AI Plugin Indexexplain vs highlights
explain and highlights are both design skills. highlights scores higher (84 vs 71 out of 100). highlights has more GitHub stars (6.3k), and highlights was updated more recently (yesterday). The table compares them side by side.
| explain | highlights | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 / 100 | 84 / 100 |
| What it does | Explain code. Default is a one-sentence summary plus a mental model. Add `verbose` to also get an ASCII diagram, key details, and a modification guide. | Use when an app uses @pierre/highlights to generate syntax-highlighted HTML or tokens, stream code, incrementally tokenize edits, or apply Zed-compatible themes and CSS variables. |
| Publisher | Community: poshan0126 | Community: pierrecomputer |
| Grades | Maintenance B, Licence A, Quality A | Maintenance A, Licence A, Quality A |
| npm downloads a week | Not on npm | Not on npm |
| Runs | Skill | Skill |
| Works with | Claude Code, Claude apps | Claude Code, Claude apps |
| GitHub stars | 870 | 6,285 |
| Last commit | 27 Aug 2026 | 20 Oct 2026 |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Listed since | 19 Oct 2026 | 20 Oct 2026 |
| Install explain | Install highlights |
Questions
Is explain or highlights more popular?
highlights has more GitHub stars: 6,285.
Can I use explain and highlights together?
Yes. AI assistants can load several skills at once. Install both and the assistant picks the right one for each task.