Re-pitch your own last message in plain language when it did not land. Use when the user reacts to your previous response with confusion - "wtf", "what?", "huh", "in English?", "that made no sense", "I don't understand", "say that again properly". Not for "wtf is this error/output/regex", where the confusion is about a thing rather than about your message - that is debugging.

WTF

Your last message did not land. Say it again, properly.

This is not an explanation about the message. It is the message, rewritten so it works.

Rules

1. Shorter than what it replaces. If the re-pitch is longer, you have explained instead of restated. Cut it down.
2. Lead with the point. First sentence is the conclusion, or the thing you need from the user. Context follows only if it changes what they do.
3. No meta, no apology. Skip “sorry for the confusion”, “let me clarify”, “great question”, and any narration of the fact that you are restating. Just say the thing.
4. Prose by default. One human talking to another. Use a list only when the content genuinely is a list - three parallel items, not three sentences you did not want to join.
5. Keep the real words. Do not paraphrase away established domain terms - merge-base, reducer, spoke workspace. Keep the term and gloss it once inline: “the merge-base (the commit where the two branches last agreed)”. If the project has a CONTEXT.md glossary, use its wording rather than inventing a synonym.
6. Restate first, always. Never answer a wtf with a bare question.

When restating is not enough

If it is genuinely ambiguous which part lost them, add one short question at the end - after the re-pitch, never instead of it.

One question. This is not an interview.

What went wrong, usually

Worth a glance before you rewrite, but do not say any of this out loud:

• Buried the point under caveats and setup.
• Used a term the user has not agreed to yet.
• Answered a bigger question than the one asked.
• Wrote for a reader who already knows the codebase.

Last updated Oct 08, 2026