i'm [poteto](https://x.com/poteto). i'm not a president or ceo, but i've worked with millions of lines of code at Meta, Netflix, and Cursor. i'm also on the react core team where i help build and maintain react compiler.
there's a growing sense that ai writes too much slop code. i agree. i don't want to ship like a team of twenty slop artists. throughput without quality is not a goal i aspire to. if you want to go fast, go deep first.
**pstack is my answer.** these are the same skills i use everyday to ship high quality code at Cursor. this turns cursor into a real engineering team. the goal is not to maximize loc, in fact it's the opposite. pstack helps you write less, but higher quality code.
**pstack gives you fearless parallelism.** when you can go deep on one agent and trust it to write good, verifiable code, you can truly parallelize with confidence. start multiple agents up with `poteto-mode` and trust that they'll apply rigorous engineering principles to their work.
**cursor gives you the best of all worlds.** every frontier model has its strengths and weaknesses. use any model with pstack. in fact, many of my skills use multi-model workflows to take advantage of each model's unique strengths.
fork it. improve it. make it yours. PRs are welcome!
new here? the [pstack guide](./docs/guide/README.md) walks you through a first real task, from setup and prompting through verification and overnight runs.
that's it. the other skills are situational; the mode skill uses them for you as needed. out of the box the mode splits work by model strength: code delegates (feature, refactoring, bug fix, perf, hillclimb) go to grok, while the hardest changes, prose, and judgment go to fable 5.1. the default panel is fable 5.1 / sol / grok / opus 5. [`/setup-pstack`](./skills/setup-pstack/SKILL.md) changes any of it.
use [`/poteto-mode`](./skills/poteto-mode/SKILL.md) at the start of a task. it reads your request, picks from a set of playbooks, and runs the other skills as the steps need them.
| [investigation](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/investigation.md) | a read-only question. how does x work, why was y built this way, are we sure. |
| [bug fix](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/bug-fix.md) | reproduce a defect, root-cause it, and fix with runtime evidence. |
| [perf](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/perf-issue.md) | trace a measured slowness and improve it against a baseline. |
| [hillclimb](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/hillclimb.md) | sustained, scientific improvement of one metric against a target, looping hypotheses with before/after measurement and one commit per accepted win. |
| [runtime forensics](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/runtime-forensics.md) | diagnose a live symptom (leak, idle-cpu spin, glitch) from instrumentation. |
| [feature](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/feature.md) | new or changed behavior, built from a named data shape. |
| [refactoring](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/refactoring.md) | a behavior-preserving change to structure or shape. |
| [prototype](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/prototype.md) | a throwaway sketch to make a design or behavioral decision cheaply, or to settle an empirical fork by observing it. |
| [visual parity](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/visual-parity.md) | pixel-exact ui equivalence between two implementations. |
| [authoring a skill](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/authoring-a-skill.md) | writing or editing a SKILL.md. |
| [eval](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/eval.md) | test how a skill or prompt change affects agent behavior, blinded. |
| [shipping](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/shipping.md) | independently verify a green stack, then land the contiguous verified run bottom-up through github by default or origin when available. |
| [orchestrate](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/orchestrate.md) | a standing project handed to one coordinator chat: multi-day, many stacked prs, fleets of subagents. |
| [autopilot-full](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/autopilot-full.md) | run independent prs to merged with one owner per pr and root verification of each merge-ready head. |
| [autopilot-stack](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/autopilot-stack.md) | build and verify one linear base-branch stack for the operator to review and land. |
| [worktree cleanup](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/worktree-cleanup.md) | reclaim disk by pruning merged or abandoned worktrees and stale ios simulators, safety-gated. |
| [opening a pr](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/opening-a-pr.md) | open a ready pr from small ordered commits with a conventional commits title and a briefing-style body. invoked at the end of every other playbook. |
[`/poteto-mode`](./skills/poteto-mode/SKILL.md) is also a sticky mode: once entered it stays on across turns, applying itself when a playbook matches or the task needs rigor and staying out of the way otherwise. opt out any time by saying so.
[`/poteto-mode`](./skills/poteto-mode/SKILL.md) works extremely well with cursor's `/loop` command. you can make cursor work for many hours without sacrificing rigor.
[`/poteto-mode`](./skills/poteto-mode/SKILL.md) runs most of these for you when a step needs them (`how`, `why`, `architect`, `arena`, `swarm`, `interrogate`, `unslop`, `no-comments`, `technical-writing`, `tdd`, and the principles). the table below is for when you want one directly:
| [`/poteto-mode`](./skills/poteto-mode/SKILL.md) | default entry point for any non-trivial task. |
| [`/how`](./skills/how/SKILL.md) | you want a walkthrough of how a subsystem works. |
| [`/why`](./skills/why/SKILL.md) | you want to know why something was built this way. discovers available MCPs at run time and queries each evidence category in parallel (source control, issue tracker, long-form docs, real-time chat, infra observability, error tracking, analytics warehouse). |
| [`/recall`](./skills/recall/SKILL.md) | you're starting or resuming work and want your recent context on a topic rebuilt from your own chat history and the shared record, handed back as a tight current-state brief. |
| [`/blast-radius`](./skills/blast-radius/SKILL.md) | you have a small-looking change and want to know what else it could break, with the one fact it's safe because of proven by running code, not asserted. |
| [`/architect`](./skills/architect/SKILL.md) | you're about to write code that crosses a function boundary and want the caller's usage, types, and module shape settled first. |
| [`/arena`](./skills/arena/SKILL.md) | you want N parallel attempts at the same thing, then to grab the best parts of each. |
| [`/interrogate`](./skills/interrogate/SKILL.md) | you have a diff and want several different models to try to break it, including a strict code-quality lens. |
| [`/automate-me`](./skills/automate-me/SKILL.md) | you want your own `-mode` skill, drafted from how you've actually worked. |
| [`/make-bot-ui`](./skills/make-bot-ui/SKILL.md) | you want a page or dashboard whose buttons wake a Grok Bot over a webhook, including the sender-key handoff and Tailscale. |
| [`/setup-pstack`](./skills/setup-pstack/SKILL.md) | you want to pick which models pstack uses per role. detects your models and writes a config rule. |
| [`/reflect`](./skills/reflect/SKILL.md) | a long task landed and you want the recipe captured as a skill edit. |
| [`/teach`](./skills/teach/SKILL.md) | you want to actually understand a change or subsystem, not just have it summarized. runs how + why and weaves one plain explanation, built up diagram by diagram. |
| [`/typescript-best-practices`](./skills/typescript-best-practices/SKILL.md) | you're reading or editing typescript. grounds the type-system-discipline principle in syntax. |
| [`/figure-it-out`](./skills/figure-it-out/SKILL.md) | no bundled playbook fits. designs a rigorous, auditable playbook for the task. |
| [`/show-me-your-work`](./skills/show-me-your-work/SKILL.md) | you want a reviewable decision trail. logs decisions to a tsv you can commit. |
| [`/create-verification-skill`](./skills/create-verification-skill/SKILL.md) | your project has no scripted way to prove app behavior. generates a project-local verify skill with a feature map, for any language or platform. |
| [`/maintain-verification-skill`](./skills/maintain-verification-skill/SKILL.md) | your verify skill's feature map has drifted from the app. source wave + one live pass, at most one PR of proven corrections. |
mostly i type [`/poteto-mode`](./skills/poteto-mode/SKILL.md) at the start of a task and let it route to a playbook. the other skills fire as the steps need them. a few i reach for directly.
pstack also ships a subagent that runs my style end to end. spawn it from a parent agent via [`subagent_type: "poteto-agent"`](./agents/poteto-agent.md). it reads `poteto-mode` in full, including its inline principles index, before doing any work. substituting `generalPurpose` skips that read and drifts.
pstack also ships [Comment Sicko](./agents/comment-sicko.md), a read-only comment reviewer available as `subagent_type: "Comment Sicko"`. usually invoke it through [`/no-comments`](./skills/no-comments/SKILL.md), not directly.
twenty-three short skills, one principle each. `poteto-mode` indexes them inline and reads that index at task start. the standalone files are there so other skills can reference a principle by name, and so the index can point at the full rule for each.
| [laziness-protocol](./skills/principle-laziness-protocol/SKILL.md) | core | Bias toward deletion and the smallest change that solves the problem. |
| [foundational-thinking](./skills/principle-foundational-thinking/SKILL.md) | core | Apply before writing logic: choosing core types and data structures, sequencing scaffold-vs-feature work, asking what concurrent actors share. Get the data structures right so downstream code becomes obvious. |
| [redesign-from-first-principles](./skills/principle-redesign-from-first-principles/SKILL.md) | core | Redesign as if the requirement had been a foundational assumption from day one, instead of bolting it on. |
| [attack-the-premise](./skills/principle-attack-the-premise/SKILL.md) | core | Apply when two or more fixes that share one premise have failed the same gate. Take a census of which actors hold the imbalance before the next fix, then question the premise instead of writing another fix that assumes it. |
| [subtract-before-you-add](./skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add/SKILL.md) | core | Remove dead weight, redundant validators, and stub references first, then build on the simpler base. |
| [minimize-reader-load](./skills/principle-minimize-reader-load/SKILL.md) | core | Count layers between question and answer, and hidden state in the reader's head; collapse one-caller wrappers and shrink mutable scope. |
| [outcome-oriented-execution](./skills/principle-outcome-oriented-execution/SKILL.md) | core | Apply during planned rewrites and migrations with explicit phase boundaries. Converge on the target architecture; don't preserve smooth intermediate states with throwaway compatibility code. |
| [experience-first](./skills/principle-experience-first/SKILL.md) | core | Choose user delight over implementation convenience; ship fewer polished features over more rough ones. |
| [exhaust-the-design-space](./skills/principle-exhaust-the-design-space/SKILL.md) | core | Build 2-3 competing prototypes and compare side by side before committing. |
| [build-the-lever](./skills/principle-build-the-lever/SKILL.md) | core | Apply to any non-trivial work, not just bulk work: edits, migrations, analyses, checks. Build the tool that does it or proves it (codemod, script, generator, or a skill your subagents follow) instead of working by hand. The tool is the artifact a reviewer can rerun. |
| [model-the-domain](./skills/principle-model-the-domain/SKILL.md) | architecture | Encode the domain in a structure instead of scattered conditionals. |
| [boundary-discipline](./skills/principle-boundary-discipline/SKILL.md) | architecture | Concentrate guards at system boundaries (CLI, config, network, external APIs); trust internal types and keep business logic in pure functions. |
| [type-system-discipline](./skills/principle-type-system-discipline/SKILL.md) | architecture | Make illegal states unrepresentable, brand semantic primitives, parse external data at boundaries, refuse to lie to the compiler, exhaust variants, derive from authoritative schemas. |
| [make-operations-idempotent](./skills/principle-make-operations-idempotent/SKILL.md) | architecture | Converge to the same end state regardless of partial prior runs. |
| [migrate-callers-then-delete-legacy-apis](./skills/principle-migrate-callers-then-delete-legacy-apis/SKILL.md) | architecture | Migrate callers and delete the old API in the same wave instead of preserving compatibility layers. |
| [separate-before-serializing-shared-state](./skills/principle-separate-before-serializing-shared-state/SKILL.md) | architecture | Eliminate the sharing first; serialize structurally only when one shared writer is a real invariant. |
| [prove-it-works](./skills/principle-prove-it-works/SKILL.md) | verification | Apply after completing a task, before declaring done. Verify against the real artifact (run the feature, read the actual value, inspect the diff), not a proxy, self-report, or 'it compiles.'. |
| [fix-root-causes](./skills/principle-fix-root-causes/SKILL.md) | verification | Trace each symptom to its root cause and fix it there; reproduce first, ask why until you reach it, resist nil-check guards that silence crashes. |
| [sequence-verifiable-units](./skills/principle-sequence-verifiable-units/SKILL.md) | verification | Apply to multi-step work (sweeps, migrations, runs of similar edits) and to how you stack commits and PRs. Break work into small units that each end in a verifiable state, check each before the next, and order delivery so the sequence proves itself to a reviewer. |
| [test-behavior-not-implementation](./skills/principle-test-behavior-not-implementation/SKILL.md) | verification | Apply when you write, change, or keep a test. Call the code the way its users do and assert the result they observe against a literal expected value. If the test would still pass when every imported function returns undefined, rewrite the assertion or delete the test. |
| [guard-the-context-window](./skills/principle-guard-the-context-window/SKILL.md) | delegation | Route bulk to subagents; keep summaries in the main thread, not raw payloads. |
| [never-block-on-the-human](./skills/principle-never-block-on-the-human/SKILL.md) | delegation | Proceed, present the result, let the human course-correct after the fact; reserve confirmation for irreversible actions. |
| [encode-lessons-in-structure](./skills/principle-encode-lessons-in-structure/SKILL.md) | meta | Encode the rule as a lint, metadata flag, runtime check, or script instead of more text. |
-`/create-skill` is a cursor built-in. cursor also ships a built-in `/babysit`; inside `poteto-mode`, the [babysit playbook](./skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/babysit.md) supersedes it for pr-status requests.
cursor already has a great plan mode which works great with pstack. but personally, i don't believe in planning. the best spec is code. if you do want to make a plan, [`/poteto-mode`](./skills/poteto-mode/SKILL.md) covers it, but it's not a default.
## make it yours
`poteto-mode` is my style. you may not want exactly that.
type [`/automate-me`](./skills/automate-me/SKILL.md). it mines your recent transcripts, drafts a `<your-name>-mode` skill from how you've actually worked, and routes through pstack underneath. you keep pstack as the base and end up with your own routing skill alongside `poteto-mode`.
models are configurable too. type [`/setup-pstack`](./skills/setup-pstack/SKILL.md). it detects the models you have access to and writes a small always-applied rule mapping each role (code, judgment, the review panels) to a model. every skill reads it and falls back to sensible defaults when the rule is absent, so you override only what you want.
## automations
pstack also ships a dormant [benny automation pack](./automations/benny/). benny triages slack issue reports, then reproduces and fixes confirmed bugs with real ui evidence. its files are not registered as slash skills.
to set it up, point cursor at [`FOR_AGENTS.md`](./automations/benny/FOR_AGENTS.md). setup copies the pack into the target repository at `.cursor/automations/benny/`, enables pstack there for shared skills, and keeps user configuration outside the copied pack.
