Mansplain FAQs

Question 1

What is Mansplain and what problem does it solve for LLMs?

Accepted Answer

Mansplain is an MCP server that grants LLM agents access to Linux man pages, GNU info pages, and Gentoo eclass documentation. It helps AI agents accurately look up command references, preventing hallucinations and providing reliable information.

Question 2

What documentation sources does Mansplain integrate?

Accepted Answer

It integrates `man`, `apropos`, `info`, `tldr`, and Gentoo eclass documentation. These are exposed as MCP tools (e.g., `man_lookup`, `info_lookup`, `tldr_lookup`) for easy agent access.

Question 3

Does Mansplain handle specific man page sections like `printf(3)`?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Mansplain supports fetching specific man page sections by number. For example, you can request `printf(3)` to get documentation for the C function, rather than the shell builtin.

Question 4

Does Mansplain clean up the documentation text for LLMs?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. It performs ANSI stripping to remove bold/underline overstrike and escape codes, ensuring your LLM agents receive clean, plain text documentation without formatting artifacts.

Question 5

How does Mansplain optimize documentation delivery for large pages?

Accepted Answer

For extensive man pages, Mansplain delivers the NAME and SYNOPSIS with a table of contents. Agents can then request specific sections, preventing context window overload and improving efficiency.

Mansplain

Mansplain

Key Features

Use Cases

Key Features

Use Cases