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 explain persistence only if the current host exposes it.

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 plugin, which the user may not be able to open, so give the user the file's public copy: `https://github.com/cursor/plugins/blob/e5136d82418d2db3165ea1050d17577cd618cc05/pstack/` followed by its path.


## Portable capability boundary

Read the [host-capability contract](../../references/host-capabilities.md) before promising runtime behavior. Slash names below identify source invocation aliases; their registration depends on the host. Keep every route, but read the local destination before recommending its details. A pending or missing local playbook is a source route, not an existing port. Report that dependency and link the pinned source. The playbooks and executable helpers have separate owners and require final integration review.

Independent workers, diverse models, cloud execution, history, videos, Custom Modes and `/loop` require exposed capabilities and observed results. Sequential work is reduced capability. Denied execution is blocked. A recipe requests proof; it supplies none. Being away does not authorize installation, external writes, scheduling or broader work. Preserve explicit approval gates and current workflow ownership.

## 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 `/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:

- Read the portable [model-role contract](../../references/model-roles.md) and any authorized local role configuration. Missing configuration does not prove which model actually runs. Requested and actual models stay unknown until observed.
- No `verify-*` skill or other app harness in the project means agents have no scripted way to drive the app. Mention `/create-verification-skill` when the question is about proving a change works.
- Inspect existing checks by behavior, not only skill names; absence of a formal-verification skill does not prove absence of property checks. Mention `/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 `/maintain-formal-verification-skill` if the question touches that code.

When portable role configuration is missing and it matters, ask whether the user wants to pick a model for each role and a reasoning 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 `/setup-pstack` to type, and answer their question too.
- Later: answer their question, and add one line saying role choices remain subject to the host defaults and exposed model controls until they run `/setup-pstack`.

## Get set up

1. Explain the host's documented plugin installation flow. The source uses `/add-plugin pstack` or Customize in Cursor. Do not execute installation for a help question.
2. Run [`/setup-pstack`](../setup-pstack/SKILL.md). Read its port before describing its supported role configuration and reasoning budget. Writing configuration requires authorization. A source-host rule does not configure this host.
Setup also offers once each to generate an app verification skill and a formal verification skill, unless the project already has one. Each offer is optional and requires a yes before invocation.
3. Start a real task with `/poteto-mode`, a goal, and a check that can pass or fail.

Installing changes nothing until the user invokes a skill. Automatic loading depends on the host; metadata alone does not register it. The [README](../../README.md) and [guide page 1](../../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 `/setup-pstack` and pick a smaller budget or cheaper models. The source uses `auto` or `inherit-parent` to inherit the chat model. Portable behavior depends on observed model controls; never infer the actual model or savings. A shorter panel list runs fewer subagents, one for each entry. Save `/poteto-mode` for work that needs rigor.

The upstream Claude adapter is retained as a quoted reference only. Use this port's setup and capability contracts for ChatGPT and Codex. Other tools can read Agent Skills files. But most workflow skills, including `/poteto-mode`, `/how`, `/why`, and `/teach`, spawn Cursor subagents with per-role models, and Custom Modes and `/loop` are Cursor features, so those parts may not work there.

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

`/poteto-mode` matches the task to a playbook, copies the playbook's steps into the todo list, and runs the other skills as the steps need them. A step it skips stays in the list 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](../../docs/guide/02-poteto-mode.md) has examples.

The following persistence controls describe Cursor only. Do not present them as controls on this host. Here, read the exposed capabilities and explicitly invoke the skill for each new task unless persistence is observed:

- Enter on `/poteto-mode` attaches the skill to one message. It fades as the chat moves on.
- Option+Enter on Mac or Alt+Enter on Windows, or Use as Mode from the skill entry, makes it a Custom Mode. It stays in context every turn until the user exits the mode, and it stays out of casual turns.
- Cursor's docs list Custom Modes in the Agents Window and the CLI. Elsewhere, start each new task with `/poteto-mode`.

Link [Cursor's skills docs](https://cursor.com/docs/skills) when this comes up. Mid-chat, "new task" makes the mode match a fresh playbook. `/poteto-mode` already uses `poteto-agent` for the subagents its playbook steps spawn. For an authorized worker, read the portable [poteto-agent role](../../references/agent-prompts/poteto-agent.md) and bind it through the [orchestration contract](../../references/orchestration-contract.md). This role file registers no custom agent type.

## Pick a skill

The default answer is `/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 | [`/poteto-mode`](../poteto-mode/SKILL.md) |
| Check that the agent understood their goal and problem before it starts | [`/in-your-own-words`](../in-your-own-words/SKILL.md) |
| Rewrite a prompt with expert methods and an independent check, then stop without doing its task | [`/sharpen`](../sharpen/SKILL.md) |
| Know how code works now, or where new code should live | [`/how`](../how/SKILL.md) |
| Know why code is shaped this way, or where a number came from | [`/why`](../why/SKILL.md) |
| Understand a change or subsystem, explained plainly | [`/teach`](../teach/SKILL.md) |
| Catch up on their own recent work on a topic | [`/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 | [`/ketchup`](../ketchup/SKILL.md) |
| Know what a small diff could break outside itself | [`/blast-radius`](../blast-radius/SKILL.md) |
| Settle types and module shape before code that crosses a function boundary | [`/architect`](../architect/SKILL.md) |
| Get several attempts at one brief, merged into the best one | [`/arena`](../arena/SKILL.md) |
| Run parallel checks over slices, or race workers, as cloud agents | [`/swarm`](../swarm/SKILL.md) |
| Have different models review a diff and try to break it | [`/interrogate`](../interrogate/SKILL.md) |
| Fix a bug test-first when a cheap local test exists | [`/tdd`](../tdd/SKILL.md) |
| Apply TypeScript rules to `.ts` or `.tsx` work | [`/typescript-best-practices`](../typescript-best-practices/SKILL.md) |
| Strip comments before review, using a reviewer that didn't write them | [`/no-comments`](../no-comments/SKILL.md) |
| Clean AI tells out of prose | [`/unslop`](../unslop/SKILL.md) |
| Write docs, an RFC, a README, a PR description, or a commit message to a standard | [`/technical-writing`](../technical-writing/SKILL.md) |
| Hear the last reply again in plain words | [`/bro`](../bro/SKILL.md) |
| Give agents a scripted way to drive the app and prove behavior | [`/create-verification-skill`](../create-verification-skill/SKILL.md) |
| Bring a verification skill and its feature map back in line with the app | [`/maintain-verification-skill`](../maintain-verification-skill/SKILL.md) |
| Draw user-facing behavior and counterexample paths from a TLA+ model, or check an agreed chart | [`/statechart`](../statechart/SKILL.md) |
| Formally verify a race, invariant, or other property that tests rarely reach | [`/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 | [`/maintain-formal-verification-skill`](../maintain-formal-verification-skill/SKILL.md) |
| Vet a performance number before reporting or acting on it | [`/benchmark-checklist`](../benchmark-checklist/SKILL.md) |
| Run a large or cross-cutting change, or one to review after stepping away | [`/figure-it-out`](../figure-it-out/SKILL.md) |
| Keep a decision log during a run, and review it afterward | [`/show-me-your-work`](../show-me-your-work/SKILL.md) |
| Pick a model for each role and a reasoning budget | [`/setup-pstack`](../setup-pstack/SKILL.md) |
| Turn their own working habits into a personal mode skill | [`/automate-me`](../automate-me/SKILL.md) |
| Turn what a finished task taught into skill edits | [`/reflect`](../reflect/SKILL.md) |
| Stop agents from repeating the same mistakes in this repo | [`/correct`](../correct/SKILL.md) |
| Build a page whose buttons wake a Grok Bot over a webhook | [`/make-bot-ui`](../make-bot-ui/SKILL.md) |
| Find their way around 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:

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

- `/deslop`, `control-cli`, and `control-ui` ship in the `cursor-team-kit` plugin.
- `/loop` and `/create-skill` are Cursor built-ins.
- pstack has no `/orchestrate` skill. Orchestrate is a `/poteto-mode` playbook. If the slash menu shows `/orchestrate`, another plugin provides it.

## Playbooks and principles

From yabasha/pstack-openai, MIT.

More from yabasha/pstack-openai