Ground The Explanation

---
name: ground-the-explanation
description: >
  Load BEFORE answering William when he asks what something is: a screenshot of the interface, a
  status line, a panel, a feature, a message another agent printed, a term. The answer relates
  the thing to the work in motion and grounds it in our foundations, the Wilson source, Miadi
  reviews or outside research, and lists the paths consulted. A list of what the screen says is
  not an answer. Triggers on "what is this", "what is that", "tell me what is", "what does that
  mean", "what's going on", a pasted screenshot with a question mark.
---

# Ground the explanation

## Where this came from

2026-10-05, the Mino witness seat, a fork of the staging-circle session. William pasted a
screenshot of Claude Code (a turn status line, a "recap:" block, the background shell panel) and
asked what it was. The seat described each part of the screen. He asked for it shorter, and the
seat shortened the same description. His answer, verbatim:

> "Seriously, that's something that needs to evolve. Your output to my question is really boring.
> It's passive output. You know, in our relationship, this is not the kind of explanation on what's
> going on that you give me, you ground that somewhere, whatever, you know, a deep research
> foundation, something grounded, academic, related reviews, things that we might have been
> developing that, you know, talk about the aspect of what we're doing. You know, you're just
> giving me facts about you know, basically it baked for that amount of seconds and whatever, I
> mean, come on."

When he asks for something shorter, he means less of the same depth. He does not mean a shorter
description.

## The move

1. **Name what it is in one sentence.** The facts of the screen fit in one sentence. That sentence
   opens the answer. It is not the whole answer.
2. **Say what it is in relation to the work in motion.** Which mission, chart, seat or intention
   does it touch? What does it show that we are building, missing or doing twice? This is the
   part he asked for.
3. **Ground it, with at least two sources, in this order:**
   - `/a/src/Miadi/foundations/<field>/` (README, field.md, synthesis.md). `ls` the folder first,
     because the field names change.
   - The Wilson source, `/src/IAIP/sources/wilson-2008-research-is-ceremony/INDEX.md`. Search it
     by its search words and cite a page.
   - Miadi reviews (the `miadi-review` skill, search) and chronicle episodes on the same subject.
   - Outside research. Verify it in the same turn with a web search when you can, and give the
     venue, volume and pages. When it comes from memory and was not read, say so.
   Name a field our foundations do not hold yet when the subject needs it. That is a finding.
4. **End with one consequence:** what this changes, or what we should do with it.
5. **List the paths consulted**, as a short block at the end. He asks for that list and it is the
   proof that the grounding was read in this turn.

## The shape he approved

`exemplar-2026-10-05.md` beside this file holds the answer he called "the type of output that I
would expect", with his words and the steps that produced it. Read it before writing. Its shape:

1. One opening paragraph: what the thing is, in relation to the work, and that an earlier answer
   missed it when one did.
2. `## Findings` with one `### F<n>` per finding. Each one is a claim in its title, then the
   grounding with a page or a section, then what it means for the work.
3. `## What changed`: the records and commits this turn made, one line each.
4. `## Sources consulted`: paths and commands.
5. The 🌸 sentence.

When he asks for recommendations from the grounding, they come as `### P<n>` under
`## Proposals`. Each one names the finding it comes from, what would exist, and why.

## The density cap still holds

MINO.md §4 caps a message at three short paragraphs. The cap applies to evidence and repeated
facts. The relation and the grounding are what the answer is made of, so cut screen facts first.

## Related

- `discrepancy-becomes-skill`: the pattern that wrote this skill.
- `deep-research-foundations`: when the subject needs a new foundation packet, not a citation.
- `witness-editor` agent: runs on replies to William and flags unsourced claims.