poteto-help

Files (3)

• SKILL.md
• prompting.md · references/
• recipes.md · references/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Poteto help

Answer the user's question about pstack, hand them a prompt they can send, and link the file the answer came from. For a help question, don't start the work. The user asked how, and a pstack run spends real tokens, so let them send the prompt.

A message that asks for work, such as "use pstack to fix this bug", is not a help question. Read [`poteto-mode`](../poteto-mode/SKILL.md), do the work under it, and mention once how to keep it on.

This file maps questions to the skills and guide pages that hold the answers. Those files own the details. Read the file you route to before you quote it, and trust it when it disagrees with this map. The links here point into the installed port, which the user may not be able to open, so give the user the file's path under `~/.config/opencode/`: skills under `skills/pstack/<name>/`, docs under `pstack-docs/`.

## Find out what they need

Infer the need from the message and the conversation. A named situation, such as "which skill reviews a PR?", goes straight to its section. If the need is still unclear, ask one multiple-choice question with these options, then answer only the section they pick:

- Get set up
- Start a task with `/pstack/poteto-mode`
- Pick a skill for a situation
- Fix a run that went wrong
- Make pstack my own

Check the state that changes the answer, and mention it only when it does:

- No `model:` line in `~/.config/opencode/agents/pstack/<role>.md` means `/pstack/setup-pstack` hasn't run for this user, so every role inherits the parent session model.
- No `verify-*` skill or other app harness in the project means agents have no scripted way to drive the app. Mention `/pstack/create-verification-skill` when the question is about proving a change works.
- No formal verification skill in the project means no property is checked past what tests reach. Mention `/pstack/create-formal-verification-skill` when the question is about a race, an invariant, or another case tests rarely hit. When one exists and the code it covers changed after the commit it records as last in sync, mention `/pstack/maintain-formal-verification-skill` if the question touches that code.

When no role agent carries a `model:` line and it matters, ask whether the user wants to pick a model for each role and a budget now. It matters when the user is new, the question is about setup or cost, or the answer depends on which models run. Ask at most once per chat. If the need is also unclear, ask both questions together. Offer two choices:

- Now: give them `/pstack/setup-pstack` to type, and answer their question too.
- Later: answer their question, and add one line saying every role keeps inheriting the parent session model until they run `/pstack/setup-pstack`.

## Get set up

1. Install pstack into `~/.config/opencode` with `node scripts/install.mjs` from the pstack checkout. Add `--project` to install into `./.opencode` instead.
2. Run [`/pstack/setup-pstack`](../setup-pstack/SKILL.md). It asks for a budget, maps a model to each role, and writes the `model:` line of each role agent. The choice applies to new subagents and new sessions. Then it offers once each to generate a verification skill and a formal verification skill for the project, unless the project already has one.
3. Start a real task with `/pstack/poteto-mode`, a goal, and a check that can pass or fail.

Installing changes nothing until the user invokes a skill. Every skill except `/pstack/poteto-mode` is advertised by ID, so the model can load it from the user's words; `/pstack/poteto-mode` loads only when the user types it. The [README](../../../pstack-docs/README.md) and [guide page 1](../../../pstack-docs/guide/01-setup.md) have the details. Offer to word their first prompt with them, per [`references/prompting.md`](references/prompting.md).

If cost is the worry, say where the tokens go and how to spend fewer. pstack spends extra tokens on subagents and review panels. Rerun `/pstack/setup-pstack` and pick a smaller budget or cheaper models. A role agent with no `model:` line inherits the session's model, which saves tokens when the session runs on a cheaper model. A panel runs one subagent per agent ID, so its seats are the cost. Save `/pstack/poteto-mode` for work that needs rigor.

pstack is built for OpenCode v2. Every skill is an ID, `<name>`, loaded with the `skill` tool and typed as `/pstack/<name>`. Agents are the `pstack/` files under `~/.config/opencode/agents/pstack/`, and pstack's model-per-role choice is the `model:` line of those files. A step that needs a feature OpenCode lacks, such as webhook routines or a hosted bot reviewer, is skipped with one line, `Skipped in OpenCode: <step>. <reason>.`, and the run continues. The [adapter](../../../pstack-docs/harness/opencode.md) maps every name.

Other tools can read the skills, because they use the Agent Skills format. But most workflow skills, including `/pstack/poteto-mode`, `/pstack/how`, `/pstack/why`, and `/pstack/teach`, spawn subagents through OpenCode's `subagent` tool and rely on its agent files, so those parts may not work elsewhere.

## Start a task with `/pstack/poteto-mode`

`/pstack/poteto-mode` matches the task to a playbook, opens the plan at the top of its reply, updates it as each step lands, and runs the other skills as the steps need them. A step it skips stays in the plan as `skip: <reason>`. A good prompt states the goal and how to tell it's done. It doesn't list skills, because a hand-written sequence tends to drop or reorder steps the playbook would keep. Read [`references/prompting.md`](references/prompting.md) before you help word one. [Guide page 2](../../../pstack-docs/guide/02-poteto-mode.md) has examples.

Whether `/pstack/poteto-mode` stays on depends on how the user starts it:

- Typing `/pstack/poteto-mode` with the message attaches the skill to that turn. It fades as the session moves on.
- Selecting the primary agent in the TUI, or launching with `opencode run --agent <id>`, keeps it in context every turn, and keeps it out of casual turns.
- There is no mode list to pick from. Everywhere else, start each new task with `/pstack/poteto-mode`.

Mid-chat, "new task" makes the mode match a fresh playbook. `/pstack/poteto-mode` already uses `pstack/poteto-agent` for the subagents its playbook steps spawn. To get the same style from a subagent of your own, spawn it with `agent: "pstack/poteto-agent"`.

## Pick a skill

The default answer is `/pstack/poteto-mode`, which runs most of the others when its steps need them. Name a skill directly when the user wants more or less of something than the playbook gives. Read the skill before you recommend it, and give one example prompt.

| The user wants to | Skill |
|---|---|
| Do any non-trivial task with rigor | [`/pstack/poteto-mode`](../poteto-mode/SKILL.md) |
| Check that the agent understood their goal and the problem before it starts | [`/pstack/in-your-own-words`](../in-your-own-words/SKILL.md) |
| Get a prompt rewritten deeper, not bigger, before sending it: what a top professional would add, their raw material and methods, and an outside check. It returns the prompt and doesn't do the task | [`/pstack/sharpen`](../sharpen/SKILL.md) |
| Know how code works now, or where new code should live | [`/pstack/how`](../how/SKILL.md) |
| Know why code is shaped this way, or where a number came from | [`/pstack/why`](../why/SKILL.md) |
| Understand a change or subsystem, explained plainly | [`/pstack/teach`](../teach/SKILL.md) |
| Catch up on their own recent work on a topic | [`/pstack/recall`](../recall/SKILL.md) |
| Catch up on what changed in this chat since their last message, in plain words and small visuals, with every item waiting on them listed and decidable from the reply alone | [`/pstack/ketchup`](../ketchup/SKILL.md) |
| Know what a small diff could break outside itself | [`/pstack/blast-radius`](../blast-radius/SKILL.md) |
| Settle types and module shape before code that crosses a function boundary | [`/pstack/architect`](../architect/SKILL.md) |
| Get several attempts at one brief, merged into the best one | [`/pstack/arena`](../arena/SKILL.md) |
| Run parallel checks over slices, or race workers, each in its own worktree | [`/pstack/swarm`](../swarm/SKILL.md) |
| Have different models review a diff and try to break it | [`/pstack/interrogate`](../interrogate/SKILL.md) |
| Fix a bug test-first when a cheap local test exists | [`/pstack/tdd`](../tdd/SKILL.md) |
| Apply TypeScript rules to `.ts` or `.tsx` work | [`/pstack/typescript-best-practices`](../typescript-best-practices/SKILL.md) |
| Strip comments before review, using a reviewer that didn't write them | [`/pstack/no-comments`](../no-comments/SKILL.md) |
| Clean AI tells out of prose | [`/pstack/unslop`](../unslop/SKILL.md) |
| Write docs, an RFC, a README, a PR description, or a commit message to a standard | [`/pstack/technical-writing`](../technical-writing/SKILL.md) |
| Hear the last reply again in plain words | [`/pstack/bro`](../bro/SKILL.md) |
| Give agents a scripted way to drive the app and prove behavior | [`/pstack/create-verification-skill`](../create-verification-skill/SKILL.md) |
| Bring a verification skill and its feature map back in line with the app | [`/pstack/maintain-verification-skill`](../maintain-verification-skill/SKILL.md) |
| Formally verify a race, invariant, or other property that tests rarely reach | [`/pstack/create-formal-verification-skill`](../create-formal-verification-skill/SKILL.md) |
| Bring a formal verification back in line after the code it covers changed, and learn whether a failure is drift or a bug | [`/pstack/maintain-formal-verification-skill`](../maintain-formal-verification-skill/SKILL.md) |
| Vet a performance number before reporting or acting on it | [`/pstack/benchmark-checklist`](../benchmark-checklist/SKILL.md) |
| Run a large or cross-cutting change, or one to review after stepping away | [`/pstack/figure-it-out`](../figure-it-out/SKILL.md) |
| Keep a decision log during a run, and review it afterward | [`/pstack/show-me-your-work`](../show-me-your-work/SKILL.md) |
| Pick a model for each role and a budget | [`/pstack/setup-pstack`](../setup-pstack/SKILL.md) |
| Turn their own working habits into a personal mode skill | [`/pstack/automate-me`](../automate-me/SKILL.md) |
| Turn what a finished task taught into skill edits | [`/pstack/reflect`](../reflect/SKILL.md) |
| Stop agents from repeating the same mistakes in this repo | [`/pstack/correct`](../correct/SKILL.md) |
| Build a page whose buttons trigger a bot through a local command | [`/pstack/make-bot-ui`](../make-bot-ui/SKILL.md) |
| Find their way around pstack | `/pstack/poteto-help` |

If a skill directory next to this one is missing from the table, read its frontmatter and route by its description. The `principle-*` directories are covered under principles below.

Close calls:

- `/pstack/how` explains what the code does. `/pstack/why` explains the reasons. `/pstack/teach` runs one or both and explains the result plainly.
- `/pstack/arena` gives every worker the same brief and merges the best parts. `/pstack/swarm` splits work into slices or a race and returns one report.
- `/pstack/architect` implements right after it settles the design. Add "with checkpoint" to review the design before it writes code.
- `/pstack/interrogate` reviews the diff. `/pstack/blast-radius` looks for breakage outside the diff and proves the one fact that makes the change safe.
- `/pstack/recall` rebuilds context across recent chats. `/pstack/ketchup` covers only this chat since the user's last message. Resuming one specific chat or branch is the Session pickup playbook.
- `/pstack/figure-it-out` designs one rigorous run. The Orchestrate playbook runs a program that spans days and many PRs. The Autonomous run playbook drives one task to a finish condition.

Not in pstack:

- There is no separate cleanup plugin. The repo's own verification skill is the way to drive a surface and prove a change, and `/pstack/create-verification-skill` generates one. With none, drive the surface with the shell and say so.
- pstack has no loop command. A loop is a `background: true` subagent that polls, or a shell watcher. It has no built-in skill author either: authoring a skill is the Authoring a skill playbook, `playbooks/authoring-a-skill.md` in `poteto-mode`.
- pstack has no `/orchestrate` skill. Orchestrate is a `/pstack/poteto-mode` playbook. If the slash menu shows `/orchestrate`, another plugin provides it.

## Playbooks and principles

Playbooks are step lists inside `/pstack/poteto-mode`, not skills, so they have no slash command. Inside `/pstack/poteto-mode`, describing the task picks one, and these phrases name one directly:

- "babysit this pr" or "check on pr 123" runs Babysit. It drives the PR to merge-ready and stops there. It doesn't merge unless the user asks to merge, land, or ship.
- "land the stack" runs Shipping.
- "take over this branch" runs Session pickup.
- "pause safely" runs Pause safely.

From bitgineer/opencode-pstack, MIT.

More from bitgineer/opencode-pstack