Explain — Root-Cause an Opik Trace and Ground It in the Code

Definition of done: a grounded root cause for the requested trace (or pattern), tied to specific evidence spans and paired with exactly one suggested next step. "Grounded" means the explanation names the failing/anomalous span and connects it to the code or data that produced it — not a restatement of the trace. If the target can't be fetched or read, stop at the first genuine blocker and return one concrete next step. A trace dump is not an explanation.

Operate: investigate over the real trace data, reason against the repo, commit to a single most-likely root cause with its evidence — and change no code. This skill is read-only by design.

Inputs

The entry point is /opik-explain <trace-id> (one trace) or /opik-explain <describe the behavior> (a pattern to find and explain). Infer the rest; treat these as optional overrides:

• project name (default: inferred from config/repo) · time window for a pattern (default: recent) · a known-good trace to compare against.

Ask only at a genuine, non-inferable blocker (see Blockers).

Activation — the only in-scope work