A skill for Claude Code that makes Claude explain things the way you would to a friend on the back of a napkin: plain everyday words, one concrete example, short, and built so you can repeat it tomorrow.
Ask what a load balancer is and you usually get four paragraphs, a bulleted list, and the words "horizontally scalable". Ask what an offset mortgage is and you get the bank's own brochure back. This skill gets you the version you would actually say out loud to a friend over coffee.
It is not a coding skill. It works on anything a smart person outside the field would ask about - money, health, law, work, politics, science, a news story, a contract, a system.
It triggers when you ask for something to be explained or simplified, and on "napkin", "in plain English", "no jargon", "ELI5", or "keep it short". It stays out of the way when you ask for depth, rigour, or a formal write-up.
Make it clear - plain words, one concrete example, short.
Make it stick - the six tools from Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick: simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, stories. Two or three per answer. Six is a lecture.
Most explanations solve the first half and ignore the second, which is why you understand something on Tuesday and cannot pass it on by Friday.
git clone https://github.com/01sadra/napkin.git /tmp/napkin && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/napkin/skills/napkin ~/.claude/skills/napkin && rm -rf /tmp/napkinTo scope it to one project, copy skills/napkin into that project's .claude/skills/ directory instead. Restart Claude Code and it is picked up automatically.
Most of the time you do not invoke it. You just ask:
what's a race condition?
what does my landlord actually owe me here?
To ask for it by name, say napkin: first. To turn it off for one answer, ask for the long version and Claude drops the register.
One file: skills/napkin/SKILL.md. Read it, fork it, tune the voice to your own.
The stickiness half stands on Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Buy the book.
MIT - see LICENSE.