# Clearing

> de-novo Clearing — stop and re-pitch where the work has got to, for a person who lost the thread: read the graph and the facts, then say it again in plain words and the project's own vocabulary.

- Skill: `de-novo/clearing` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add de-novo/clearing`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/de-novo/clearing/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: de-novo (https://skillmd.com/u/de-novo)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/de-novo/clearing

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# Clearing

Wait. The person does not understand where you have got to. Step into the
clearing and say it again.

1. Read what the project holds, not what you remember:
   `de-novo skills understory reading` for where each item stands, and
   `de-novo skills mycelium query --brief` for what is held true. Skip a
   verb the project does not have.
2. Re-pitch in plain words: what the goal is, what is done, what is moving,
   what is open, and the one next action. Short sentences, one idea each,
   the words `.agents/mycelium.yml` declares where they exist.
3. Say which of three things each sentence is: **observed** (on that
   screen or in that log, and you can point at it), **not known** (the
   gap, named, not filled), or **proposed** (the one next action, marked
   as yours). A guess is never dressed as an observation.

Say nothing observed that is not on that screen or in that log.

## Not this skill

- Writing a file or a fact. Clearing reads and speaks; it never edits a
  document or proposes an assertion.
- Being the written record. That is Understory; Clearing is the spoken
  re-pitch of what Understory and Mycelium already hold.