Fetching from the wire…
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
Public story · 2026-07-19 · high
Julia Evans said on July 17 she still can't read query plans, so Willison had Fable build a browser tool that translates them into plain English.
Why now: Willison published the tool on July 18, one day after Evans said publicly she still can't read query plans.
Willison shipped a SQLite query plan explainer that runs entirely in the browser, no server involved. That matters for anyone debugging slow queries without deep database-internals knowledge, since the tool runs client-side and never sends schema or data anywhere.
Feed it arbitrary SQL against a SQLite database. It shows both EXPLAIN QUERY PLAN and the lower-level EXPLAIN bytecode, with plain-English annotations attached to each line. SQLite compiled to WebAssembly runs the whole thing through Pyodide, executing in Python with no backend at all.
The tool exists because Julia Evans said on July 17 that she still can't read query plans. Willison had Fable build it in response.
Willison also says directly that he isn't expert enough to fully verify the annotations the tool produces. That's the disclosure most AI-built developer tools skip, letting polished output imply an expert already checked it. A query plan explainer is exactly where a confidently wrong annotation does damage. The whole point is helping someone who doesn't already know the answer.
Each link below shares sources, entities, or timing with this story.
Simon Willison uses Fable / Shared entities / Same source domain / Earlier coverage
Linked by a graph relationship (Simon Willison uses Fable); both cover Pyodide, Python, Simon Willison, WebAssembly; reported by the same outlet (simonwillison.net).
Simon Willison uses Fable / Shared entities / Same source domain / Shared topic / Earlier coverage / Tension
Linked by a graph relationship (Simon Willison uses Fable); both cover Simon Willison, SQL, Willison; reported by the same outlet (simonwillison.net).
Linked by a graph relationship (Simon Willison uses Fable); both cover Simon Willison, SQL, SQLite; reported by the same outlet (simonwillison.net).
Simon Willison uses Fable / Shared entities / Same source domain / Earlier coverage
Linked by a graph relationship (Simon Willison uses Fable); both cover Python, Simon Willison, WebAssembly, Willison; reported by the same outlet (simonwillison.net).
Linked by a graph relationship (Simon Willison uses Fable); both cover July, Simon Willison, Willison; reported by the same outlet (simonwillison.net).
Linked by a graph relationship (Simon Willison uses Fable); both cover Python, Simon Willison, Willison; reported by the same outlet (simonwillison.net).
Anthropic released Fable / Shared entities / Same source domain / Shared topic / Earlier coverage
Linked by a graph relationship (Anthropic released Fable); both cover Simon Willison, Willison; reported by the same outlet (simonwillison.net).
Anthropic released Fable / Shared entities / Same source domain
Linked by a graph relationship (Anthropic released Fable); both cover July, Simon Willison, Willison; reported by the same outlet (simonwillison.net).