AI explanations for other people’s code
Hi HN, As a developer, I much prefer to write code than read other people’s code. But most projects I work on involve other developers so it’s hard to avoid. Often I find it really hard to quickly parse other people’s code so I thought maybe ChatGPT could help. ChatGPT does a really nice job of giving clear explanations when you paste in code and ask it to explain it. But the interface is a bit of a pain to use if you’re using it many times a day. It’s also hard to share explanations with co-workers. So I built whatdoesthiscodedo.com. Just paste your code and get your ChatGPT explanation and…
In plain words
This tool uses ChatGPT to generate plain-language explanations of code snippets. Developers paste code and receive clear breakdowns of what it does, along with shareable links to send explanations to colleagues. It's designed for professional developers who frequently need to understand unfamiliar code, as well as non-technical people who encounter scripts and want to grasp their functionality without navigating ChatGPT's interface directly.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hi HN, As a developer, I much prefer to write code than read other people’s code. But most projects I work on involve other developers so it’s hard to avoid. Often I find it really hard to quickly parse other people’s code so I thought maybe ChatGPT could help. ChatGPT does a really nice job of giving clear explanations when you paste in code and ask it to explain it. But the interface is a bit of a pain to use if you’re using it many times a day. It’s also hard to share explanations with co-workers. So I built whatdoesthiscodedo.com. Just paste your code and get your ChatGPT explanation and a sharable link you can give to coworkers. I’m hopeful it can also be helpful to folks who aren’t professional developers. My co-founder at my main company, Beam Analytics, is more of a product guy so only needs to write scripts etc. Before, he’d often just find code online to copy and then struggle to make it work. But with this tool, he says he’s getting better intuition in understanding the code he’s using, and how to modify it. We’d love your feedback. Email us at hi (at) beamanalytics.io or DM me on twitter @TheBuilderJR
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