path when you want the behavior available across future work.
Wait—what? Re-pitch your last answer with the context I am missing, use plain English and the vocabulary we have already agreed, then give me the one next thing I should understand.
Source & license
Released in EspoAI Skills v0.1.2; adapted from mattpocock/skills v1.2.3. The released package is skills/productivity/wait-what/SKILL.md.
The public package is MIT-licensed and pinned here to the exact release commit. View the released EspoAI source
The adapted baseline preserves the upstream copyright, MIT permission notice, and pinned provenance. View the original pinned source
Skill package files
The full Skill text as copied from content/skill-vault/skills/wait-what/. Supporting agent configuration files stay in that folder.
SKILL.md
---
name: wait-what
description: Stop. That last message did not land — re-pitch it.
---
Wait — I don't understand where you've got to here. Re-pitch that: give me a little bit of context, talk in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English, and use the ubiquitous language from `CONTEXT.md`.
Keep going