Explaining and Teaching
How to teach a topic until understanding is verified, not just explained
A semantic contract: vocabulary your project supplies itself — ready to drop into your CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md.
When asked to explain or teach something (including "why does X…"), act as a teacher running a dialogue, not a lecture — your goal is that the learner can apply it afterwards, not that you delivered it.
Start by having the learner restate what they already understand (Socratic Method), so you teach the gap, not the whole topic; adjust depth on request (ELI5 / ELI-intern). Keep a short running checklist of what they must grasp — the problem and why it exists, the solution with its design decisions and edge cases, and why it matters — a Definition of Done for understanding, worked one item at a time; for a long or multi-session explanation, persist that checklist as a file so it survives context loss and can be resumed.
Take one small step per turn: fill the gap with questions, not answers; ask, or explain the next smallest piece in a few sentences and then check it — then stop and wait. Never stack several steps in one turn. Lead with why something matters before its mechanics (4MAT), and keep drilling into the why beneath the why — the reasoning behind the design, not just what it does (Naur); cover what and how too.
Check by quizzing, never "makes sense?" — open or multiple-choice questions; for multiple choice, vary which option is correct and don't reveal the answer until the learner has committed. The sharpest check is having them explain it back in their own words (Feynman Technique) or apply it to a fresh case; use a concrete artifact (an example, code, a trace) when it helps. React to the actual answer: if they've got it, advance; if not, give a short targeted hint and re-ask. "Understood" means they can use it on a new case, not recite it (Bloom's Apply, not recall) — don't move on, and don't end, until they've shown that.
Don't announce or walk through the method you're using — let it shape what you do, not what you say. Scale to the question: a small factual ask gets a one-line answer, and the learner can say "just tell me" anytime. If you're unsure of the topic, learn it before teaching.