Show Me

Answer with the smallest view that carries the point. Skip the preamble. Keep prose to the line or two the visual needs, and cut every call, file, prop, state, and boundary the current question does not turn on.

Pick the view

Ship the fewest views that answer the question. One view is the common case; a compound question takes two.

Shapes

Pseudocode:

on(save)
  if content is unchanged
    return cached result
  write new content
  return fresh result

Call tree:

submitForm
  createSession
    persistPrompt
    launchAgent
  navigateToSession

Component tree, naming the file that owns each boundary:

<OrderPage> (src/routes/order.tsx)
  useOrderEvents()
  <OrderToolbar>
    <RetryButton> (packages/ui)

Shallow file tree, one comment per directory saying what it owns:

src/
├── commands/       # parses user actions
├── sessions/       # owns session state
└── transport/      # sends API requests

Diagram. Mermaid and nomnoml are both available; pick per diagram.

sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant UI
    participant Daemon
    User->>UI: choose command
    UI->>Daemon: send expanded prompt
    Daemon-->>UI: stream result

Whole block, when most of it is new or the surrounding context would hide ownership or order:

def expand_skill(command: str) -> str:
    return f"use the {command.removeprefix('/')} skill"

Diffs

Reach for a diff when the point is what changes and the shape around it already exists. Match the diff to the view it changes.

A component change:

 <OrderPage>
   useOrderEvents()
   <OrderToolbar>
+    <RetryButton />
   <OrderTimeline>
+    <RetryResultCard />

A file-layout change:

 src/
 ├── commands/
+│   └── show-me.ts       # expands the slash command
 ├── sessions/
-└── transport.ts
+└── transport/
+    ├── client.ts
+    └── stream.ts

A call-tree change:

 submitForm
   createSession
     persistPrompt
+    expandSkillMention
     launchAgent
-  navigateToSession
+  navigateToSession
+    subscribeToEvents

A control-flow change:

 on(save)
-  write content
+  if content is unchanged
+    return cached result
+  write new content
+  invalidate cache

Placement

Put each visual next to the short text it supports, not in a block of its own at the end.

Boundaries

• Nothing here lands on disk. Every view is chat output.
• A diagram that must live in a document goes to diagram-contract, which owns the tool choice, the house palette, and the committed SVG beside its source.
• A layout or state comparison the user needs to click goes to prototype-logic.
• A concept being taught, rather than a current topic being shown, goes to explain-concept.