Garry Tan
55f8151fbe
* docs: approved reliability follow-ups plan (Oct 2026)
* D1: score overlay wrong answers as comparison results (contract v4)
A completed answer that fails the fixture's output check is now a valid
measurement with taskCorrect false and answerError set, in either arm.
Only execution, scope and metric failures invalidate a trial. ON
correctness still gates the case, so an OFF wrong answer stays in the
comparison. OVERLAY_CONTRACT moves to v4; v3 verdicts are not
reinterpreted. Replays the 37198445662 sonnet trials (OFF-0 wrong).
* C4: score auq-matrix substance with a 3-sample judge panel
Each skill keeps one native capture in the same execution; the
recommendation-substance grader now runs as a JUDGE_PANEL_SAMPLES panel on
that capture and gates on the mean against the unchanged minimum of 4. A
failed sample fails the panel without resampling. Approved at the gate
2026-10-04 for censuses after this change.
* E1: one Bun version source; setup refuses below the 1.3.3 floor, updater checks before advancing
bin/gstack-bun-version.sh holds the security floor (1.3.3) and the tested
version (1.4.0, the CI pin and engines.bun). setup refuses Bun below the
floor before writing anything, warns between floor and tested, warns and
continues on an unparseable version, and prints a 1.4.0 install hint.
Prereleases sort below their release (semver).
gstack-session-update now fetches, reads the incoming release's floor and
checks the bun setup will run before fast-forwarding to that exact
revision; below it the update is held with reason bun-too-old and a
resume command, leaving the revision and installs untouched.
Fixture copies of setup (team-mode, claude-code migration) now include the
sourced file; the slow-git lock test sleeps on fetch, the updater's
network step.
* E3: record the owned Chromium's PID over CDP so the #2709 reap runs on Playwright 1.62
Playwright 1.62's Browser has no process(), so chromiumProcInfo was always
null and browse stop never reaped a surviving headless Chromium. The owned
headless launch now reads the browser PID from CDP SystemInfo.getProcessInfo
(bounded at 2s; a hung or failed call logs once and records nothing). The
reaper's start-time and cmdline identity checks are unchanged, so a recycled
PID or an externally owned browser is never signalled.
* A1: ship docs gate records post-child hashes with gstack-docs-candidate, saves each record once
Stored transcripts (37198445662 gate-census-2) show the parent's reads of
release files take ~1 s; the parent's own model time dominates (completion
268 s of 392 s, store ~270 s of 387 s), and 45-78 s of it is retyping hash
maps, child output and records into several artifacts after the child
returns. The child contract is unchanged.
* A2: /plan-ceo-review sends the mode handoff line before any other tool call
plan-ceo-mode-routing's HOLD SCOPE session spends its 240 s post-selection
window on model work: 37176837432 skipped the handoff helper and paraphrased
the mode, 37198445662 ran it, then wrote the plan, loaded sections and probed
Codex for 114 s before the posture chat. The handoff line is the posture.
* B3: accept wrapped unchanged rows in the cropped Edit preview
PR run 37176835584 timed out with the floor's owned Edit menu on screen:
unchanged diff rows soft-wrap under their gutter with a blank marker
column, and a trimmed empty unchanged row keeps only its number. The
parser accepted wrapped +/- rows only, so it never verified the owned
edit. Both forms are now parsed and still compared with the exact source
lines; the captured viewport is replayed with negative controls.
* A3: record per-phase headroom diagnosis for docsync, plan-mode-no-op, mode-routing and gate slice 11
* E4: /review Step 1 keeps going when the base fetch fails and reports stale base coverage
Under Codex's read-only .git, 'git fetch && merge-base && diff --stat'
stopped at the fetch, so the empty output read as 'Nothing to review'.
The fetch is now separate, prints BASE_REFRESH fresh or stale with the
local base revision, and the review states stale coverage.
* D2: reword the format-approach question prompt
Both plan-ceo-review-format-approach refusals in census 37195203538
(Fable 5.1 model_refusal_no_fallback, category reasoning_extraction:
"duplicating model outputs") were anchored on the session prompt, whose
capture instruction asked for the "verbatim" question and "the exact
prose you would have shown" in a "format-capture test". The approach
case now asks for the same question in the same file as the step's
output, without that wording. The other three plan-format cases keep
their unchanged prompt (no refusals in 72 trials).
* C2: /qa defines its outcome filename fields; QA report templates name the measured timing fields
Low judge samples in failing panels named both: qa workflow (37186854666)
'an undefined {user} in the outcome filename', and qa-only workflow
(37198445662) 'template asks for Duration / durationMs totals while
reporting.md mandates Probe budget and Guarded command time'. The qa
union stays under its 1.11 size ratio (93292 of 93294 bytes).
* 0.1: session ledger written by the claude -p, Agent SDK, PTY and Codex runners
Each armed model session appends one best-effort line to
$GSTACK_EVAL_DIR/session-ledger.jsonl: a stable session key, the timeout it
armed, monotonic elapsed time, its end reason (completed, session_timeout,
observer_timeout, api_error, refusal, aborted, error), one sanitized evidence
line and, for stream-JSON runners, a compact liveness summary (longest
in-request silence with nothing outstanding, last event kind, tool open at
end). Partial messages now stream for every claude -p session and for SDK
sessions without a custom query provider (runSharedInteractive opts in); their
rows feed only the summary, so transcripts keep their size unless
publicStreamDiagnostics is set. Structured refusal and API-error signals win
over phrases, and tool results are never read for them.
* 0.2: failure_cause beside failure_class, from runner facts and the session ledger
One pure failureCauseOf() beside failureClassOf() sets failure_cause
(contract > pre_turn_infra > api_error > refusal > provider_stall >
session_timeout > observer_timeout > assertion > unknown; no machine-set
'detector') with one bounded evidence line, and failureDetailOf() keeps a
Bun matcher's Expected/Received or a judge's failing dimensions in
failure_detail. Both record builders (classifyTrialShard, junitCensus) call
them and attach the trial's ledger sessions. failure_class, error and
TRIAL_ERROR_MAX are computed exactly as before; the new fields are optional,
bounded and validated only when present, and a frozen copy of the v1 reader
accepts every new record. A provider stall needs partial messages and
STALL_WINDOW_MS (120 s, eval-budgets.ts beside HEADROOM_WARN/FAIL) of
in-request silence with nothing outstanding; it stays a failure under
EVAL_POLICY v1.
* E4: fingerprint under a read-only .git via a private object dir owned by review-log
Codex's sandbox mounts .git read-only, so gstack-wtree's git add -A could not
write blobs and /review lost its start capture. gstack-review-log now creates
a private 0700 object directory under TMPDIR, passes it to gstack-wtree (which
writes new objects there with the common-dir object store, resolved before
exporting, as an alternate, so linked worktrees work), exposes it to the
bindReview/checkSharedLibsReuse consumers that read the tree and blobs, and
removes it on EXIT/INT/TERM after they finish. gstack-wtree prints one stderr
line and exits 1 on a failed write or unwritable TMPDIR instead of printing a
partial hash; review-log no longer swallows that line. Standalone gstack-wtree
keeps writing to the repository store so git diff between saved snapshots
(/ship) still works.
* 0.3: red lines name their values, evidence and an after-a-repair command; one published-text sanitizer
Each red line in the census report keeps its stored error and adds the
machine cause with its evidence, the failure_detail values (Expected/Received,
or each failing judge dimension with its mean, sample count and the sample
sentence naming it), the slice artifact and shard directory that hold the
transcript, a fetch command (eval:pass-rates --run <id> --case <id>), and
'after a repair:' with a command that selects only that case (E2E ids via
--case, judges via their selection and an exact test-name filter). A
session that completed and failed a check says so instead of 'assertion
(success)'. Report text that reaches a PR comment, issue or committed file
goes through scripts/lib/published-text.ts: control and bidi characters
stripped, credential-scan patterns redacted, mentions neutralized, HTML and
link brackets escaped inline, blocks in a fence longer than any backtick run,
length capped. Verdicts and collector verdict objects are unchanged.
* E2: one make-pdf resolver for readiness and every $P block on env-var hosts
make-pdf exported $P from its readiness block, which Codex and the other
env-var hosts lose between blocks. binaryAssignment gains 'make-pdf': the
MAKE-PDF SETUP readiness check and the runtime prelude both use it, so every
block that runs $P derives the same make-pdf/dist/pdf binary, with
MAKE_PDF_BIN (dev builds) winning when it is executable. Claude output keeps
its repo-local-first probe; only the false 'subsequent blocks' comment
changed. Root plus P=... fits the 400-byte prelude budget; the fixed
MAKE_PDF_OVERRIDE segment is the one exemption, named in runtime-root.ts and
the conformance test.
* 0.1: eval:pass-rates --headroom, --reds and --run report views; 85% headroom alarm in --gate
A new pure module, scripts/lib/eval-history.ts, reports per case the slowest
armed session against the timeout it armed (censored when it timed out,
insufficient below 3 samples, unknown without a session ledger, with the
case wall shown separately as an upper bound), the census critical path from
the slice jobs' timings, the verdict red ledger per census by failure class
and machine cause with shrunk per-case rates, and the all-green probability
(an approximation: the product of 1 - p_i, with an interval). --run <id>
lists one census's reds with their values and history and downloads only the
slice artifacts those reds name, reporting any over 64 MB instead of skipping
them. eval-flake-rank.ts only routes flags: --help works offline, an unknown
flag or case id exits 2 before any fetch, --case narrows the JSON and the
alarms, every view prints its run/branch scope, and --gate also alarms on a
session above HEADROOM_FAIL (85%) of its budget.
* E5: GSTACK_DESIGN_IMAGE_MODEL override; the live model check always tests the defaults
The image_generation tool model gains an env override validated against a
conservative gpt-image-<version> pattern; a bad value fails before any
request and the error names the variable. Pairing and rejection hints name
the tool model actually requested. design/scripts/live-model-check.ts now
ignores GSTACK_DESIGN_MODEL and GSTACK_DESIGN_IMAGE_MODEL (and says so), so
an override cannot mask a retirement of a default, and its exit 2 (no key)
says nothing was checked.
* C3: /deslop-shared-libs names a concrete risk for each recommendation, never 'none'
Both shared-libs-opportunity-judgment reds (37193478719 t3, 37195203538 t1)
failed adoption_and_risk because the top recommendation said 'Main risk:
none found inside the repo' / 'none in behavior'. The skill asked to 'name
the main risk or uncertainty' without saying what counts.
* B4: --case selects loop-registered cases; an unknown id exits before any process
caseSelection() resolves the one paid file that registers a case and how a
trial selects it: by its literal Bun test name, by the id a registration loop
names its test at runtime (coverage audits, TPA, journeys), or by running the
whole file when it registers no other case (plan-mode-no-op, whose test names
are not the id, so the old name pattern ran nothing). A whole-file case runs
one file shard per trial and is judged by shard status, as CI judges it.
--list prints the selection. Every E2E_TIERS id now resolves except
carve-section-loading, which fifteen files register (CI runs each as its own
shard) and which still fails with the owning files named.
* 0.3: after-a-repair runs the shard file when --case cannot resolve a case
A case that several files register (carve-section-loading) cannot be selected
by --case; its red line now prints the bun test command for the shard file
that went red, so every printed command selects exactly one case.
* C1: pre-register workflow-judge control bundles for qa, qa-only, review and setup-deploy
Positive (production bundle), negative (headings only) and one targeted
execution-blocking defect per judge, one 3-sample panel each, built with the
eval's own reader, prompt builder, options and floors.
* F: cost_known: a trial whose harness captured no billing says so; totals never hide it
cost_usd stays a finite number. Trial and eval records gain an optional
cost_known boolean (absent means known, so old records still parse; the
validator accepts only a boolean). Session-ledger rows record whether the
session's terminal result carried total_cost_usd; PTY and Codex sessions
never do, and SDK captures without a terminal result do not. A trial is
cost-known only when it has eval records and every record and session
captured billing, so JUnit-only PTY cases (125 of 298 trials in run
37198445662 recorded 0) now read cost unknown. The census headline prints the
known sum plus the unknown count, never a bare total over unknown costs, and
no total when every cost is unknown; the history import keeps the flag.
PTY transcripts are not priced: test/helpers/pricing.ts estimates exclude
cache writes, so they cannot give the billed cost.
* B1: replay corpora for the five repeat-offender cases
shared-libs-plan-callers, plan-ceo-section-loading, auto-decide-preserved,
plan-design-review-plan-mode and ship-docsync-late-result each get an
inventory of every wave census in scope (all artifacts still available)
and minimal, redacted detector or actor inputs replayed through the real
detector in the free suite: census passes, every distinct census red, and
derived negative controls labelled as derived. Fixed false reds stay as
expected passes with their history; the two genuine auto-decide product
failures (37176837432, 37179171083) stay refused. A contract test bounds
each entry at 64 KB, scans it for HIGH credentials, requires a pass and a
refusal per case, and reports entries whose series identity is stale.
Building the auto-decide corpus exposed a latent native detector misread:
a bold 'Mode application and rationale.' heading was parsed as a
withdrawn Mode field (37186854666). A field status now ends at its
sentence.
* B2: read approved stale-fill decisions from more valid ledger records
The structured ledger reader is authoritative before the prose fallback,
but it missed two valid approved records in passing censuses
(37186854666: a camelCase writeProfile subject; 37195203538: a
slash-joined 'D1 / STALE-FILL' row id), which then rested on the prose
detector that caused both historical reds. Both forms are accepted; an
unresolved row, an unrelated decision, the copied fixture plan and
non-write camelCase words stay refused.
* C1: record workflow-judge control results (negatives separated; qa and review miss a removed step)
* C2: record every low workflow-judge sample in the wave censuses with its disposition
* 0.3: published lines cannot break a fixed fence
evals.yml wraps collector-outcomes failures in a fixed three-backtick fence
for the PR comment, so those lines (and eval:pass-rates output meant for the
tracking issue) go through sanitizeFixedFenceLine: cleaned like every
published line, with backticks turned into quotes. Inline published text
also neutralizes backticks.
* A1: fit the post-child record wording under ship's 1.428 parity size cap
* E4: inline the Step 1 base refresh to fit review's 1.199 parity size cap
* B2: inventory of gate and periodic phrase-only detector checks
docs/evals/detector-inventory.md lists every pass/fail decision in gate
and periodic E2E cases that rests on phrases in model free text, with
its structured source (if any), whether the contract is user-visible,
and a disposition: already structured-first, convert candidate, phrase
witness required, or no structured source. Convert candidates are
ordered by census red history.
* 0.2: failureCauseOf takes the stall window instead of importing it; the PTY ledger never throws
eval-store.ts imported STALL_WINDOW_MS from eval-budgets.ts, which free tests
replace with mock.module stubs (review-finalization-budget, office-hours,
qa-fix-loop, qa-only), so loading eval-store failed there. failureCauseOf is
now dependency-free: the record builders pass STALL_WINDOW_MS. A PTY session
whose handle cannot show its text (test doubles) records no panel instead of
throwing from runPtySession's cleanup. The 37186854666 replay also runs
through classifyTrialShard.
* A2/auto-decide: the CEO handoff chat repeats the helper's printed line verbatim
Claude Code 2.1.284 collapses the helper's Bash output ('Ran 1 shell
command'), so the 'Auto-decided review mode → …' line reaches the user only
through chat. In lane D's auto-decide-preserved corpus every passing capture's
chat starts with that line, and the reds paraphrased it ('HOLD SCOPE was
auto-selected…', 'Mode decision done…', "I'm defaulting to HOLD SCOPE…").
The template now says verbatim and why.
* C2: record the judge panels rerun on the final ship and review wording
* integrate: touchfiles and module-size ratchet entries for the wave's new modules
GLOBAL_TOUCHFILES gains session-ledger.ts, published-text.ts and
auq-substance-panel.ts; bin/gstack-bun-version.sh joins every entry that
lists setup or the updater; auq-matrix stays a rule case with its C4
evidence beside E2E_KINDS; eval-history, published-text and session-ledger
are registered new modules.
* E1: BROWSE SETUP install hint pins the tested Bun (1.4.0)
* E2: quote "$P" in make-pdf commands so install paths with spaces work
* E1: /gstack-upgrade checks the incoming Bun floor before pulling
gstack_bun_incoming_hold (bin/gstack-bun-version.sh) is now the one
pre-advance check: the auto-updater calls it before its fast-forward and
/gstack-upgrade's git path calls it after fetching. Below the incoming
release's floor the upgrade stops with BUN_TOO_OLD and the checkout,
VERSION and installs stay untouched. Vendored installs were already safe:
setup refuses before writing and the swap restores the previous install.
* 0.3: only main posts or closes tracking issues; reports carry alarms, red ledger, headroom and all-green
A branch-dispatched periodic or marathon run writes its report to the step
summary and a report artifact; the upsert and close steps run only on
refs/heads/main. The periodic body now keeps every pass-rate alarm line (the
old grep kept only the header), adds the red ledger and session headroom read
with an explicit --branch, the all-green estimate and the triage guide link,
and routes report text through scripts/lib/published-text.ts. The marathon
lane gains the matching close-on-green step.
Migrated: evals-workflow-wiring pinned report-summary.md in the upsert step;
the body is now written by 'Write the census report'.
* C3: prosons neutral-posture detector ignores a negated "taste call"
Both plan-review-prosons-neutral-neg reds (37179171083 t3, 37193478719 t3)
recommended A and closed with "a coverage call, not a taste call"; the
old /taste call/i matched the negation. The detector moves to a helper so
the two census captures replay free as negatives, with positive controls.
* B2: credit the CEO mode handoff only when the chat shows its line
Claude Code 2.1.284 collapses the gstack-ceo-mode-handoff Bash result, so
the printed AUTO_DECIDE line is user-visible only when a later chat message
of the session begins with it. The native detector now requires that
witness; the helper's tool result locates it but no longer replaces it, and
a generic mode statement cannot stand in once a handoff ran. Census
37182865432 is relabelled a genuine miss (expected: refused): the chat said
"I'm defaulting to HOLD SCOPE…" and "Mode decided: HOLD SCOPE". Corpus
replay: 5 credited, 3 refused. ceo-mode-handoff tests migrated to the
witness rule (deliberate behavior change).
* test: baseline the wave's approved detector and harness replay tests
B1 corpora, B3, C3, C4 and D2 replay captures through paid-case detectors,
actors or fixtures (test code by design); each entry carries its reason.
* E6: live Codex multi-block periodic case in the host-run Codex job
test/codex-e2e-multiblock-live.test.ts runs ./setup --host codex once from the
job's checkout into a fresh HOME and CODEX_HOME (auth.json copied from the CI
login home), asserts codex debug prompt-input lists the gstack router as a
real file, seeds one learning, and runs /learn's Show recent block through
codex exec: that later block must root itself through its prelude, run the
installed gstack-learnings-search and print the seeded learning; no block may
report a missing install or an unresolved gstack helper path.
The file joins CODEX_CI_FILES so the planner gives it to the host-run Codex
job. paid-test-durations.json carries a 180 s packing estimate (refreshed by
--write-durations after the first census) so the plan keeps every slice
within max-parallel. Oracles live in test/helpers/codex-multiblock.ts with
free replays in test/codex-multiblock.test.ts. Registration (E2E_TOUCHFILES,
E2E_TIERS periodic, E2E_KINDS rule) is the integrator's.
* E5: design live-model check as a periodic case
test/skill-e2e-design-model-smoke.test.ts runs design/scripts/live-model-check.ts
(default models only) under a temp HOME. Without OPENAI_API_KEY the case is a
Bun skip that the census lists as SKIPPED with no coverage credit; with a key,
exit 0 passes and any other exit fails with the script output (exit 2 under a
present key fails as 'nothing was checked'). paid-test-durations.json carries
a 90 s packing estimate. Registration (E2E_TOUCHFILES, E2E_TIERS periodic,
E2E_KINDS rule) is the integrator's.
* A1: docsync parent points children at a saved interface file
The /ship docsync fixture saved its observation interface only in the
parent prompt and told the parent to copy it into every child prompt,
about 30-40 s of parent generation per session (lane S, 37198445662).
docsSessionOptions now writes it to <home>/fixture-interface.md (0600) and
the parent tells each child to Read that file first. Fault-actor prompts,
which prepare already writes to a file, are unchanged. Fixture-only.
* A3: a JUnit case's recorded wall is capped by its shard's wall
junitCensus summed a case's JUnit test times as duration_ms; for
plan-mode-no-op's concurrent PTY tests that is 346 s inside a 176 s shard
(the "432-613 s" history). The case wall headroom shows is now
min(sum, shard elapsed), a true upper bound. Session headroom already
used the ledger's per-session clocks.
* A3: refresh paid-test durations from census 37198445662
Recorded 2026-09-29 estimates under-packed gate slice 11 (17 files
estimated 1078 s ran 1353 s; plan-review-report 76 s -> 198 s,
plan-ceo-plan-mode 37 s -> 112 s, safety-codex-consult 83 s -> 150 s).
Refreshed both tiers with --report --write-durations from the latest
census's slice walls. Old plan re-costed with observed walls: worst slice
~677 s (slice 11); refreshed plan: every slice estimated <= 539 s.
* C2: Browser Quick gets a feasible budget; QA loop names its directory and stop path
Judge rationales on the qa-only panels (2 of the last 3) cited the 30 s
Browser Quick budget: homepage + 5 targets, each a checkpoint write and a
guarded command, left ~5 s per probe. Quick is now 180 s (method text: 3
minutes); the qa-only-no-fix paid check expects the same native deadline.
PROBE_DIR points at its source line, a stopped loop goes to the final
report steps (annotations, materialize, Markdown), and /review and /ship
say that after smoke expiry only plan checks rerun in revalidation.
* C2: name the flows judges found implicit in review resolvers
Structured outside review: MISSING COVERAGE asks no fix question and is
never reported clean (was "preserve the existing user decision flow").
/review's HIGH-impact plan gate: spawned or non-interactive runs report
REQUIREMENTS MISSING and continue, writing no TODOs. Value cards: the byte
clamp applies to card lines; JSON records you write keep full values.
* C1: a free test catches a removed workflow step, which the judges missed
C1 controls showed the qa workflow judge passing /qa without Phase 10 and
the review judge passing /review without Step 3. The new test pins every
step/phase heading of qa, qa-only, review, ship, plan-ceo-review,
plan-eng-review and setup-deploy (derived from the templates' step
headings) and names any that goes missing or out of order; new step
headings must be pinned. The judge rubric is unchanged (EVAL_POLICY).
* size: fit the wave's wording under ship, review and qa parity caps
Measured after all lane merges: ship -79, review -210, qa -68 bytes over.
Trimmed the added wording first (post-expiry rule, MISSING COVERAGE,
plan-gate default, value-card JSON, stop line) and folded /review's
redundant INFORMATIONAL sentence and findings bullet. ship 268,036 (room
8), review 130,118 (room 1). qa needed 11 more bytes: cap 1.11 -> 1.1102
with the measured 93,305 / 84,049 = 1.11013 and its reason beside it.
* docs: troubleshooting sections for the wave's new messages
Bun floor (setup, auto-update, /gstack-upgrade), /review stale base and
fingerprint temp-dir errors, the design image model override, the
unrecorded Chromium PID, and a contributor section for census report
lines (pass-rates flags, failure causes, headroom, cost unknown, overlay
v4, stale corpora, auq substance). A free test checks every
troubleshooting.md#anchor printed by setup or bin scripts exists.
* TODOS: reliability follow-ups deferrals; close the Bun floor, make-pdf $P and #2709 reap
* 0.4: 'A census went red' guide; docs for causes, session ledger, headroom and new messages
docs/evals/census-red.md walks one red line to a diagnosis: prerequisites, the
report fields, eval:pass-rates --run/--reds/--headroom with expected output,
what unknown/insufficient/unrecorded data means, free replay, and the single
'after a repair' paid run allowed by TESTING_INTERNALS. Linked from
CONTRIBUTING, TESTING_INTERNALS and both census reports.
TESTING_INTERNALS documents the failure_cause glossary (one row per
FAILURE_CAUSES value, diagnostic only under EVAL_POLICY v1), failure_detail,
sessions[], cost_known, the session ledger, the pass-rates views and the 85%
headroom alarm, main-only tracking issues, overlay contract v4, auq-matrix's
3-sample substance panel and the E5/E6 periodic cases. troubleshooting.md
gains #bun-too-old and an anchor per new user-facing message from lanes P, D
and F. README names GSTACK_DESIGN_IMAGE_MODEL. test/census-red-docs.test.ts
pins the glossary to FAILURE_CAUSES, parses every guide command and checks the
links.
* v1.91.20.0: CHANGELOG and version for the reliability follow-ups
* regen: SKILL.md and sections for all hosts, digest, context-budget fixture
bun run gen:skill-docs --host all; goldens and llms.txt re-rendered
unchanged; bun test/helpers/capture-context-budget.ts.
* integrate: register codex-multiblock-live and design-model-smoke (periodic, rule)
* 0.4: census report and eval:pass-rates views link the census-red guide
* test: cookie approval fixture reverses the Bun install-hint pin (E1)
The historical approved cookie-workflow prompt carried BUN_VERSION=1.3.10;
the regenerated install hint now pins 1.4.0, so the fixture's reversal
list gains that edit like the earlier waves' entries.
* test: release floor counts the two new periodic cases (E5, E6)
* fix: /freeze, /guard, /unfreeze and /investigate work on Codex and other env-var hosts
Templates quoted "$HOME/.claude/skills/gstack/...", which the env-var hosts'
rewrites turned into "$HOME/.agents/skills/gstack/..." on Codex (a path a
global install never has; same class on the other hosts), and setup's
runtime roots had no freeze/bin. Quoted runtime paths now use
{{RUNTIME_ROOT}}: $GSTACK_ROOT on env-var hosts (the fence gets the
runtime prelude), the unchanged $HOME path on Claude. _link_runtime_dists
links freeze/bin and the careful/bin helper it sources into every
env-var host's root. Also fixes the same guess in /benchmark-models,
/retro and /diagram. test/env-host-runtime-assets.test.ts fails on the
previous code: no fence guesses a $HOME/<dir>/skills/gstack path, every
$GSTACK_ROOT path a fence uses is in the host's runtime root, and the
installed Codex /freeze and /unfreeze fences run from a fresh shell.
Template-reading tests now read the Claude render or expect the
placeholder (deliberate change).
* CHANGELOG/TODOS: lane W's workflow, cases and guide; the env-var host freeze fix
* E6: a block that reads a SKILL.md is not a missing install
The first live codex-multiblock-live run passed its real check (the /learn
block found the install and printed the seeded learning) but the oracle
flagged a sed of the learn SKILL.md, whose prelude source quotes the
'gstack: no install found (tried $_r)' text. Only an emitted line that
starts with the message and names a real root counts now; free replay
negative added.
* test: qa-only fixture keeps its caller-set 30 s deadline
The qa-only-no-fix fixture tells the model to start the guard with 30 s
(a caller limit), so its deadline assertion's default stays 30 000 ms; the
product's Browser Quick default (180 s) does not apply to it. Reverts the
helper and its test to their base.
* C2: keep PROBE_DIR 'owned' (qa-functional-prompt pins it); qa measured 93,311
* test: paid file count and periodic floor include the two new periodic cases
* test: ship docs freshness pin checks meaning after A1's wording trim
The snapshot still hashes selected release paths (--select narrows them),
generated outputs and docs; the pin now checks that instead of the
pre-trim sentence.
* E3: reap the recorded Chromium only after the daemon has exited
With the PID now recorded (E3), browse stop reaped Chromium while the
daemon was still shutting down; the daemon read that as a crash, exited 1
and left its state file (chromium-profile-isolation's headless stop test
failed 3/3 locally, passes on base). The CLI waits up to 5 s for the daemon
to exit before reaping a survivor.
* regen: qa and qa-only exploratory sections (PROBE_DIR wording)
* B1: batching counter reads a target declared mid-line; replay corpus
GSTA-23's census 37228573062 failed plan-eng-multi-finding-batching with
reviewCount=0 after 975 s although D1-D10 were asked one per finding,
each with its saved decision-ledger record. The report wrote 'Report
destination requested by the user. Review target (fixed): `PLAN.md` ...'
and the counter read target fields only at a line start, so no brief
inherited the plan identity. A target field may now open any sentence of
its line; a mid-sentence mention or another file still gives no identity.
Floor (3), budget and kind unchanged. Corpus: 9 earlier passing censuses,
the red (now credited at D5), and a derived batching refusal; 975 s noted
in the headroom diagnosis.
* B1: shared-libs corpus labels its git path and covers the supported shape
Every census entry was recorded in CI's eval image (git 2.43), where
gstack-safe-git falls back because --no-lazy-fetch is rejected; each entry
now says so (git_path: fallback). Two synthetic supported-path entries
(HEAD and a history citation in the brief, as git >= 2.44 produces) keep
the 37193478719 pass and the 37195203538 refusal, and a test asserts both
shapes are covered and the actor reads no git-path-specific text.
* v1.91.21.0: move off v1.91.20.0 (claimed by #3031)
* test: settle nav-guard commands before asserting; make two new tests Windows-safe
navigation-guard: Bun's expect(promise).rejects slows each Playwright round-trip
to ~1s while it waits (50 page.evaluate: 43ms plain vs 46.6s inside the matcher),
so the click's 5s timeout expired before the guard saw the link-local request
(CI: 'click: Timeout 5000ms exceeded ... waiting for scheduled navigations').
Settle the command first, then assert on the refusal; a source check keeps it so.
env-host-runtime-assets: PROBE_FILES now matches either path separator.
detector-corpus ship-docsync-late-result: JSON-escape the <ROOT> substitution so a
Windows temp path's backslashes do not break JSON.parse.
* fix: CI run/job ids are not phone numbers; context-recovery fixture gets the full runtime bin
pii.phone.e164 redacted the run id in the published eval report's fetch command
(--run 37235771700), breaking the command it prints. Digit-only spans in a run/job
flag, gh run argument, actions/runs/ or /job/ URL segment, or run_id/job_id key are
now exempt; the same digits elsewhere still report.
context-recovery-artifacts: the fixture's ./bin/ lacked gstack-skill-start and
gstack-context-recovery (the preamble's runtime scripts since v1.71), so the agent
spent its 10 turns hunting for them and hit error_max_turns with no final message
(run 37235771700, 11 turns). Link the whole runtime bin; diagnostic rerun passed
in 6 turns.
* test: replay run 37237194905's late-result capture through the docs authority detector
The only failure was call 20's write to a mistyped shard root (3GanyY for 3GanyU),
which the model disclosed; the detector is correct and the A1 post-snapshot
--out under the fixture home stays permitted. Named red recorded in TODOS.
* test: keep docsync-authority in the Windows profile
The replay test's literal helper path tripped the Windows curator's shebang-spawn
pattern, dropping the whole file from the Windows profile (test-free-shards
invariant). The snapshot --out case is already covered by docsync-command-grammar,
so it is removed here, and the Linux-path replay skips on win32.
* fix: gstack-docs-candidate --help works; docs gate red lines name the denying tool failure
PR run 37239016858 ship-docsync-completion: the parent ran
'gstack-docs-candidate --help' (the helper's usage error points at --help, which
failed). That undeclared command made docsToolFailures non-empty, which denied
the atomic-replacement proof of the child's legitimate native Edit, so the red
line blamed the Edit's temp file. A replay of the capture proves the atomic
replace once --help is declared.
- the helper prints its usage for --help/-h and exits 0
- the fixture interface and command grammar admit the helper's bare --help
- the atomic-proof denial names its check and the tool failures behind it
(deny labels renumbered to their lines)
- replay with negative controls (undeclared command, temp left behind, renamed
elsewhere); diagnostic rerun of ship-docsync-completion passed
* test: retro-base-branch fixture uses main and a shallow report path
PR run 37241493377: the agent wrote retro-output.md one directory above the
requested <tmp>/retro-base/retro-output.md (it dropped the retro-base segment),
so the report check found nothing. The fixture also ran plain git init, which
makes master on CI's git while the prompt says the repo is on main; the agent
logged that mismatch as a learning. Init on main and use the temp dir itself as
the repo. Diagnostic rerun passed (18 turns, 203s).
* test: qa-quick sets a caller probe limit and drains past its session budget
C2 raised Browser Quick's native budget to 180 s. qa-quick is the only gate case
on the native budget, and its wall went 194 s (main periodic, pre-C2) -> 254 s and
274 s (this PR's runs) -> 300 s session timeout (run 37242691913): the agent now
probes every navigation target with a checkpoint, then needs ~80 s to report.
Like qa-only-no-fix, the eval now sets a caller probe limit (30 s), scopes the
fixture, and gives bun's outer timeout the session drain margin instead of racing
the 300 s session. The product's 180 s budget and the session budget are unchanged.
Diagnostic rerun passed in 195 s.
* review/ship: use main's post-expiry smoke sentence; v1.91.24.0
GSTA-23's measurement on the review workflow judge: main's 'Post-expiry smoke
rechecks are not-run.' passed 10/10; the C2 wording passed 6/10 and the
'..., even in 4c.' variant failed in PR run 37248650879. qa-probe-gates pins
main's sentence before step 4c.
* test: record the plan-design corpus test in the test-of-test baseline
#3031's ratchet now counts tests that slice a paid test file's source; the B1
plan-design-review-plan-mode replay corpus reads test/skill-e2e-design.test.ts
like its sibling corpora already listed.
* fix: --case no longer deadlocks importing the running CLI
runCaseDiagnosis loaded runPaidShards with a dynamic import of
scripts/test-paid-shards.ts; when that file is the entry it is still in its
top-level await, so the import never resolved and `--case` hung after its
first line (on main since #3031, found by the per-case measurement runs). The
CLI now passes its runner in; library callers keep the lazy import.
* test: name the in-flight file and the native error when bun dies before its summary (#3037)
* Bun 1.4.2 everywhere CI and setup pin the tested version
Bun 1.4.0 on Windows aborts about 3% of free-suite shards with native
bad-handle errors (main too; #3037); the same head on 1.4.2 had none in 180
shard runs. Every current 1.4.0 pin moves together, as bun-version-drift
requires: setup-bun in every workflow (CSO orchestration included), the eval
image (sha256 from bun-v1.4.2's SHASUMS256.txt, re-hashed locally), GitLab,
the Ubicloud free-suite setup, gstack-bun-version.sh's tested version,
engines.bun and @types/bun, the install hint in generated skills, the Dia and
cookie native-qualification pins, and docs and tests that state the current
pin. Recorded 1.4.0 observations, fixtures, CHANGELOG history and the CSO
images' oven/bun:1.3.10 base stay.
* fix: --case runs a single-case file whole
A session option naming the case (testName: 'office-hours-section-loading')
made caseSelection pick test-name mode, whose filter matched no Bun test, so
every trial would run hollow. A file that registers only this case now runs
whole before any name match is tried.
* fix(office-hours): reviewer returns a hash-bound receipt instead of echoing its verdict
The spec reviewer now Writes its verdict once, seals it with
gstack-office-hours-review seal (validates the saved JSON and prints
OFFICE_HOURS_VERDICT round=N sha256=<hash> path=<verdict>), and returns
only that line. check --receipt recomputes the hash and fails closed on a
missing, malformed, stale-round, wrong-path or mismatched receipt. The
saved file stays the sole findings inventory; validators bind the receipt
to the saved bytes and the judge reads those bytes.
* fix(office-hours): only blocking findings send a design back for another review round
Review findings carry severity blocking|minor (verdict schema v2). PASS when
no blocking findings remain; minor findings are recorded in Reviewer
Concerns and the Spec Review table, never a reason for another round.
CONVERGENCE needs a persisting blocking prior. A persisting or unverified
blocking prior cannot be relabeled minor. The 3-round cap is unchanged.
* fix(office-hours): rounds 2 and 3 are delta re-reviews of the captured design diff
prepare saves each reviewed design as round-N.design.md and gives later
reviewers the exact line diff since the previous round. A new later-round
blocking finding must cite (changed_text) an excerpt of a changed line;
seal, check and the validators verify it against the snapshots and fail
closed when a citation or snapshot is missing. Other new observations are
minor. Severity, anti-downgrade and CONVERGENCE rules are unchanged.
* test(office-hours): preservation judge accepts COMPLETED with recorded minor findings
* fix(office-hours): parent fixes only blocking findings; callers may set --max-rounds
Between rounds the parent edits for blocking findings only; minor findings
stay recorded. gstack-office-hours-review takes --max-rounds 1|2|3 (default
3) on every command; reaching it stops at MAX_ITERATIONS. The marathon
fixture sets 2 rounds so round 1 (full) and round 2 (delta) run live.
* docs(changelog): office-hours review loop changes in v1.91.28.0
* fix(cso): helper JSON keeps run URLs only in the validated workflow slot
The shared redactor now treats GitHub Actions run ids as CI metadata
(c245d1bc2), so main's #3041 invariant that the same run digits stay
redacted outside qualification.workflow held only through the phone
false positive. Make it explicit in the CSO sanitizer.
* test(plan-ceo): split-overflow progress detector accepts the skill's candidate wording
Collection never ended when the model wrote 'E1 Slack:' / 'E1-SLACK:' or
labels like 'Include in this quarter' / 'Defer with flip trigger', so the
session ran the whole review (930-1464 s) and failed on its extra findings
or the case deadline (6 of 21 runs). The candidate check now accepts a
platform-bound E-id and the action is the bucket's leading verb, as the
skill names them (Include/Defer/Cut/Hold). The semantic judge, call floor
and include/defer/cut validation are unchanged. Replays the captured CI
37374526437, t2, t9 and t15 menus with negative controls.
* test(plan-ceo): split-overflow candidate identity is the one E1-E5 token
The skill fixes no header or question wording, and shape-matching kept
missing new forms (header 'D1.1 Slack' with 'SCOPE-E1:', 'D1.1 E1 Slack',
'E1 Slack DM bot ...:', a misspelled 'Mattermst'). Identity is now exactly
one E1-E5 token across the header and the question's first line, with no
other candidate's platform named. Options rules, judge, call floor and
include/defer/cut validation are unchanged. Replays all 31 measured runs;
the quoted-row controls now quote a second ledger id.
* v1.91.30.0: move past #3044's claimed 1.91.29.0
* test: register the split-overflow wording replay as a free fixture
* fix(skills): resolve judge-cited ambiguities in /qa and /plan-eng-review
- tasks JSONL keeps the raw branch as GIT_BRANCH instead of overwriting
gstack-slug's sanitized BRANCH used for artifact names
- the Codex outside-voice block runs for ready or unverified, matching
its routing rule
- plan-eng startup names the preamble's own setup prompts; the
cross-project question waits for Step 0
- /qa 8c: a fix that applies but leaves the finding reproducing gets one
revised fix, else it is reverted; browser verification names its before
screenshot; the exploratory loop drops its duplicate 3-step summary
* fix(plan-eng): keep the startup steps in their pinned order
* fix(plan-eng): explicit spawned sessions follow the spawned rule at the scope gate; one announcement rule
A missing tool still sends the prose menu whatever the session type, but a
session the caller or host explicitly marks spawned selects the menu's
Recommendation without prose or BLOCKED. The pre-load announcement
sentence now states Step 0's single check.
* eval policy v3: judge panels gate on the per-dimension median of 3 samples
A judge dimension now passes when at least 2 of its 3 samples meet the
unchanged threshold (judgePanelMedian); any other sample count or a
non-numeric sample fails closed. Thresholds, sample count, judge model and
prompts are unchanged; panel logs show every sample and the mean, and name
the median as the gate. Applies to the skill-llm-eval panels, the
workflow-judge cache, the auq-matrix substance panel and the calibration
replicas. EVAL_POLICY 2 -> 3 and HARNESS_VERSION 1 -> 2 (verdicts change),
so every case starts a new pass-rate series. Replays the captured panels
from jobs 112032744416 and 112049856586 as replayed evidence.
gstack
"I don't think I've typed like a line of code probably since December, basically, which is an extremely large change." — Andrej Karpathy, No Priors podcast, March 2026
When I heard Karpathy say this, I wanted to find out how. How does one person ship like a team of twenty? Peter Steinberger built OpenClaw — 247K GitHub stars — essentially solo with AI agents. The revolution is here. A single builder with the right tooling can move faster than a traditional team.
I'm Garry Tan, President & CEO of Y Combinator. I've worked with thousands of startups — Coinbase, Instacart, Rippling — when they were one or two people in a garage. Before YC, I was one of the first eng/PM/designers at Palantir, cofounded Posterous (sold to Twitter), and built Bookface, YC's internal social network.
gstack is my answer. I've been building products for twenty years, and right now I'm shipping more products than I ever have. In the last 60 days: 3 production services, 40+ shipped features, part-time, while running YC full-time. On logical code change — not raw LOC, which AI inflates — my 2026 run rate is ~810× my 2013 pace (11,417 vs 14 logical lines/day). Year-to-date (through April 18), 2026 has already produced 240× the entire 2013 year. Measured across 40 public + private garrytan/* repos including Bookface, after excluding one demo repo. AI wrote most of it. The point isn't who typed it, it's what shipped.
The LOC critics aren't wrong that raw line counts inflate with AI. They are wrong that normalized-for-inflation, I'm less productive. I'm more productive, by a lot. Full methodology, caveats, and reproduction script: On the LOC Controversy.
2026 — 1,237 contributions and counting:
2013 — when I built Bookface at YC (772 contributions):
Same person. Different era. The difference is the tooling.
gstack is how I do it. It turns Claude Code into a virtual engineering team — a CEO who rethinks the product, an eng manager who locks architecture, a designer who catches AI slop, a reviewer who finds production bugs, a QA lead who opens a real browser, a security officer who runs OWASP + STRIDE audits, and a release engineer who ships the PR. Twenty-three specialists and eight power tools, all slash commands, all Markdown, all free, MIT license.
This is my open source software factory. I use it every day. I'm sharing it because these tools should be available to everyone.
Fork it. Improve it. Make it yours. And if you want to hate on free open source software — you're welcome to, but I'd rather you just try it first.
Who this is for:
- Founders and CEOs — especially technical ones who still want to ship
- First-time Claude Code users — structured roles instead of a blank prompt
- Tech leads and staff engineers — rigorous review, QA, and release automation on every PR
Quick start
- Install gstack (about 30 seconds of setup — see below)
- Run
/office-hours— describe what you're building - Run
/plan-ceo-reviewon any feature idea - Run
/reviewon any branch with changes - Run
/qaon your staging URL or an isolated local API, CLI, job or webhook - Stop there. You'll know if this is for you.
Install — about 30 seconds
./setup took 31 seconds after the clone on a 4-vCPU Linux cloud machine (v1.91.13.0, clean HOME, including the binary build and the Chromium download). Slower networks and laptops take longer.
Requirements: Claude Code, Git, Bun v1.4.2+ (the tested version; setup refuses Bun older than 1.3.3, which would let compiled tools read a project's .env, and warns in between), Node.js (Windows only). Recommended on macOS: the Aside browser (macOS 15+) — browser skills, /make-pdf, and /diagram drive it first, with your real logged-in sessions. Without it, ./setup builds gstack's own bundled browser and the same skills use that. /cso additionally needs a Bun release with all four --no-compile-autoload-* build flags plus a native toolchain: a static-capable C compiler on Linux, Xcode command-line tools on macOS, or Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools with Desktop development with C++ on Windows. If those are absent, setup installs everything else, removes stale CSO helpers, and /cso reports not assessed with the prerequisite.
When qualified CSO runtime images are published, setup gives each automatic preload a 30-second window plus a bounded setup allowance for the declared catalog. For slower registries, set an integer such as GSTACK_CSO_IMAGE_PULL_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=120 (accepted range: 5–300 seconds). One image timing out does not consume the remaining images' windows; setup reports partial progress and a later run resumes from exact digests already present in local Docker. The complete preload is capped at one hour.
Step 1: Install on your machine
Open Claude Code and paste this. Claude does the rest.
Install gstack: run
git clone --single-branch --depth 1 https://github.com/garrytan/gstack.git ~/.claude/skills/gstack && cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setupthen add a "gstack" section to CLAUDE.md that says to use the /browse skill from gstack for all web browsing, never use mcp__claude-in-chrome__* tools, and lists the available skills: /office-hours, /plan-ceo-review, /plan-eng-review, /plan-design-review, /design-consultation, /design-shotgun, /design-html, /review, /deslop-shared-libs, /test-audit, /ship, /land-and-deploy, /canary, /benchmark, /browse, /connect-chrome, /qa, /qa-only, /design-review, /scrape, /setup-browser-cookies, /setup-deploy, /setup-gbrain, /retro, /investigate, /document-release, /document-generate, /codex, /cso, /autoplan, /plan-devex-review, /devex-review, /careful, /freeze, /guard, /unfreeze, /gstack-upgrade, /learn. Then ask the user if they also want to add gstack to the current project so teammates get it.
Step 2: Team mode — auto-update for shared repos (recommended)
From inside your repo, paste this. Switches you to team mode, bootstraps the repo so teammates get gstack automatically, and commits the change:
(cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setup --team) && ~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-team-init required && git add .claude/ CLAUDE.md && git commit -m "require gstack for AI-assisted work"
No vendored files in your repo, no version drift, no manual upgrades. Every Claude Code session starts with a fast auto-update check (throttled to once/hour, network-failure-safe, completely silent).
Swap required for optional if you'd rather nudge teammates than block them.
OpenClaw
OpenClaw spawns Claude Code sessions via ACP, so every gstack skill just works when Claude Code has gstack installed. Paste this to your OpenClaw agent:
Install gstack: run
git clone --single-branch --depth 1 https://github.com/garrytan/gstack.git ~/.claude/skills/gstack && cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setupto install gstack for Claude Code. Then add a "Coding Tasks" section to AGENTS.md that says: when spawning Claude Code sessions for coding work, tell the session to use gstack skills. Include these examples — security audit: "Load gstack. Run /cso", code review: "Load gstack. Run /review", QA test a URL: "Load gstack. Run /qa https://...", build a feature end-to-end: "Load gstack. Run /autoplan, implement the plan, then run /ship", plan before building: "Load gstack. Run /office-hours then /autoplan. Save the plan, don't implement."
After setup, just talk to your OpenClaw agent naturally:
| You say | What happens |
|---|---|
| "Fix the typo in README" | Simple — Claude Code session, no gstack needed |
| "Run a security audit on this repo" | Spawns Claude Code with Run /cso |
| "Build me a notifications feature" | Spawns Claude Code with /autoplan → implement → /ship |
| "Help me plan the v2 API redesign" | Spawns Claude Code with /office-hours → /autoplan, saves plan |
See docs/OPENCLAW.md for advanced dispatch routing and the gstack-lite/gstack-full prompt templates.
Native OpenClaw Skills (via ClawHub)
Four methodology skills that work directly in your OpenClaw agent, no Claude Code session needed. Install from ClawHub:
clawhub install gstack-openclaw-office-hours gstack-openclaw-ceo-review gstack-openclaw-investigate gstack-openclaw-retro
| Skill | What it does |
|---|---|
gstack-openclaw-office-hours |
Product interrogation with 6 forcing questions |
gstack-openclaw-ceo-review |
Strategic challenge with 4 scope modes |
gstack-openclaw-investigate |
Root cause debugging methodology |
gstack-openclaw-retro |
Weekly engineering retrospective |
These are conversational skills. Your OpenClaw agent runs them directly via chat.
Other AI Agents
gstack runs on more agents than Claude. Bare ./setup installs for Claude
Code only. Pick another agent with --host <name>, or install for every agent
setup detects on this machine with --host auto:
git clone --single-branch --depth 1 https://github.com/garrytan/gstack.git ~/gstack
cd ~/gstack && ./setup --host auto # or: ./setup --host codex
./setup --status # one row per install: host, tier, scope, version, path
An explicit --host X installs for X only and never changes another agent's
install. /gstack-upgrade refreshes every install it registered, one row per
host, and says which ones failed.
Tiers: full is certified by a real workflow run (see Certify your host); experimental installs and passes the conformance tests but has no certification run yet; instruction-only installs nothing: setup prints what to copy.
| Agent | Tier | Install | First invocation | Safety skills | Outside review needs | Repair |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | full | --host claude (default) |
/office-hours |
enforced (hooks block) | Codex CLI, signed in | ./setup --host claude |
| OpenAI Codex CLI | experimental | --host codex → ${CODEX_HOME:-~/.codex}/skills/gstack-*/ |
ask for gstack-office-hours |
advisory, not blocked | Claude Code CLI, signed in | ./setup --host codex |
| OpenCode | experimental | --host opencode → ~/.config/opencode/skills/gstack-*/ + /gstack-* commands |
/gstack-office-hours |
advisory, not blocked | Codex CLI, signed in | ./setup --host opencode |
| Cursor | experimental | --host cursor → ~/.cursor/skills/gstack-*/ |
ask for gstack-office-hours |
advisory, not blocked | Codex CLI, signed in | ./setup --host cursor |
| Factory Droid | experimental | --host factory → ~/.factory/skills/gstack-*/ |
ask for gstack-office-hours |
advisory, not blocked | Codex CLI, signed in | ./setup --host factory |
| Kiro | experimental | --host kiro → ~/.kiro/skills/gstack-*/ |
ask for gstack-office-hours |
advisory, not blocked | Codex CLI, signed in | ./setup --host kiro |
| GitHub Copilot CLI | experimental | --host copilot → ~/.copilot/skills/gstack-*/ |
/gstack-office-hours |
advisory, not blocked | Codex CLI, signed in | ./setup --host copilot |
| Slate | instruction-only | --host slate (points at the Claude install; Slate reads .claude/skills) |
/office-hours via the Claude install |
advisory, not blocked | — | ./setup --host claude |
| OpenClaw | instruction-only | --host openclaw (prints the digest path; ACP spawns Claude Code — docs/OPENCLAW.md) |
"Load gstack. Run /review" | advisory, not blocked | — | re-copy the digest after upgrades |
| Hermes | instruction-only | --host hermes (prints the digest path and gen:skill-docs --host hermes) |
copy the digest, or render skills yourself | advisory, not blocked | — | re-copy the digest after upgrades |
| GBrain (mod) | instruction-only | --host gbrain (brain-aware variants ship from the GBrain repo) |
— | advisory, not blocked | — | — |
Copilot invokes gstack skills by their prefixed names (/gstack-review) because
/review is a Copilot built-in. Copilot ignores skill hooks, so /careful and
/freeze only advise there, and COPILOT_HOME other than ~/.copilot is not
supported yet (setup refuses and changes nothing).
Outside reviews require the selected CLI to be installed and authenticated: Claude Code when using gstack in Codex, or Codex on other harnesses. External harnesses discover these commands as /gstack-claude-code and /gstack-codex; each harness omits its own wrapper. Explicit provider requests keep that provider. The existing codex_reviews setting controls automatic outside reviews where supported, regardless of the provider selected.
/claude has been renamed to /claude-code. Re-run ./setup --host <name> to migrate managed installations, including other harnesses sharing the checkout. Setup preserves the previous installation if replacement generation or installation fails and prints repair instructions.
Instruction-only tier (any rules-reading agent — Zed, Amp, Jules, side projects):
copy the 2KB digest at agents-digest/gstack-AGENTS.md
into a location your agent reads (for example, append it to your project's AGENTS.md).
It carries gstack's ethos, reuse ladder, and voice rules — no install required. The
digest's first line shows its gstack version; re-copy it after upgrading.
For Codex, setup reads the top-level model from
${CODEX_HOME:-~/.codex}/config.toml and generates the matching behavioral
profile, falling back to gpt-6-astra when no usable model is configured.
gpt-5.6-sol automatically receives bounded-scope instructions that
finish the requested lake without expanding into adjacent cleanup or speculative
hardening. The Sol profile is exact-match only: dated snapshots and other 5.6
variants get the generic GPT profile, and setup warns on near-misses like
gpt-5.6-sol-2026-08-01. Override detection with ./setup --host codex --model <id> — the
override applies to that run only; set model in your Codex config.toml to
make it stick across upgrades. After changing your Codex model, rerun
./setup --host codex to regenerate the skills.
Which Codex model gstack uses. For every Codex call (outside voices,
/codex, review and ship adversarial passes), gstack picks the model in this
order: a model you name for that request, then GSTACK_CODEX_MODEL, then
model in your Codex config.toml (for native codex review, review_model
first; a custom CODEX_HOME is honored), and only then gstack's default,
gpt-6-astra. Before spending anything, it prints the choice and where it came
from, for example CODEX_MODEL: gpt-5.6-terra (exec; source: ~/.codex/config.toml model).
If your choice is invalid or your account cannot use it, gstack stops with a
repair message and reports the outside review as unavailable. It never silently
switches to its default. Nested Codex reviews also run with installed skills
hidden (-c skills.include_instructions=false), so a review cannot turn into a
whole nested skill run. Runtime model selection is separate from the setup-time
behavioral profile above. /claude-code (gstack-claude-code
on Codex) preserves Claude's configured model. Set GSTACK_CLAUDE_MODEL=<model>
or name a model in your request to override it for the invocation, including
resumed consultations. See eval defaults and overrides
for capture, judge, and benchmark model selection.
The design binary ($D) uses OpenAI's gpt-5.5 by default, with image
generation through gpt-image-2. Set GSTACK_DESIGN_MODEL=<model> to use
another gpt-5-class model for both image generation and screenshot analysis;
if OpenAI rejects it, the error names GSTACK_DESIGN_MODEL. Set
GSTACK_DESIGN_IMAGE_MODEL=<gpt-image model> to change the image tool model; a
value that is not a gpt-image model name is refused before any request. Check a
key against the defaults with bun run design/scripts/live-model-check.ts,
which always tests the default models and ignores both overrides; the weekly
periodic census runs the same check.
Want to add support for another agent? See docs/ADDING_A_HOST.md. Rendering a new agent is one TypeScript config file; installing it also needs a setup arm and the conformance kit, and it starts as experimental.
See it work
You: I want to build a daily briefing app for my calendar.
You: /office-hours
Claude: [asks about the pain — specific examples, not hypotheticals]
You: Multiple Google calendars, events with stale info, wrong locations.
Prep takes forever and the results aren't good enough...
Claude: I'm going to push back on the framing. You said "daily briefing
app." But what you actually described is a personal chief of
staff AI.
[extracts 5 capabilities you didn't realize you were describing]
[challenges 4 premises — you agree, disagree, or adjust]
[generates 3 implementation approaches with effort estimates]
RECOMMENDATION: Ship the narrowest wedge tomorrow, learn from
real usage. The full vision is a 3-month project — start with
the daily briefing that actually works.
[writes design doc → feeds into downstream skills automatically]
You: /plan-ceo-review
[reads the design doc, challenges scope, runs 10-section review]
You: /plan-eng-review
[ASCII diagrams for data flow, state machines, error paths]
[test matrix, failure modes, security concerns]
You: Approve plan. Exit plan mode.
[writes 2,400 lines across 11 files. ~8 minutes.]
You: /review
[AUTO-FIXED] 2 issues. [ASK] Race condition → you approve fix.
You: /qa https://staging.myapp.com
[opens real browser, clicks through flows, finds and fixes a bug]
You: /ship
Tests: 42 → 51 (+9 new). PR: github.com/you/app/pull/42
You said "daily briefing app." The agent said "you're building a chief of staff AI" — because it listened to your pain, not your feature request. Eight commands, end to end. That is not a copilot. That is a team.
The sprint
gstack is a process, not a collection of tools. The skills run in the order a sprint runs:
Think → Plan → Build → Review → Test → Ship → Reflect
Each skill feeds into the next. /office-hours writes a design doc that /plan-ceo-review reads. /plan-eng-review writes a test plan that /qa picks up. /review catches bugs that /ship verifies are fixed. Nothing falls through the cracks because every step knows what came before it.
| Skill | Your specialist | What they do |
|---|---|---|
/office-hours |
YC Office Hours | Start here. Six forcing questions that reframe your product before you write code. Pushes back on your framing, challenges premises, generates implementation alternatives. Design doc feeds into every downstream skill. |
/plan-ceo-review |
CEO / Founder | Rethink the problem. Find the 10-star product hiding inside the request. Four modes: Expansion, Selective Expansion, Hold Scope, Reduction. |
/plan-eng-review |
Eng Manager | Lock in architecture, data flow, diagrams, edge cases, and tests. Forces hidden assumptions into the open. |
/plan-design-review |
Senior Designer | Rates each design dimension 0-10, explains what a 10 looks like, then edits the plan to get there. AI Slop detection. Interactive — one AskUserQuestion per design choice. |
/plan-devex-review |
Developer Experience Lead | Interactive DX review: explores developer personas, benchmarks against competitors' TTHW, designs your magical moment, traces friction points step by step. Three modes: DX EXPANSION, DX POLISH, DX TRIAGE. 20-45 forcing questions. |
/design-consultation |
Design Partner | Build a complete design system from scratch. Researches the landscape, proposes creative risks, generates realistic product mockups. Writes DESIGN.md in the open DESIGN.md format, so impeccable, Google Stitch, and any tool that reads it share one file. |
/review |
Staff Engineer | Find the bugs that pass CI but blow up in production. Auto-fixes the obvious ones. Flags completeness gaps. Advisory simplification lens flags over-built code — never blocks, never auto-applies. |
/deslop-shared-libs |
Shared Code Reviewer | Find worthwhile shared-code extractions in recent work. Compares up to five opportunities and recommends the best three, with source evidence, reliability gains, and total code savings. Recommendations only. |
/test-audit |
Test Auditor | Sweep existing tests for ones that cost more than they protect: source greps, duplicates, assertion-free probes, test-only exports. Every candidate carries an evidence card; report-only unless you approve a batch. |
/investigate |
Debugger | Systematic root-cause debugging. Iron Law: no fixes without investigation. Traces data flow, tests hypotheses, stops after 3 failed fixes. |
/design-review |
Designer Who Codes | Same audit as /plan-design-review, then fixes what it finds. Atomic commits, before/after screenshots. If you have impeccable installed, its engine runs first and every mechanical finding arrives tagged with its rule id. |
/devex-review |
DX Tester | Live developer experience audit. Actually tests your onboarding: navigates docs, tries the getting started flow, times TTHW, screenshots errors. Compares against /plan-devex-review scores — the boomerang that shows if your plan matched reality. |
/design-shotgun |
Design Explorer | "Show me options." Generates 4-6 AI mockup variants, opens a comparison board in your browser, collects your feedback, and iterates. Taste memory learns what you like. Repeat until you love something, then hand it to /design-html. |
/design-html |
Design Engineer | Turn a mockup into production HTML that actually works. Pretext computed layout: text reflows, heights adjust, layouts are dynamic. 30KB, zero deps. Detects React/Svelte/Vue. Smart API routing per design type (landing page vs dashboard vs form). One slop-gate pass through the impeccable engine when you have it. The output is shippable, not a demo. |
/qa |
QA Lead | Explore browser, API, CLI, job and webhook behavior. Reproduce bugs, write failing regressions, fix the cause and re-verify before committing. |
/qa-only |
QA Reporter | Explore and report with replayable evidence. Suggest regression cases without changing product code or tests. |
/pair-agent |
Multi-Agent Coordinator | Share gstack's own browser with any AI agent. One command, one paste, connected. Works with OpenClaw, Hermes, Codex, Cursor, or anything that can curl. Each agent gets its own tab. Auto-launches headed mode so you watch everything. Auto-starts ngrok tunnel for remote agents. Scoped tokens, tab isolation, rate limiting, activity attribution. (Runs on the bundled browser — the fallback engine; agents driving Aside just open their own tabs.) |
/cso |
Chief Security Officer | Security audit with an application model, supported findings, independent challenge, and explicit coverage. Static assessment remains available without catalog profiles. With matching qualified profiles, comprehensive mode adds contained runtime/scanner execution and reviewable repair candidates for Node/Bun, Python, and Rails; no qualified runtime or scanner profile is published yet, so audits run static assessment only. Runtime-tested bundles authenticate separate external assertions. Project-test completion remains self_reported because target code controls the test process; tested is reserved for a future target-independent completion witness. |
/ship |
Release Engineer | Sync main, run tests, explore changed behavior, audit coverage and docs, then verify, push and open a PR. |
/land-and-deploy |
Release Engineer | Merge the PR, wait for CI and deploy, verify production health. One command from "approved" to "verified in production." |
/canary |
SRE | Post-deploy monitoring loop. Watches for console errors, performance regressions, and page failures. |
/benchmark |
Performance Engineer | Baseline page load times, Core Web Vitals, and resource sizes. Compare before/after on every PR. |
/document-release |
Technical Writer | Audit changed behavior against project docs on every ship, before final verification and publication. Also runs standalone. Shows updated, reviewed/current or blocked docs and any remaining gaps. |
/document-generate |
Documentation Author | Generate missing docs from scratch using the Diataxis framework. Researches the codebase first, then writes reference / how-to / tutorial / explanation docs that actually match the code. Invokable standalone or chained from /document-release when the coverage map finds gaps. Learn more: tutorial • how-to • why Diataxis. |
/retro |
Eng Manager | Team-aware weekly retro. Per-person breakdowns, shipping streaks, test health trends, growth opportunities. /retro global runs across all your projects and AI tools (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini). |
/browse |
QA Engineer | Give the agent eyes. Drives your Aside browser first — your real sessions, real clicks, real screenshots — through deterministic aside repl scripts. No Aside? It falls back to gstack's own Chromium: real clicks, ~100ms per command, and /open-gstack-browser shows it headed with sidebar, anti-bot stealth, and auto model routing. Every other browser skill stands on it. |
/scrape |
Data Extractor | Pull structured data off a web page — tables, lists, prices — in your Aside browser with the page's real logged-in state. On the fallback browser, /skillify turns the flow into a permanent browser-skill that runs in ~200ms next time. |
/setup-browser-cookies |
Session Manager | Copy selected cookies from Chrome, Chromium, Brave, Edge, Windows-only Opera and Opera GX, or macOS-only Comet, Arc, and Dia into gstack's bundled browser. Choose your profile and domains; copying and sign-in verification are separate. Only needed on the fallback path — Aside already has your sessions. |
/autoplan |
Review Pipeline | One command, fully reviewed plan. Runs CEO → design → DX → eng review automatically (eng always last, so the shipping gate reviews the final amended plan) with encoded decision principles. Surfaces only taste decisions for your approval. |
/spec |
Spec Author | Turn vague intent into a precise, executable spec in five phases (why, scope, technical with mandatory code-reading, draft, file). Outside-review quality gate before filing (Claude Code on Codex; Codex on other harnesses; blocks below 7/10), fail-closed secret redaction, dedupe against existing issues, archive to $GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG/specs/ for team-corpus recall. --execute spawns claude -p in a fresh worktree; /ship auto-closes the source issue on merge. Plan-mode aware. |
/learn |
Memory | Manage what gstack learned across sessions. Review, search, prune, and export project-specific patterns, pitfalls, and preferences. Learnings compound across sessions so gstack gets smarter on your codebase over time. |
/make-pdf |
Publisher | Markdown in, publication-quality document out. Mermaid and excalidraw fences render as vector diagrams, fully offline. Images scale to the page and never truncate; wide diagrams get their own landscape page. --to html emits one self-contained file, --to docx a Word doc. |
/diagram |
Diagram Maker | English in, editable diagram out. Emits a triplet: mermaid source, .excalidraw you can open and edit on excalidraw.com (hand-drawn style), and rendered SVG/PNG. Zero network. Embed the source in markdown and /make-pdf renders it. |
QA without a webpage
Use the same commands for browser and non-browser software. Start in a repository with its documented native command and an isolated local fixture; name the target and the behavior you want checked. For example:
/qa-only Test this repo's CLI using its documented local fixture. Check valid and invalid input, exit codes, stdout/stderr, and cancellation. Report only; do not change code or tests. For each finding, include the exact command, expected and actual results, and which checks remain untested. Keep requests inside the fixture; ask before contacting an external service.
/qa Test this repo's local webhook and worker fixture. Explore duplicate deliveries and recovery after a partial failure. Keep all effects inside the fixture; preserve reproduced bugs in native regression tests before repairing them.
QA first tells you which surface, tools and write permissions it will use. A CLI or API does not need a browser. Browser targets keep real browser testing; developer experience audits load only when onboarding, installation or ergonomics are in scope. If the native tools or safe fixture are unavailable, the report names the blocker and untested contracts instead of inventing a pass or installing another framework.
Exploration means learning from each result and choosing the next useful challenge,
not running random commands. Before the next discovery probe, QA saves a short
exploration-NNN.json evidence note with the previous result, the assumption being
tested and the next command. The final report links these notes; they do not require
an extra chat message between probes. A discovered bug must be reproducible, and its new test
must fail for the bug before the repair and pass afterward. Unit tests protect logic;
integration and end-to-end tests protect real boundaries that mocks would hide.
/qa-only proposes those tests without writing them.
Normal /review and /ship run a bounded version on changed behavior and nearby
risks automatically, including small diffs without a plan or web server. Existing
fix/test approval rules still apply. Missing dependencies, denied actions and time
limits remain visible coverage gaps; a short smoke pass never means exhaustive QA.
Production access and destructive or external effects require specific permission.
Bounded exploration uses an executable deadline guard, not an estimated clock: it refuses late probes and stops owned foreground work at the limit. Unfinished checks stay visible in the report. Required plan checks remain outside the review/ship smoke budget. See QA deadlines for command, platform and cleanup limits.
Every ship also runs the existing documentation audit, including repeat ships and existing PR updates. Clear factual corrections join the final checked change; risky rewrites need approval. A failed audit stops for recovery or explicit acceptance of the named risk rather than silently dropping its result. Ship owns versioning, Git and PR publication; the docs helper does not commit or push independently.
Which review should I use?
| Building for... | Plan stage (before code) | Live audit (after shipping) |
|---|---|---|
| End users (UI, web app, mobile) | /plan-design-review |
/design-review |
| Developers (API, CLI, SDK, docs) | /plan-devex-review |
/devex-review |
| Architecture (data flow, perf, tests) | /plan-eng-review |
/review |
| All of the above | /autoplan (runs CEO → design → DX → eng, auto-detects which apply; eng always last) |
— |
Power tools
| Skill | What it does |
|---|---|
/codex |
Second Opinion — independent code review from OpenAI Codex CLI. Review, challenge, and consult modes. Available on every harness except Codex. |
/claude-code |
Second Opinion — independent code review from Claude Code. Review, challenge, and consult modes, with session continuity for consultation. Available on every harness except Claude Code. |
/careful |
Safety Guardrails — warns before destructive commands (rm -rf, DROP TABLE, force-push). Say "be careful" to activate. Override any MEDIUM warning; root/home recursive deletes and default-branch force-pushes are hard-denied. |
/freeze |
Edit Lock — restrict file edits to one directory. Prevents accidental changes outside scope while debugging. |
/guard |
Full Safety — /careful + /freeze in one command. Maximum safety for prod work. |
/unfreeze |
Unlock — remove the /freeze boundary. |
/open-gstack-browser |
GStack Browser — launch gstack's own browser headed, with sidebar, anti-bot stealth, auto model routing (Sonnet for actions, Opus for analysis), one-click cookie import, and Claude Code integration. Clean up pages, take smart screenshots, edit CSS, and pass info back to your terminal. The visible face of the fallback engine; with Aside open you watch the agent's tabs there instead. |
/setup-deploy |
Deploy Configurator — one-time setup for /land-and-deploy. Detects your platform, production URL, and deploy commands. |
/setup-gbrain |
GBrain Onboarding — from zero to running gbrain in under 5 minutes. PGLite local, Supabase existing URL, or auto-provision a new Supabase project via Management API. MCP registration for Claude Code + per-repo trust triad (read-write/read-only/deny). Full guide. |
/sync-gbrain |
Keep Brain Current — re-index this repo's code into gbrain via gbrain sources add + gbrain sync --strategy code, refresh the ## GBrain Search Guidance block in CLAUDE.md, and auto-remove guidance when the capability check fails. --incremental (default), --full, --dry-run. Idempotent; safe to re-run. |
/gstack-upgrade |
Self-Updater — upgrade gstack to latest. Detects global vs vendored install, syncs both, shows what changed. |
/ios-qa |
iOS Live-Device QA (v1.43.0.0+) — drive a real iPhone over USB CoreDevice via an embedded StateServer in the app. Read Swift source, codegen typed @Observable accessors, run the agent loop. Optional --tailnet flag exposes the device to OpenClaw or any HTTP-capable agent on your Tailscale tailnet so remote agents can run iOS QA without ever touching the hardware. Capability-tier allowlist (observe/interact/mutate/restore), per-device session lock, audit log. |
/ios-fix, /ios-design-review, /ios-clean, /ios-sync |
iOS bug-fix loop, designer's-eye HIG audit, debug-bridge cleanup, and accessor resync. See docs/skills.md. End-to-end walkthrough: docs/howto-ios-testing-with-gstack.md. |
Standalone binaries
Beyond the slash-command skills, gstack ships standalone CLIs for workflows that don't belong inside a session:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
gstack-model-benchmark |
Cross-model benchmark — run the same prompt through Claude, GPT (via Codex CLI), and Gemini; compare latency, tokens, cost, and (optionally) LLM-judge quality score. Auth detected per provider, unavailable providers skip cleanly. Output as table, JSON, or markdown. --dry-run validates flags + auth without spending API calls. |
gstack-taste-update |
Design taste learning — writes approvals and rejections from /design-shotgun into a persistent per-project taste profile. Decays 5%/week. Feeds back into future variant generation so the system learns what you actually pick. |
gstack-egress |
Egress receipt auditor — every gstack-initiated off-machine send writes a tamper-evident, hash-chained receipt to ~/.gstack/security/egress.jsonl before the send. list shows what gstack attempted to send and to which host, grants shows the standing consent settings plus the exact command that revokes each, verify recomputes the hash chain and exits 3 on tamper (catches edits, reordering, and mid-chain deletion; truncating or deleting the ledger itself is out of scope — it's a forensic log, not tamper-proof storage). |
gstack-context-bill |
Token bill-of-materials — read-only, offline audit of what an installed skills tree costs in tokens: always-on frontmatter every session pays vs per-invocation SKILL.md + forced references. --diff compares two trees, --budget enforces a ceiling, --exact opts into Anthropic count_tokens (sends file text off-machine; writes an egress receipt first, degrades to the offline estimate if the receipt can't be written). |
gstack-code-intelligence |
Code-intelligence provider picker — wraps GBrain, Sourcebot, and Graphify behind one interface: options/status to see what's available, select to pick one, index/search to use it, suggest to check whether the one-time indexing offer should fire here. The offer triggers on large repos (1,000+ tracked files; a decline is persisted). Non-local providers refuse to index or search until you record per-repo consent (consent <repo> yes|no — the query text is repo-derived content), the per-repo trust policy's deny and read-only tiers veto write-class operations regardless of consent, and every off-machine send writes an egress receipt. Fully optional — with nothing selected, gstack falls back to grep. |
gstack-verify-gate |
Verification stop hook (opt-in) — blocks a Claude Code turn from ending until the project's declared verify command passes (after 3 blocked re-entries it yields with a loud still-RED warning instead of looping forever). Declare it on one line in CLAUDE.md: <!-- gstack:verify: bun test -->. Hooks bypass the permission system, so a declared command never runs until you trust it once per repo (gstack-verify-gate --trust); editing the command invalidates trust until re-granted, and every grant is audit-logged. ./setup never registers it for you — opt in with gstack-settings-hook add-event --event Stop --command ~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-verify-gate --source verify-gate, remove with gstack-settings-hook remove-source --source verify-gate. |
gstack-memorable |
Memorable recall bridge (opt-in, third party, Claude Code only) — connects Claude Code to the external Memorable CLI through gstack instead of the vendor's own installer, so the hook gets gstack's guarantees: an explicit consent key (memorable_recall, off by default, listed by gstack-egress grants), a fail-closed egress receipt for every prompt handed over (gstack-egress list --sink memorable-recall), a HIGH-tier secret pre-scan, a trust envelope and 8 KiB cap on whatever comes back, an allowlisted environment and process-group containment for the vendor process, and clean removal. enable registers the hook at the stable install with a 5 s timeout and never runs the vendor's own consent command; disable revokes the gate first and removes the entry by identity even after Claude Code strips the tag; status is read-only. gstack never installs Memorable, and what its binary sends is the vendor's claim, not gstack's. Not available on Windows yet. Full guide. |
gstack-wtree |
Working-tree fingerprint — prints a content hash of what's actually on disk (temp index seeded from the stat cache, ~40x cheaper than a full re-hash; untracked source counts, gitignored scratch doesn't). Identical content fingerprints identically through commits, rebases, amends, and squashes — it's what binds reviews and test evidence to content instead of commit SHAs. |
gstack-review-log |
Review-pass receipts — --start <skill> captures the working-tree fingerprint before a diff review; '<JSON>' --finish <token> consumes that single-use, repository/branch/skill-scoped receipt. Binding requires matching start/end content and reviewer-reported completed:true and converged:true; it is not independent proof that a model read the source. --check-shared-libs <token> reads a current finding as JSON on stdin and checks prior Skip decisions against the actual branch, capture and eligible raw source blobs. It returns reusable:false when proof is missing or unsafe, including older records without logger-versioned coverage. Final review logging computes shared-code fingerprints and coverage rather than trusting supplied proof. |
gstack-review-read |
Review freshness — emits review records with computed review_freshness.status and reason: CURRENT, STALE, or UNVERIFIED for diff reviews. /ship and /land-and-deploy use the same grade; a matching commit alone never certifies a diff review. Dashboard rules. |
gstack-evidence |
Verification-evidence ledger — run --label <lane> -- <cmd> transparently wraps any test command (the child's exit code always passes through) and records what ran against which working-tree fingerprint; check grades each label FRESH/STALE/MISSING with --expect-cmd, --max-age, and --allow-paths binding. /ship and /land-and-deploy cite fresh evidence instead of re-running suites. Per-run logs are 0600, capped at 2MB, pruned after 30 days; the ledger and logs stay machine-local by design. |
gstack-issue-guard |
Tracker-text trust envelope — fetches GitHub issue/PR text (issue <n>, pr-body, pr-comments, or --stdin) and wraps it in a labeled envelope so agents treat it as data: injection-shaped lines get labeled even through fullwidth and invisible-character evasion, and forged envelope banners are defused. Every tracker-text ingress in gstack routes through it, enforced by a CI scanner. |
gstack-ios-qa-daemon |
iOS QA daemon — Mac-side broker between an agent and a connected iPhone over USB CoreDevice. Loopback by default; --tailnet opens a Tailscale-facing listener with identity-gated capability tiers. Single-instance via flock on ~/.gstack/ios-qa-daemon.pid. See docs/howto-ios-testing-with-gstack.md. |
gstack-ios-qa-mint |
iOS allowlist manager — owner-grant CLI for the tailnet allowlist. grant/revoke/list against ~/.gstack/ios-qa-allowlist.json (mode 0600). Remote agents never auto-allowlist; this is the explicit-intent path. |
gstack-ios-qa-regen |
iOS bridge regenerator — deterministically installs the canonical DebugBridge package, generates typed state accessors, and records the installed gstack version. Safe to rerun after source changes or upgrades. |
The private paid CSO evaluation producer is a packaging contract, not an ordinary bun run build artifact. On macOS or Linux, a release operator compiles cso-eval-producer with the documented hardened Bun flags in the same clean build session as bun run build:cso, then installs it beside gstack-cso-launcher, gstack-cso-core, gstack-cso-watchdog, and the hidden .gstack-cso-generation manifest as one root-owned, nonwritable five-artifact unit. The producer rejects root execution, writable/symlinked/incomplete installations, and unreviewed provider CLI versions; each receipt binds all five artifact hashes, and collection rejects receipts from different unit identities. See the clean producer procedure. Paid producer evaluation remains unavailable on Windows because the detached watchdog has no Windows build.
Each producer gets a curated one-cell source copy with directories sealed to 0555 and files to 0444, plus pre/post content, Git, and mode checks. Claude receives that exact copy as a restricted read-only add-directory so its constrained launcher command can reach it. Gemini receives no source working directory or include-directory. Codex technically receives read-only filesystem access to the exact curated source root because the trusted helper inherits the Codex permission profile; its private provider work directory and exact cso-home artifact directory are the only write roots, every other root path remains denied, and the producer prompt requires source access through the helper. This is evaluation containment for an immutable public fixture, not a claim that Codex cannot directly read that fixture.
Copy each completed cell's receipt together with state/cso-home/security/cso/ to the trusted adjudication host. Receipt entries are sorted paths relative to that directory and bind every retained file's size and SHA-256 plus an aggregate inventory hash. Provider homes, settings, sessions, and credentials live under separate disposable directories and are removed after the cell; they are never part of the retained artifact tree. The adjudicator must re-hash the transported tree against the receipt before trusting reports or repair bundles.
Paid producer qualification uses this explicit host matrix:
| Producer host | Daily/static cells | Comprehensive target execution |
|---|---|---|
| Codex CLI 0.153.4 | Supported under the custom permission profile | Fails closed because Docker/socket access is not granted to the model command sandbox; report the setup gap as partial |
| Claude Code 2.1.263 | Supported under restricted safe mode | Fails closed when the restricted launcher child cannot reach Docker; report the setup gap as partial |
| Gemini CLI 0.59.0 | Supported with isolated home/settings | Private release qualification host: the exact run_shell_command(<launcher>) policy can run the trusted helper without exposing a general shell |
Every setup-blocked comprehensive cell remains a miss in release-gate denominators. The evaluator does not silently count a host or workflow as supported when its containment policy prevents required setup.
./setup also registers one default-on Stop hook in ~/.claude/settings.json:
gstack-timeline-stop (closes dangling session-timeline entries when a session
is interrupted; fail-open — 2s internal budget, always exits 0, can never block
a session). Opt out persistently with ./setup --no-timeline-stop-hook — the
choice lands in the timeline_stop_hook config key, survives upgrades, and an
explicit "no" removes a live registration. GSTACK_TIMELINE_STOP_HOOK=no and
gstack-config set timeline_stop_hook no work too (flag > env > config).
./setup --no-team skips it for that run, gstack-settings-hook remove-source --source gstack-timeline-stop removes it by hand, and gstack-uninstall
removes it too.
Hook registration is canonical-only: every hook command points at the stable
~/.claude/skills/gstack install, never the tree setup ran from, so deleting
a worktree or Conductor workspace can't leave dead hooks erroring in your
sessions. Every ./setup run also heals first: gstack-settings-hook prune-stale --repoint removes dead gstack hook entries, re-points stale ones
at the stable install, and collapses duplicates, printing one line (and
writing a backup beside the file) only when it changed something.
Domain skills + raw CDP escape hatch
Two browser primitives in gstack's own engine (the fallback path when Aside isn't there) compound the agent over time:
$B domain-skill save— agent saves a per-site note (e.g., "LinkedIn's Apply button lives in an iframe") that fires automatically next time it visits that hostname. Quarantined → active after 3 successful uses → optional cross-project promotion via$B domain-skill promote-to-global. Storage lives alongside/learn's per-project learnings file. Full reference: docs/domain-skills.md.$B cdp <Domain.method>— raw Chrome DevTools Protocol escape hatch for the rare case curated commands miss. Deny-default: methods must be explicitly added tobrowse/src/cdp-allowlist.tswith a one-line justification. Two-tier mutex serializes browser-scoped CDP calls against per-tab work. Output for data-exfil methods is wrapped in the UNTRUSTED envelope.
Want raw CDP with no rails, no allowlist, no daemon — just thin transport from agent to Chrome? browser-use/browser-harness-js is a different philosophy (agent-authored helpers vs gstack's curated commands) and a good fit if you don't want gstack's security stack. The two can coexist: gstack's
$B cdpand harness can both attach to the same Chrome via Playwright'snewCDPSession.
Deep dives with examples and philosophy for every skill →
Karpathy's four failure modes? Already covered.
Andrej Karpathy's AI coding rules (17K stars) nail four failure modes: wrong assumptions, overcomplexity, orthogonal edits, imperative over declarative. gstack's workflow skills enforce all four. /office-hours forces assumptions into the open before code is written. The Confusion Protocol stops Claude from guessing on architectural decisions. /review catches unnecessary complexity and drive-by edits. /ship transforms tasks into verifiable goals with test-first execution. If you already use Karpathy-style CLAUDE.md rules, gstack is the workflow enforcement layer that makes them stick across entire sprints, not just single prompts.
Parallel sprints
gstack works well with one sprint. It gets interesting with ten running at once.
Design is at the heart. /design-consultation builds your design system from scratch, researches what's out there, proposes creative risks, and writes DESIGN.md. But the real magic is the shotgun-to-HTML pipeline.
/design-shotgun is how you explore. You describe what you want. It generates 4-6 AI mockup variants using GPT Image. Then it opens a comparison board in your browser with all variants side by side. You pick favorites, leave feedback ("more whitespace", "bolder headline", "lose the gradient"), and it generates a new round. Repeat until you love something. Taste memory kicks in after a few rounds so it starts biasing toward what you actually like. No more describing your vision in words and hoping the AI gets it. You see options, pick the good ones, and iterate visually.
Works with impeccable. If you use impeccable too, gstack does not fight it. gstack runs impeccable's deterministic engine as a pre-pass in /design-review, /review, /ship, and /design-html when you have it installed (gstack never runs impeccable's installer or launcher; the first time a design skill finds no engine it asks once whether to download the engine binary, checksum-pinned and logged, into ~/.impeccable, and remembers your answer), speaks the same 61 rule ids in its own voice, reads PRODUCT.md, writes DESIGN.md in the open DESIGN.md format both tools read, and hands deferred findings to /impeccable <command>. Say no and nothing changes: no nag, no missing step. gstack-config set design_detector off turns the pre-pass off. Attribution for the material gstack derived from impeccable and the DESIGN.md spec is in NOTICE.md.
/design-html makes it real. Take that approved mockup (from /design-shotgun, a CEO plan, a design review, or just a description) and turn it into production-quality HTML/CSS. Not the kind of AI HTML that looks fine at one viewport width and breaks everywhere else. This uses Pretext for computed text layout: text actually reflows on resize, heights adjust to content, layouts are dynamic. 30KB overhead, zero dependencies. It detects your framework (React, Svelte, Vue) and outputs the right format. Smart API routing picks different Pretext patterns depending on whether it's a landing page, dashboard, form, or card layout. The output is something you'd actually ship, not a demo.
/qa was a massive unlock. It let me go from 6 to 12 parallel workers. Claude Code saying "I SEE THE ISSUE" and then actually fixing it, generating a regression test, and verifying the fix — that changed how I work. The agent has eyes now.
Smart review routing. Just like at a well-run startup: CEO doesn't have to look at infra bug fixes, design review isn't needed for backend changes. gstack tracks what reviews are run, figures out what's appropriate, and just does the smart thing. The Review Readiness Dashboard tells you where you stand before you ship.
Test everything. /ship bootstraps test frameworks from scratch if your project doesn't have one. Every /ship run produces a coverage audit. /qa creates native regressions when infrastructure is available and explicitly reports missing test coverage; CSS-only fixes may use browser evidence instead. 100% test coverage is the goal — tests make vibe coding safe instead of yolo coding.
/document-release is the engineer you never had. It audits relevant authored docs against the release diff and corrects factual drift before final verification. Risky changes return for approval. /ship invokes it on every run and owns TODOS, release metadata, generation and publication; the child reports updated, current or blocked documentation.
Aside is the browser gstack drives first. For browser surfaces, on a Mac with the Aside AI browser open, /qa, /qa-only, /design-review, /canary, /benchmark, /scrape, and /browse all run there — your real browser, with your real logged-in sessions, in tabs the agent opens for itself and closes when it's done. No cookie import, no "open the browser" step, no CAPTCHA handoff dance: hit a sign-in wall, sign in inside Aside, say "done", and the agent continues. Anything a page returns is treated as untrusted content — the agent takes syntax from it, never instructions. /make-pdf, /diagram, and design previews print and screenshot through Aside too (served from your machine on loopback, one render per script), and the planning skills do their web research through Aside's own agent before reaching for a search tool.
When Aside isn't there, gstack's own browser takes over — automatically. Linux, Windows, or a Mac with Aside closed: the same skills use the bundled headless Chromium that ./setup builds, produce the same evidence, and light up the features below that only make sense when the browser is gstack's rather than yours.
Real browser mode. /open-gstack-browser launches GStack Browser, an AI-controlled Chromium with anti-bot stealth, custom branding, and the sidebar extension baked in. Sites like Google and NYTimes work without captchas. The menu bar says "GStack Browser" instead of "Chrome for Testing." Your regular Chrome stays untouched. All existing browse commands work unchanged. $B disconnect returns to headless. The browser stays alive as long as the window is open... no idle timeout killing it while you're working.
Sidebar agent — your AI browser assistant. Type natural language in the Chrome side panel and a child Claude instance executes it. "Navigate to the settings page and screenshot it." "Fill out this form with test data." "Go through every item in this list and extract the prices." The sidebar auto-routes to the right model: Sonnet for fast actions (click, navigate, screenshot) and Opus for reading and analysis. Each task gets up to 5 minutes. The sidebar agent runs in an isolated session, so it won't interfere with your main Claude Code window. One-click cookie import right from the sidebar footer.
Personal automation. The sidebar agent isn't just for dev workflows. Example: "Browse my kid's school parent portal and add all the other parents' names, phone numbers, and photos to my Google Contacts." Two ways to get authenticated: (1) log in once in the headed browser, your session persists, or (2) click the "cookies" button in the sidebar footer to import cookies from your real Chrome. Once authenticated, Claude navigates the directory, extracts the data, and creates the contacts.
Prompt injection defense. Hostile web pages try to hijack your sidebar agent. gstack ships a layered defense: content filters (datamarking, hidden-element stripping, ARIA scrubbing, URL blocklist) on every page read, plus a 22MB ML classifier running locally in a sidecar subprocess that scans page-derived content before the agent sees it, with a verdict combiner that requires classifier agreement before blocking (prevents single-model false positives on Stack Overflow-style instruction pages). Everything runs on your machine, no network calls. Emergency kill switch: GSTACK_SECURITY_OFF=1. See ARCHITECTURE.md for the full stack.
Browser handoff when the AI gets stuck. Hit a CAPTCHA, auth wall, or MFA prompt? $B handoff opens a visible Chrome at the exact same page with all your cookies and tabs intact. Solve the problem, tell Claude you're done, $B resume picks up right where it left off. The agent even suggests it automatically after 3 consecutive failures.
/pair-agent is cross-agent coordination. You're in Claude Code. You also have OpenClaw running. Or Hermes. Or Codex. You want them both looking at the same website. Type /pair-agent, pick your agent, and a GStack Browser window opens so you can watch. The skill prints a block of instructions. Paste that block into the other agent's chat. It exchanges a one-time setup key for a session token, creates its own tab, and starts browsing. You see both agents working in the same browser, each in their own tab, neither able to interfere with the other. If ngrok is installed, the tunnel starts automatically so the other agent can be on a completely different machine. Same-machine agents get a zero-friction shortcut that writes credentials directly. This is the first time AI agents from different vendors can coordinate through a shared browser with real security: scoped tokens, tab isolation, rate limiting, domain restrictions, and activity attribution.
Multi-AI second opinion. In Codex, gstack sends outside reviews to Claude Code through /claude-code. In Claude Code, /codex sends them to OpenAI Codex. Other harnesses expose both skills and use Codex where automatic outside reviews are supported. Each skill supports code review, adversarial challenge, and consultation with session continuity. Routing follows the harness, so changing your configured model does not change the outside reviewer. Reports identify the provider that actually completed each review; unavailable outside coverage remains visible.
Safety guardrails on demand. Say "be careful" and /careful warns before any destructive command — rm -rf, DROP TABLE, force-push, git reset --hard. /freeze locks edits to one directory while debugging so Claude can't accidentally "fix" unrelated code. /guard activates both. /investigate auto-freezes to the module being investigated.
Proactive skill suggestions. gstack notices what stage you're in — brainstorming, reviewing, debugging, testing — and suggests the right skill. Don't like it? Say "stop suggesting" and it remembers across sessions.
10-15 parallel sprints
gstack is powerful with one sprint. It is transformative with ten running at once.
Conductor runs multiple Claude Code sessions in parallel — each in its own isolated workspace. One session running /office-hours on a new idea, another doing /review on a PR, a third implementing a feature, a fourth running /qa on staging, and six more on other branches. All at the same time. I regularly run 10-15 parallel sprints — that's the practical max right now.
The sprint structure is what makes parallelism work. Without a process, ten agents is ten sources of chaos. With a process — think, plan, build, review, test, ship — each agent knows exactly what to do and when to stop. You manage them the way a CEO manages a team: check in on the decisions that matter, let the rest run.
Voice input (AquaVoice, Whisper, etc.)
gstack skills have voice-friendly trigger phrases. Say what you want naturally — "run a security check", "test the website", "do an engineering review" — and the right skill activates. You don't need to remember slash command names or acronyms.
Uninstall
Option 1: Run the uninstall script
If gstack is installed on your machine:
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-uninstall
This handles skills, symlinks, global state (~/.gstack/), project-local state, browse daemons, and temp files. Use --keep-state to preserve config and analytics. Use --force to skip confirmation.
Option 2: Manual removal (no local repo)
If you don't have the repo cloned (e.g. you installed via a Claude Code paste and later deleted the clone):
# 1. Stop browse daemons
pkill -f "gstack.*browse" 2>/dev/null || true
# 2. Remove per-skill directories whose SKILL.md points into gstack/
# (rm -rf, not rmdir — installed dirs also contain runtime-asset links)
find ~/.claude/skills -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d ! -name gstack 2>/dev/null |
while IFS= read -r dir; do
link="$dir/SKILL.md"
[ -L "$link" ] || continue
target=$(readlink "$link" 2>/dev/null) || continue
case "$target" in
gstack/*|*/gstack/*)
rm -rf "$dir"
;;
esac
done
# Directories gstack created carry a .gstack-owned marker (the only signal on
# Windows, where installs are file copies with no symlink to read)
for marker in ~/.claude/skills/*/.gstack-owned; do
[ -f "$marker" ] && rm -rf "$(dirname "$marker")"
done
# Alias skills install as copies (no symlink to detect) — remove by name
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/_gstack-command ~/.claude/skills/connect-chrome 2>/dev/null
# 3. Remove gstack
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/gstack
# 4. Remove global state
rm -rf ~/.gstack
# 5. Remove integrations (skip any you never installed)
rm -rf "${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/skills/gstack"* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/.factory/skills/gstack* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/.kiro/skills/gstack* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/.openclaw/skills/gstack* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/.cursor/skills/gstack* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/.config/opencode/skills/gstack* 2>/dev/null
# 6. Remove temp files
rm -f /tmp/gstack-* 2>/dev/null
# 7. Per-project cleanup (run from each project root)
rm -rf .gstack .gstack-worktrees .claude/skills/gstack 2>/dev/null
rm -rf .agents/skills/gstack* .factory/skills/gstack* 2>/dev/null
Manual removal leaves gstack's hook entries behind in ~/.claude/settings.json
(the uninstall script removes all of them for you, including entries whose
_gstack_source tag was stripped). Edit that file and delete every hook whose
command path points into .claude/skills/gstack/: the SessionStart auto-update
hook, the AskUserQuestion PreToolUse/PostToolUse hooks, and the Stop hooks
(session timeline, plus verify-gate if you opted in). Left in place, they error
on every matching event once the install directory is gone.
Clean up CLAUDE.md
The uninstall script does not edit CLAUDE.md. In each project where gstack was added, remove the ## gstack and ## Skill routing sections.
Playwright
~/Library/Caches/ms-playwright/ (macOS) is left in place because other tools may share it. Remove it if nothing else needs it.
Aside
gstack never installed Aside, so it never uninstalls it. Keep it or remove it like any other app.
Free, MIT licensed, open source. No premium tier, no waitlist.
I open sourced how I build software. You can fork it and make it your own.
We're hiring. Want to ship real products at AI-coding speed and help harden gstack? Come work at YC — ycombinator.com/software Extremely competitive salary and equity. San Francisco, Dogpatch District.
GBrain — persistent knowledge for your coding agent
GBrain is a persistent knowledge base for AI agents — think of it as the memory your agent actually keeps between sessions. GStack gives you a one-command path from zero to "it's running, my agent can call it."
/setup-gbrain
Four paths, pick one:
- Supabase, existing URL — your cloud agent already provisioned a brain; paste the Session Pooler URL, now this laptop uses the same data.
- Supabase, auto-provision — paste a Supabase Personal Access Token; the skill creates a new project, polls to healthy, fetches the pooler URL, hands it to
gbrain init. ~90 seconds end-to-end. - PGLite local — zero accounts, zero network, ~30 seconds. Isolated brain on this Mac only. Great for try-first; migrate to Supabase later with
/setup-gbrain --switch. - Remote gbrain MCP — your brain runs on another machine (Tailscale, ngrok, internal LAN) or a teammate's server; paste an MCP URL and bearer token. Optionally pair with a local PGLite for symbol-aware code search in split-engine mode. Best for cross-machine memory without standing up a local DB.
After init, the skill offers to register gbrain as an MCP server for Claude Code (claude mcp add gbrain -- gbrain serve) so gbrain search, gbrain put, etc. show up as first-class typed tools — not bash shell-outs.
Keeping the brain current. Run /sync-gbrain from any repo to re-index its code into gbrain (incremental by default, --full for a full reindex, --dry-run to preview). The skill registers the cwd as a federated source via gbrain sources add, runs gbrain sync --strategy code, and writes a ## GBrain Search Guidance block to your project's CLAUDE.md so the agent prefers gbrain search/code-def/code-refs over Grep. The block is removed automatically if the capability check fails — no stale guidance pointing at tools that aren't installed.
Per-remote trust policy. Each repo on your machine gets one of three tiers:
read-write— agent can search the brain AND write new pages back from this reporead-only— agent can search but never writes (best for multi-client consultants: search the shared brain, don't contaminate it with Client A's work while in Client B's repo)deny— no gbrain interaction at all
The skill asks once per repo. The decision is sticky across worktrees and branches of the same remote.
GStack memory sync (different feature, same private-repo infra). Optionally pushes your gstack state (learnings, CEO plans, design docs, retros, developer profile) to a private git repo so your memory follows you across machines, with a one-time privacy prompt (everything allowlisted / artifacts only / off) and a defense-in-depth secret scanner that blocks AWS keys, tokens, PEM blocks, and JWTs before they leave your machine.
gstack-artifacts-init
Running gstack in Conductor? Conductor explicitly strips ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and OPENAI_API_KEY from every workspace's process env, so paid evals and gbrain embeddings won't work out of the box. Set GSTACK_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and GSTACK_OPENAI_API_KEY in Conductor's workspace env config instead — gstack's TS entry points promote them to canonical names at runtime. Full details and the contributor checklist for adding the import to new entry points: Conductor + GSTACK_* env vars.
Full monty — every scenario, every flag, every bin helper, every troubleshooting step: USING_GBRAIN_WITH_GSTACK.md
Other references: docs/gbrain-sync.md (sync-specific guide) • docs/gbrain-sync-errors.md (error index)
Docs
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Skill Deep Dives | Philosophy, examples, and workflow for every skill (includes Greptile integration) |
| Diagrams & Document Formats | Mermaid/excalidraw fences in PDFs, image sizing and safety defaults, --to html|docx, /diagram triplets |
| Builder Ethos | Builder philosophy: Boil the Ocean, Search Before Building, three layers of knowledge |
| Using GBrain with GStack | Every path, flag, bin helper, and troubleshooting step for /setup-gbrain |
| GBrain Sync | Cross-machine memory setup, privacy modes, troubleshooting |
| Architecture | Design decisions and system internals |
| Browser | How gstack drives Aside first (the contract, the cookbook, rendering, research), when the fallback engine kicks in, and the fallback's full $B command reference |
| Contributing | Dev setup, testing, contributor mode, and dev mode |
| Memorable recall bridge | Opt-in third-party workflow memory through gstack: two consents, what gstack hands over and can attest, removal, troubleshooting |
| Troubleshooting | Every not run / unavailable message, what it means, and the fix |
| Changelog | What's new in every version |
Privacy & Telemetry
gstack includes opt-in usage telemetry to help improve the project. Here's exactly what happens:
- Default is off. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you explicitly say yes.
- On first run, gstack asks if you want to share anonymous usage data. You can say no.
- What's sent (if you opt in): skill name, duration, success/fail, gstack version, OS. That's it.
- What's never sent: code, file paths, repo names, branch names, prompts, or any user-generated content.
- Change anytime:
gstack-config set telemetry offdisables everything instantly. - Every off-machine send is receipted. Any gstack-initiated network send — telemetry included — writes a hash-chained, tamper-evident receipt to
~/.gstack/security/egress.jsonlbefore the send; sensitive sinks refuse to send at all if the receipt can't be written. Audit withgstack-egress list, verify the chain withgstack-egress verify(exit 3 on tamper), see the standing consent settings withgstack-egress grants. The ledger records attempted sends so accidents are auditable — it's an audit trail, not a network firewall. - Optional third-party bridges are off by default and receipted too. The one that exists today, the Memorable recall bridge, hands your prompt to a locally installed vendor binary only after you run
gstack-memorable enable; every hand-off writes a receipt first, the consent shows up ingstack-egress grants, and what the vendor then sends is documented as the vendor's claim.
Data is stored in Supabase (open source Firebase alternative). The schema is in supabase/migrations/ — you can verify exactly what's collected. The Supabase publishable key in the repo is a public key (like a Firebase API key) — row-level security policies deny all direct access. Telemetry flows through validated edge functions that enforce schema checks, event type allowlists, and field length limits.
Local analytics are always available. Run gstack-analytics to see your personal usage dashboard from the local JSONL file — no remote data needed.
Troubleshooting
A message says not run, unavailable or names a fix? Look it up in
docs/troubleshooting.md: every gate message gstack
prints, what it means, what was kept, and the command that fixes it.
Skill not showing up? Run ./setup --status from your gstack checkout. It
prints every install (host, scope, version, skills directory, source checkout)
and, for a stale, missing or unregistered row, the exact command that fixes
it. The usual fix is to re-run setup from that row's source for that host, e.g.
cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setup (Claude) or cd ~/gstack && ./setup --host codex.
A project install lives in the project's .claude/skills/gstack or
.agents/skills/gstack; run its setup from inside the project.
/browse (or /qa, /design-review) says NEEDS_ASIDE or ASIDE_NOT_RUNNING? That's the probe telling you it's about to use the fallback browser. Want Aside? Open the app and sign in — aside --version should print a version and aside repl 'console.log("ok")' should print ok — then re-run. gstack never installs it for you. Want the fallback on purpose while Aside is open? GSTACK_SKIP_ASIDE=1 makes every skill, the renderer, and ./setup treat Aside as absent. When Aside is absent the probe prints NEEDS_ASIDE: <OS> and skills trust that line for the macOS-only download pitch; GSTACK_PLATFORM overrides the OS it names, for tests and unusual hosts (set it in your shell — gstack never reads it from a project .env).
/browse fails on the fallback browser? cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && bun install && bun run build
/make-pdf or /diagram can't render? Same two paths: with Aside open they print through Aside (bun run ~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-render.ts some.html --screenshot /tmp/out.png tests it directly, and its first line, ENGINE=aside or ENGINE=browse, names the browser that actually rendered); without it they use the bundled browser, so bun run build is the fix.
Stale install? Run /gstack-upgrade — or set auto_upgrade: true in ~/.gstack/config.yaml.
On Codex and the other non-Claude hosts, upgrade from a terminal: find the
checkout in the source column of ./setup --status, then
cd <source> && git pull && ./setup --host <host>, and start a new session.
Typing into a specific field with the fallback browser? browse type --selector '<css>' <text>
types into that element; bare browse type <text> types into whatever has focus.
State in the wrong place, or a setting that won't stick? ~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-paths --explain shows which directory gstack uses for its state and why. See docs/state-root.md.
Want shorter commands? cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setup --no-prefix — switches from /gstack-qa to /qa. Your choice is remembered for future upgrades.
Don't use some skills? gstack-config set disabled_skills make-pdf,pair-agent stops registering them on every host, so their descriptions stop loading into each session. Claude Code updates right away; other hosts on their next ./setup --host <name> or /gstack-upgrade. Their files stay installed, so a skill that calls a disabled one still works (you get a warning). Typos are rejected with the closest skill name, gstack-upgrade can't be disabled, and gstack-config set disabled_skills "" re-enables everything.
Want namespaced commands? cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setup --prefix — switches from /qa to /gstack-qa. Useful if you run other skill packs alongside gstack.
Codex says "Skipped loading skill(s) due to invalid SKILL.md"? Your Codex skill descriptions are stale. ${CODEX_HOME:-~/.codex}/skills/gstack is a runtime directory, not the checkout: ./setup --status shows the Codex row's source checkout. Fix: cd <that source> && git pull && ./setup --host codex — for a repo-local install, run it from inside the project.
Windows users: gstack works on Windows 11 via Git Bash or WSL. Aside is macOS-only, so on Windows (and Linux) the browser skills, /make-pdf, and /diagram always use gstack's bundled browser. Node.js is required in addition to Bun — Bun has a known bug with Playwright's pipe transport on Windows (bun#4253). The browse server automatically falls back to Node.js. Make sure both bun and node are on your PATH. Native /cso additionally requires Windows PowerShell and Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools with the Desktop development with C++ workload; setup leaves that skill explicitly unavailable when they are absent.
On Windows without Developer Mode (MSYS2 / Git Bash), setup falls back to file copies instead of symlinks because ln -snf produces frozen copies that don't refresh on git pull. Re-run cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setup after every git pull so your skill files match the repo. setup prints a one-line note reminding you. Unix and WSL keep symlinks and don't need the re-run.
Chromium install failed or hung during ./setup? The bundled browser is
best-effort: setup records the reason, finishes registering every skill, and
prints which skills are affected (/qa, /qa-only, /design-review,
/browse, make-pdf, /diagram, /pair-agent). With Aside open, the browser
skills keep running in Aside and only the fallback engine is missing;
/pair-agent always needs the bundled browser. Fix the cause and re-run
./setup. Knobs:
GSTACK_PLAYWRIGHT_INSTALL_TIMEOUT=<seconds> raises the download bound
(default 600) on slow links; GSTACK_SKIP_PLAYWRIGHT=1 skips the Chromium
install entirely (CI, no-browser boxes); GSTACK_CHROMIUM_NO_SANDBOX=1 is the
fix when Chromium installs but cannot launch because the host blocks
unprivileged user namespaces (Ubuntu 24.04+ AppArmor default, #2157).
Setup ended with "Not registered (a skill you own already uses the name; left untouched)"?
gstack only deletes or links over a skill entry it can prove it created: a
symlink into gstack, a directory carrying the .gstack-owned marker ./setup
writes into every directory it creates, or a SKILL.md that is byte-identical to
gstack's or carries the generated <!-- AUTO-GENERATED from ... --> banner. A
qa/ or ship/ you wrote yourself is left untouched by ./setup,
gstack-relink, and both prefix-mode flips, and the linker names it in the
final summary. Rename or move yours, or switch modes (./setup --prefix /
--no-prefix) so the names stop colliding. If you started your own skill from
a generated gstack SKILL.md and then edited it, that file is moved to
~/.gstack/backups/skills/<timestamp>/<skill>/SKILL.md before gstack's is
linked in, never deleted.
Claude says it can't see the skills? Make sure your project's CLAUDE.md has a gstack section. Add this:
## gstack
Use /browse from gstack for all web browsing. Never use mcp__claude-in-chrome__* tools.
Available skills: /office-hours, /plan-ceo-review, /plan-eng-review, /plan-design-review,
/design-consultation, /design-shotgun, /design-html, /review, /deslop-shared-libs, /test-audit, /ship, /land-and-deploy,
/canary, /benchmark, /browse, /open-gstack-browser, /qa, /qa-only, /design-review, /scrape,
/setup-browser-cookies, /setup-deploy, /setup-gbrain, /sync-gbrain, /retro, /investigate,
/document-release, /document-generate, /codex, /cso, /autoplan, /pair-agent, /careful, /freeze,
/guard, /unfreeze, /gstack-upgrade, /learn.
License
MIT. Free forever. Go build something.