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Garry Tan 55fbe77195 v1.91.24.0 test: audit wave — PR evals keep finished work, honest ceilings, EVAL_POLICY v2, faster free suite (#3031)
* chore(scripts): retire hollow and legacy paid package scripts behind one-release stubs (W8a, DX-4, CEO-31)

test:codex*, test:evals*, test:e2e*, test:gate, test:periodic, eval:bg,
eval:bg:all, eval:flake-rank, eval:watch and test:audit now print their
replacement and exit 1 via scripts/retired-command.ts. CONTRIBUTING.md
carries the same table; test/retired-commands.test.ts pins both. Eval CLI
empty-state hints point at eval:bg:pr.

* chore: delete dead update-readme-throughput, eval-watch, orphan fixtures and QA_FUNCTIONAL_INPUTS (W8b, CEO-24)

Retired with named behavior:
- update-readme-throughput.ts + readme-throughput test: replaced a README
  anchor that no longer exists from a JSON file that was never produced;
  the script was a no-op. Guarantee withdrawn (nothing to protect).
- eval-watch.ts + its dashboard tests: rendered ~/.gstack-dev/e2e-live.json
  and _partial-e2e.json, written only by unsharded runs, so it showed
  nothing for every supported (sharded) entry point. Guarantee withdrawn;
  live progress is the gstack-detach log or gh run watch. Manual-review
  rendering stays covered by eval-list and eval-summary tests.
- Orphan fixtures (autoplan-pending-artifact-ae.json, autoplan-existing-app/,
  autoplan-sign-in-ui/, parity baselines v1.47.0.0/v1.57.7.0/v1.69.1.0):
  no test, touchfile or script reads them; superseded baselines stay in
  git history.
- QA_FUNCTIONAL_INPUTS: exported, never imported.

* refactor(test-free): delete dead WORKER_HOSTILE list and buildShardArgs parallel mode

Neither had a production caller: full-suite mode runs shard processes, so the
worker quarantine was inert and --parallel was never passed (W8b).

* docs(test-value): narrow prompt-byte contract to machine-read tokens (D2)

Define prompt-byte contract as machine-read tokens (markers, field names,
command lines, enum values, file paths, security-boundary strings) and add a
sentence-pin glossary entry: convert to structural checks or delete when a
behavioral eval covers the behavior.

* test(ratchet): count free tests that slice a paid test's source

A free test that binds readFileSync(<paid test file>) and cuts it with
.slice() tests the paid harness's code out of context even when it imports a
lib/ symbol. Record the 15 existing files with reasons; new ones fail with fix
text. Self-test covers positive and negative shapes.

* test(browse): un-quarantine compare-board; all 16 board tests pass headless (W8d, CEO-24)

The GSTACK_COMPARE_BOARD_TESTS opt-in hid a headless mismatch that no
longer reproduces: all 16 tests pass on Bun 1.4.0 with the bundled
headless Chromium, solo, repeated, and beside other in-process browser
files. Protected behavior (the comparison-board DOM contract the
plan-design-review/office-hours/design-consultation feedback loop polls)
is checked on every free run again.

* test: replace silent existsSync early returns with explicit skips or assertions (W8d)

- browse/test/build.test.ts: server-node.mjs checks skip only when the
  bundle is absent and GSTACK_EXPECT_BINARIES is unset; the free CI lane
  and test:ubicloud build it and set the flag, so a dropped build step
  fails with the build command instead of passing with no assertions.
- gstack-update-check: VERSION is tracked; the guard could only hide a bug.
- gen-skill-docs host leakage/frontmatter checks assert the host tree
  exists (the module-level render always produces it).
- cso-docker staged-runtime test uses test.skipIf so reports show it as
  skipped, not passed.

* test(ship): convert ship-workflow-clarity sentence pins to structural checks

Add test/helpers/prompt-structure.ts (between, expectTokens, expectAbsent,
expectOrdered, expectMentions) with fix text on failure. ship-workflow-clarity
now pins headings, step order and machine-read tokens (commands, fields, enum
and status strings); safety rules are meaning-level keyword checks. Wording is
judged by the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge in skill-llm-eval.
Sentence pins: 90 -> 0.

* ci: add platform-qualification lane for opt-in ML, gitleaks and Swift tests (W8d, CEO-24)

security-bench + security-live-playwright L4 (SECURITY_BENCH), the real
gitleaks 8.30.1 memory-ingest cases (GSTACK_TEST_GITLEAKS) and the
DebugBridge Swift build invariants (GSTACK_TEST_SWIFT) self-skip in every
lane today. No scheduled lane has their prerequisites, so per CEO-24 they
move to an owned dispatch + quarterly workflow instead of being deleted.
Each job was run locally (ML 10 pass, gitleaks 130 pass; Swift needs
macOS). test/platform-qualification-workflow.test.ts pins gate variable,
job and file together.

* fix(scripts): capture-baseline and preflight-agent-sdk no longer act on --help or typos (W8e)

capture-baseline parses its flags strictly: --help prints usage, an unknown
or valueless flag exits 2, and only a valid invocation writes a fixture
(--help used to write test/fixtures/parity-baseline-current.json).
preflight-agent-sdk gains --help, rejects unknown flags, and runs the live
SDK query (API spend) only with --live.

* test(evals): register the three keyless periodic paid files with case ids (W1b)

skill-e2e-auq-consistency, skill-e2e-auq-verbose-vs-carved-ab and
codex-e2e-recommendation-substance now carry touchfiles, a periodic tier and
kind rule (one trial, unchanged), so editing one selects its own case instead
of restoring the full PR gate. The verbose A/B case also registers the vendored
pre-cut fixture it reads, and review-army-migration-safety registers the SQL
fixture it reads.

* feat(evals): narrow PR fallback for free-only inputs (W1a, CEO-13/20, ENG-13)

The PR profile now exempts the duration seeds, every free-lane workflow
(explicit list; inventory test fails on an unclassified workflow, .yaml
and workflow_call included), scripts/ubicloud/** and fixtures declared in
the explicit FREE_FIXTURES map. Each remaining unknown file carries a label
and fix (needs touchfile entry / add to FREE_ONLY_PR_FILES / real unknown
dependency). evals.yml itself still restores the full gate.

* ci: delete ci-image.yml; the eval workflows already build and push the same content-hash tag (W8f)

evals.yml, evals-periodic.yml and evals-marathon.yml each compute the
identical hashFiles() tag and build/push it (with :buildcache and :latest)
when missing, so ci-image's push trigger and weekly cron were no-ops
(30-day median 0.5 min, 36/36 success). ci-image-tag-binding now pins the
three eval workflows.

* ci(evals): key periodic/marathon concurrency on ref+event; branch periodic dispatch skips the gate census (W2a, ENG-9, CEO-04)

* refactor(paid): drop ~160 unused imports; leaf paid-types/paid-select modules break the paid-* import cycle (W8c)

* ci(quality-gate): per-PR concurrency, free runner, drop unscoped bun audit (W2a, W8f)

- Concurrency keys on pull_request.number || run_id, so back-to-back main
  pushes no longer cancel each other's credential scan.
- ubuntu-24.04 instead of a billed 8-vCPU Ubicloud runner for a ~1 min job.
- bun audit --audit-level=critical ran on every PR regardless of diff, so a
  newly published advisory turned unrelated PRs red, with its own ignore
  policy. dependency-review (lockfile PRs, fail >= high) and the weekly OSV
  sweep remain the dependency gates.

* chore(test-free): refresh the free duration seed from the audit's Ubicloud recording

Adds the 19 files merged after the last refresh, including the 115 s
claude-overlay-setup that packed as ~1 s and doubled a shard (W6a). The seed
is re-recorded on the final tree at the end of this wave.

* ci: move tiny ubicloud-standard-2 jobs to free ubuntu-24.04 runners (W8f)

actionlint, skill-docs, dependency-review, version-gate and pr-title-sync
are sub-minute jobs; GitHub-hosted runners are free for this public repo.

* feat(test-free): pessimistic unseeded packing, seed growth ratchet and CI health summary

- Unseeded files pack at the seed's p99 instead of p75 (W6a).
- --ci-plan warns in the job summary past 5 unseeded files; --ci-verify
  lists shards that outran their prediction by 1.5x (and 30 s) plus every
  flaky pass absorbed by the serial retry (W6a, W7a job summary).
- test/free-seed-ratchet.test.ts fails when a seeded file over 60 s is not
  on scripts/free-test-seed-allowlist.json, when an entry is stale, and when
  the allowlist grows versus its merge-base copy unless the new entry is an
  annotated exception with a todo (CEO-10, DX-7). free-plan runs it with
  full history so the shrink check is real in the required lane.
- Every message names the fix command and docs anchor (DX-6).

* feat(evals): state PR coverage mode, counts, reuse and fallback files in the summary and comment (CEO-13)

* test: make the tracked-tree skill-doc freshness check local-only; tidy skill-docs header (W8f)

Every free CI shard regenerates the tracked SKILL.md files before running
tests, so the --dry-run freshness assertion compared the regenerated tree
with itself and could not fail there. It now skips under GitHub Actions;
skill-docs.yml's git diff --exit-code is CI's freshness gate. Removes a
stale concurrency comment in skill-docs.yml.

* ci(free-tests): install zsh so the bash+zsh portability arms run (W6f)

~42 zsh-arm tests (aside-probe-shell, qa-browser-preservation,
generated-docs-fences) skipped in CI because zsh is not in the runner image.
All 141 tests in those files pass with zsh present.

* feat(evals): executors write negative receipts at the execution boundary (CEO-25, ENG-6)

A completed single-trial rule/judge shard that did not pass now writes its
negative receipt beside the pass receipts in the slice artifact, so a
cancelled run's FAIL still blocks an older PASS when its report never runs.
Receipts merge negatives first and order by (run attempt, completedAt); a
same-second FAIL/PASS tie resolves to FAIL. The runner call site is a
one-line hunk in scripts/test-paid-shards.ts.

* docs(cso): state that contained runtime/scanner execution is unavailable today

The scanner catalog is empty while its build inputs await review and the
runtime catalog holds no qualified profile until the private evaluator
exists, so /cso runs static assessment only. AGENTS.md, README and
docs/cso-release-qualification.md now say so; docs/cso-scanners.md
already did.

* test(helpers): expectMentions splits on sentence ends only

Clauses joined by ';' or ':' are one rule; splitting there made a reworded
rule fail for punctuation.

* test(plan-ceo): convert skill-ceo-section-ordering sentence pins

Safety and authority rules (never/do not/stop/only/without/wait/approval) are
meaning-level expectMentions checks; other sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, option rows, placeholders and machine-read lines (auto-decide
annotation, Mode:/approved decisions format, STATUS/SOURCE fields,
CROSS-MODEL marker, gstack-ceo-mode-handoff) stay as tokens; ordering checks
unchanged. Behavior is covered by the periodic PTY case in
skill-e2e-plan-ceo-review-section-loading.test.ts.
Sentence pins: 210 -> 23.

* test(helpers): expectMentions treats wrapped lines as one sentence

Templates hard-wrap prose; only sentence ends and blank lines separate rules.

* test(gen-skill-docs): convert sentence pins to meaning checks or drop them

Safety/authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks; other English
sentences are dropped (wording is judged by the per-skill workflow judges in
skill-llm-eval and the E2E cases in touchfiles-data). Commands, config keys,
markers (PLAN MODE EXCEPTION, NO UNRESOLVED DECISIONS, Gate outcome), field
names and alternation-based meaning regexes stay. Removed the now-empty
'contains opt-in AskUserQuestion text' test (only pinned a sentence; the
resolver's AskUserQuestion wiring is covered by the codex second-opinion
tests in the same describe). Lane E's existsSync hunks are untouched.
Sentence pins: 216 -> 65 (remaining lines carry machine tokens).

* ci(windows): shard the Windows lane via --ci-plan/--ci-run/--ci-verify; move native campaigns to native-qualification.yml

- windows-free-tests.yml: a Linux plan job curates and packs the Windows-safe
  files into 6 shards, one strict serial shard per windows-latest job, and a
  Linux aggregate verifies exact coverage and every result (8.1 min on one
  runner today). --windows-only now combines with the CI modes; the plan binds
  the curated file set (W6e).
- Every Windows plan and --list run prints the curated count with its top
  exclusion reasons in the job summary; a free ratchet fails when the curated
  subset drops below its floor, with the fix (W6e).
- The four Dia/cookie diagnostic dispatch campaigns move to the dispatch-only
  native-qualification.yml with one exclusive `mode` choice input, so their
  red dispatch runs no longer read as a red PR lane (W8f). Their workflow pins
  move to test/windows-native-workflows.test.ts; the boolean-exclusivity
  guard is replaced by the choice input.

* feat(paid): per-slice CI job ceilings and an in-process slice deadline with not_run/hung outcomes and checkpoints (W2c, ENG-2)

* fix(pass-rates): segment trial history strictly by EVAL_POLICY version

Reader-compatibility floor for EVAL_POLICY v2 (ENG-14/CEO-35/DX-12). Only
trials under the reader's own policy version feed labels and alarms; older
policy trials stay visible but are never scored or used as a drift baseline;
trials from a newer policy are ignored with a printed count and fix text.
Reverting the later v2 writer commits leaves a reader that cannot pool v2
records into v1 series (the pre-PR reader at 2db0b3a does: it reports a
mixed fixture as FAILING with drift alarms).

* docs: one contributor command table; retired commands, seed sources and current workflows (W8g, DX-5, DX-13, CEO-12)

- CONTRIBUTING.md gains 'Which command do I run?' (task -> command ->
  cost/time -> needs, including branch validation via gh workflow run);
  CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md and TESTING_INTERNALS.md link to it instead of
  repeating command lists. Tier tables drop retired commands and stale
  per-run dollar estimates.
- Retired names (test:evals, test:e2e, eval:bg, eval:flake-rank, eval:watch,
  ...) are gone from CLAUDE.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, TESTING_INTERNALS.md,
  ARCHITECTURE.md and USING_GBRAIN_WITH_GSTACK.md.
- The flake-ledger claim now says what happens: CI uploads flake-ledger-*
  artifacts; eval:pass-rates reads only the local ledger.
- TESTING_INTERNALS states that only test:ubicloud --record-durations
  produces an acceptable duration seed (DX-13).
- CI section: quality gate no longer runs bun audit; dependency-review's
  real trigger; the platform-qualification lane.
- docs/test-audit-2026-09.md gets a corrections section for its stale claims.
- TODOS.md: audit follow-ups (post-merge metrics, stub removal, name reclaim,
  diff-aware planner); eval-watch shard-awareness and the image freshness
  tripwire closed as won't-do.

* feat(evals): recover receipts of cancelled PR runs (W1c, CEO-14/34, ENG-4/5/7)

A new recover-receipts job runs base-ref code with actions: read, restores
the PR's store, merges the receipts of completed cancelled evals.yml runs
for this PR (provenance-checked, at most 5, oldest first, negatives first),
reconstructs completed panel negatives with panelVerdict() (partial panels
get no credit) and keeps a recovery.json checkpoint that never advances past
an unresolved run. plan-slices keeps contents: read, takes the store as an
artifact, turns reuse off when recovery degraded or a run is unresolved, and
carries the whole store to slices-report so nothing is lost. Any gh problem
degrades to no recovered receipts with a named reason.

* feat(evals): classify this wave's free-only tools and workflows for PR selection

platform-qualification.yml, retired-command.ts, test-health-report.ts,
bump-harness-version.ts and eval-bg.ts never run inside a paid case.

* feat(evals): debounce PR push bursts before planning paid slices (W1d, CEO-15, ENG-11, DX-7)

A tiny ubuntu-24.04 job waits 90 s only on synchronize when another run for
the PR started in the last 15 minutes; cancel-in-progress supersedes, and a
run that outlives the wait reports "superseded by <sha>" and plans nothing.
Labels: evals-no-debounce skips the wait, evals-fresh disables receipt reuse.

* perf(test): move the real-process browser settlement cases out of test-free-shards.test.ts (W6b)

The 19 owned-browser settlement modes were 85 s of the file's 95 s and could
not be packed apart from the fast runner unit cases. They move to a shared
fixture with two files (lifecycle 47 s, ownership 39 s); the unit file drops
to 10 s. Same modes, same assertions.

* chore(evals): delete the finished validation_phase dispatch and its inline planner (W8f)

Retirement (CEO-24): the protected behavior was a one-off cookie-repair
validation subset (eight dependent cases) and a quality/behavior split of
the census; that validation is complete, so the guarantee is withdrawn.
Branch validation dispatches evals.yml with evals_all.

* perf(test): inject the office-hours record grace in non-cooperative deadline tests

* perf(test): shrink aside-render process slack via GSTACK_RENDER_SLACK_MS in timeout tests

* perf(test): make the memorable lock give-up configurable for lock-contention tests

* perf(test): check install-timeout knob normalization through its own setup lines

* perf(test): inject a 2 s storage-reset deadline in the late isolated dispatch test

* perf(test): shorten the slow gbrain fake to 1 s, still past the 300 ms probe timeout

* ci(free-tests): run only cso-docker-integration in the free CSO Docker job (F16)

cso-node-lifecycle-integration and cso-stack-cold-integration need
GSTACK_CSO_TEST_STACK images and always skipped there; they stay in the CSO
runtime workflows through test:cso:docker.

* test(gen-skill-docs,plan-ceo): split mixed sentence pins into tokens and rules

Sentences that wrap a backticked or bold token keep the token (expectTokens)
and, when they state a safety rule, a keyword check; short safety sentences
(25-39 chars) get the same treatment.

* test(plan-ceo): convert ceo-workflow-clarity.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: periodic PTY case skill-e2e-plan-ceo-review-section-loading and the plan-ceo workflow judges.
Sentence pins: 13 -> 1.

* test(plan-eng): convert eng-review-routing.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: plan-eng E2E cases (skill-e2e-plan-eng-*) and the plan-eng workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 28 -> 6.

* test(plan-eng): convert eng-scope-entry-ap.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: plan-eng E2E cases (skill-e2e-plan-eng-*) and the plan-eng workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 16 -> 5.

* test(plan): convert plan-scope-selection.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: plan-review E2E cases and workflow judges in skill-llm-eval.
Sentence pins: 19 -> 2.

* test(qa): convert qa-lazy-sections.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: qa/qa-only E2E cases (skill-e2e-qa-*) and the qa workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 71 -> 11.

* test(qa): convert qa-browser-preservation.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: qa/qa-only E2E cases (skill-e2e-qa-*) and the qa workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 25 -> 11.

* test(qa): convert qa-probe-gates.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: qa/qa-only E2E cases (skill-e2e-qa-*) and the qa workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 20 -> 5.

* test(qa): convert qa-checkpoint-evidence.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: qa/qa-only E2E cases (skill-e2e-qa-*) and the qa workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 7 -> 5.

* test(qa): convert qa-evidence.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: qa/qa-only E2E cases (skill-e2e-qa-*) and the qa workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 4 -> 3.

* test(design): convert design-consultation-contract.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: design-consultation E2E/judge cases in touchfiles-data.
Sentence pins: 44 -> 11.

* test(outside-voice): convert run-in-background-guidance.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: outside-voice E2E cases and plan-review workflow judges.
Sentence pins: 35 -> 5.

* test(spec): convert spec-template-invariants.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: spec E2E/judge cases in touchfiles-data.
Sentence pins: 36 -> 21.

* perf(evals): 420 s census slice budget; case-shard skill-e2e-qa-workflow; seed its case walls (W5c)

* feat(evals): evals.yml dispatch contract for eval:bg (CEO-17/29, DX-1, ENG-8/12)

workflow_dispatch gains base_ref, base_sha, expected_sha, nonce and
pr_receipts. The nonce appears in run-name so the dispatcher resolves its
own run; evals_all=false runs the PR profile against base_sha/base_ref; a
checkout that differs from expected_sha fails before any paid work with a
named fix; pr_receipts reads that PR's receipts read-only through the
recover-receipts artifact path (never the cache) and never saves.

* ci(windows): pack the Windows lane with Windows-measured durations (W6e)

The first sharded run (37221451711) finished in 6.0 min: the Linux seed has
browse/test/cookie-import-native-job.test.ts at ~0 s (its cases skip on
Linux) but it takes 122 s on Windows, so one shard ran 242 s against an 84 s
prediction. The plan now reads scripts/free-test-durations-windows.json; a
record_durations dispatch times every Windows-safe file alone and uploads it.

* test(free): settlement case files import the runner rule they exercise

Keeps the split files out of the test-of-test ratchet: the retry-eligibility
rule is a direct runner import passed to the shared fixture.

* fix(marathon): no hollow plan-decision-classification shard; office-hours marathon scenario scoped to the pilot (W2f)

* test(free): satisfy the typecheck:test ratchet in the seed ratchet test

* refactor(ci-history): one shared GitHub history reader with the CI flake-ledger reader

Extract pass-rates' gh fetch layer into scripts/lib/ci-history.ts (CEO-09) and
add the W7a reader: paged run listings that fail whole on any page error,
per-run artifact downloads (cached, size-capped, data only), flake-ledger
parsing, the pre-registered flaky-file rule (> 5% of main free-tests runs over
a window of at least 20 runs, widened to the newest 20 runs when the window is
thinner), a job-summary table, and named unavailable reasons with next steps.

* feat(test-health): test:health report of the audit success metrics

scripts/test-health-report.ts (CEO-09/06/22/32, DX-8/9/12/13) prints every
success metric with its counting rule from CI history: PR full-fallback rate,
reused PR trial records, PR-lane spend per merged PR and per validated
revision, cancelled slice-minutes per week, push-to-verdict p50/p95, census
expected failed trials per run with raw failure rate per kind/class and
P(lane red) under the recorded panels vs single-trial aggregation, INFRA
re-dispatches, quarantine evidence (insufficient evidence distinct from
healthy), free flaky-pass rate, free/Windows wall, free serial time and the
net-complexity line. An unreadable input prints 'unavailable: <reason>; next:
<step>', never 0. --enforce fails on a flaky file (W7a) or > 5 unseeded free
files (CEO-10); unavailable checks never fail and keep the issue open.

* test(review): convert review-workflow-clarity.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: review E2E cases (skill-e2e-review*) and the review workflow judge in skill-llm-eval.
Sentence pins: 85 -> 17.

* test(review): convert review-entry-and-design-clarity-au.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: review E2E cases (skill-e2e-review*) and the review workflow judge in skill-llm-eval.
Sentence pins: 15 -> 4.

* test(review): convert review-enum-lifecycle.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: review E2E cases (skill-e2e-review*) and the review workflow judge in skill-llm-eval.
Sentence pins: 8 -> 0.

* test(ship): convert ship-control-flow.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: ship E2E cases (skill-e2e-ship*, skill-e2e-workflow) and the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge.
Sentence pins: 74 -> 9.

* test(ship): convert ship-skip-requeue.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: ship E2E cases (skill-e2e-ship*, skill-e2e-workflow) and the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge.
Sentence pins: 28 -> 3.

* test(ship): convert ship-plan-completion-invariants.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: ship E2E cases (skill-e2e-ship*, skill-e2e-workflow) and the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge.
Sentence pins: 28 -> 12.

* test(ship): convert ship-reentry-gates.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: ship E2E cases (skill-e2e-ship*, skill-e2e-workflow) and the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge.
Sentence pins: 16 -> 4.

* test(ship): convert ship-document-release-dispatch.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: ship E2E cases (skill-e2e-ship*, skill-e2e-workflow) and the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge.
Sentence pins: 11 -> 4.

* test(ship): convert ship-apple-gate.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: ship E2E cases (skill-e2e-ship*, skill-e2e-workflow) and the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge.
Sentence pins: 7 -> 0.

* test(ship): convert ship-skip-actor.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: ship E2E cases (skill-e2e-ship*, skill-e2e-workflow) and the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge.
Sentence pins: 6 -> 1.

* test(ship): convert ship-template-redaction.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: ship E2E cases (skill-e2e-ship*, skill-e2e-workflow) and the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge.
Sentence pins: 5 -> 4.

* test(ship): convert ship-publication-gates.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: ship E2E cases (skill-e2e-ship*, skill-e2e-workflow) and the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge.
Sentence pins: 5 -> 2.

* test(ship): convert ship-review-loop.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: ship E2E cases (skill-e2e-ship*, skill-e2e-workflow) and the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge.
Sentence pins: 3 -> 1.

* test(ship): convert ship-version-sync.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: ship E2E cases (skill-e2e-ship*, skill-e2e-workflow) and the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge.
Sentence pins: 5 -> 2.

* test(ship): convert ship-pr-liveness-policy.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: ship E2E cases (skill-e2e-ship*, skill-e2e-workflow) and the 'ship/SKILL.md workflow' judge.
Sentence pins: 4 -> 0.

* test(plan-review): convert plan-review-cases.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: plan-review E2E cases and workflow judges in skill-llm-eval.
Sentence pins: 58 -> 15.

* test(autoplan): convert autoplan-phase-order.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: autoplan E2E cases (skill-e2e-autoplan-*) and the autoplan workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 42 -> 11.

* test(autoplan): convert autoplan-phase-handoff.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: autoplan E2E cases (skill-e2e-autoplan-*) and the autoplan workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 20 -> 4.

* test(autoplan): convert autoplan-snapshot.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: autoplan E2E cases (skill-e2e-autoplan-*) and the autoplan workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 21 -> 5.

* test(outside-voice): convert outside-voice-preflight.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: outside-voice E2E cases and plan-review workflow judges.
Sentence pins: 26 -> 9.

* test(ask-format): convert resolver-ask-user-format.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: AUQ E2E cases (skill-e2e-auq-*); prompt-injection rule kept as a meaning check.
Sentence pins: 32 -> 15.

* test(skills): convert binding-template-drift.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: workflow judges in skill-llm-eval.
Sentence pins: 19 -> 13.

* test(skills): convert carve-plan-fixture.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: workflow judges in skill-llm-eval.
Sentence pins: 20 -> 6.

* test(land-and-deploy): convert land-and-deploy-postfail.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: land-and-deploy E2E cases and its workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 21 -> 14.

* test(land-and-deploy): convert land-and-deploy-ci-gate.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: land-and-deploy E2E cases and its workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 5 -> 4.

* test(land-and-deploy): convert land-and-deploy-flow.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: land-and-deploy E2E cases and its workflow judge.
Sentence pins: 5 -> 3.

* test(office-hours): convert office-hours-completion.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: office-hours E2E cases (skill-e2e-office-hours*).
Sentence pins: 16 -> 1.

* test(plan-ceo): restore the stale closing-route guard

The negative check for 'Closing hooks' / 'return to section' guards a retired
route token, not a sentence; the first conversion pass dropped it.

* ci(test-health): weekly test-health workflow with an honest tracking issue

New test-health.yml (CEO-18/DX-9): Monday 10:00 UTC after the periodic census
plus dispatch, free ubuntu-24.04 runner, permissions contents:read +
actions:read + issues:write only. Runs bun run test:health --since-days 7
--enforce; an enforced failure upserts one tracking issue, a run with
unavailable inputs keeps it open and lists them, and it closes only when every
enforced check has evidence and passes. Only main runs touch the issue.

* feat(evals): an edited paid test file runs its own gate cases in the PR lane (DX-11)

A gate case outside the audited fast profile is selected when its single
owning paid test file changed and the runner can select it by name (its
Bun test is named by the case id). The manifest records directCases and
validation accepts only recorded, name-addressable ones; the runner and
planner read the file->cases map from test-pr-profile. Cases the runner
cannot address stay deferred with the fix. An inventory test covers every
owned gate case. Touches one hunk each in test-paid-shards.ts and
lib/paid-plan.ts, and pr-shared-input-selection.test.ts's ship-skip pin.

* ci(osv): tracking issue for scheduled reds and a 14-day suppression expiry test

F11/W8f: a failed main OSV scan now upserts one tracking issue and a clean
scan closes it (scheduled reds notified no one during the August backlog).
A free test fails 14 days before any .osv-scanner.toml ignoreUntil (all four
expire 2026-11-30), with the fix: upgrade and delete, or re-justify and move
the date.

* test(ship,review): keep guards against retired fail-open instructions

'skip silently' on reviewer failure and 'do not block /ship on subagent
failure' were harmful instructions, not prose style; keep them absent with the
shortest distinctive phrase.

* feat(eval-select): default to the pr profile

DX-10: eval:select previews the PR lane's selection by default, matching
test:pr and eval:bg:pr; --profile full (or EVALS_PROFILE=full) keeps the plain
touchfile selection.

* test(evals): type-clean the recovery gh fake (typecheck:test ratchet)

* chore(windows): record the Windows duration seed (run 37221963236)

573 Windows-safe files timed alone on windows-latest; cookie-import-native-job
is 102 s there. Six shards now predict 154 s each.

* feat(evals): eval:bg dispatches the pushed ref to CI or runs locally under a 1.5x-planned cap (W5d, CEO-17/29, DX-1/2/3/7, ENG-12/19)

* feat(runners): --help on both shard runners via the shared flag loop; paid runner header describes today's planner/executor/report (W8e)

* test(windows): drop the stale Playwright exclusion and force-include probe-proven files (W6e)

A temporary windows-latest probe (run 37221995077) ran each of the 97 files
excluded for 'launches Playwright browser' or 'raw /tmp/ path' alone: all 17
Playwright files pass (Chromium is installed and Bun drives it there), and 41
of the /tmp files pass with executed cases. The Playwright pattern is removed
and the 41 files are force-included with the probe as their reason; the 36
real failures stay excluded. The curated subset grows from 573 to 631 files
and the ratchet floor follows. Windows curation moves to
scripts/lib/windows-curation.ts (the runner drops to 2000 lines).

* test(free): one install fixture cloned from a read-only seed (W6c, ENG-1)

Merge test/helpers/setup-codex-scope-fixture.ts into install-fixture.ts.
The checkout is built once per test file into a read-only seed and cloned
per fixture with copy-on-write where the filesystem has it (full copy
otherwise), restoring each file's own mode; clones never hard-link the
seed because put() and tests write in place. Callers register
afterAll(cleanupSeed); Bun's runner fires no exit event, so seeds of
killed runs are swept by pid. test/install-fixture.test.ts is the ENG-1
tripwire: put/setVersion/chmod in one clone leave the seed and a sibling
unchanged, and clones share no inodes with the read-only seed.

* test(free): split claude-overlay-setup by describe (W6b)

The 115 s serial file becomes default/lifecycle/installs files (5/4/3
tests, unchanged bodies) sharing test/helpers/claude-overlay-fixture.ts,
so the shard packer can balance them.

* test(cso): convert cso-contracts.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: cso E2E/judge cases (skill-e2e-cso*, cso-eval).
Sentence pins: 16 -> 8.

* test(cso): convert cso-preserved.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: cso E2E/judge cases (skill-e2e-cso*, cso-eval).
Sentence pins: 10 -> 3.

* test(cso): convert cso-eval.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: cso E2E/judge cases (skill-e2e-cso*, cso-eval).
Sentence pins: 7 -> 4.

* test(browser): convert aside-driver.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: Aside/browse E2E cases; the installer ban stays a meaning check.
Sentence pins: 27 -> 9.

* test(browser): convert third-party-actions.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: Aside/browse E2E cases; the installer ban stays a meaning check.
Sentence pins: 17 -> 2.

* test(skills): convert skill-validation.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: workflow judges in skill-llm-eval.
Sentence pins: 19 -> 6.

* test(skills): convert workflow-excerpt.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: workflow judges in skill-llm-eval.
Sentence pins: 37 -> 10.

* test(skills): convert question-tuning-registry-path.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: workflow judges in skill-llm-eval.
Sentence pins: 4 -> 0.

* test(skills): convert host-conformance.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: workflow judges in skill-llm-eval.
Sentence pins: 4 -> 4.

* test(memory): convert memory-ingest-landing.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: memory-ingest free tests that run the binary.
Sentence pins: 11 -> 9.

* test(windows): exclude the skip-only claude-overlay setup files from the Windows subset

Their real-setup cases are describe.skipIf(win32); after the split their bin/
spawns live in the shared helper, so the source scan stopped seeing them.

* test(skills): convert agents-digest.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: the owning skills' E2E cases and workflow judges; CLI/hook output and fixture-data pins in the tail were left alone.
Sentence pins: 1 -> 0.

* test(skills): convert brain-preflight.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: the owning skills' E2E cases and workflow judges; CLI/hook output and fixture-data pins in the tail were left alone.
Sentence pins: 2 -> 1.

* test(skills): convert codex-skill-isolation.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: the owning skills' E2E cases and workflow judges; CLI/hook output and fixture-data pins in the tail were left alone.
Sentence pins: 1 -> 0.

* test(skills): convert office-hours-review.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: the owning skills' E2E cases and workflow judges; CLI/hook output and fixture-data pins in the tail were left alone.
Sentence pins: 2 -> 1.

* test(skills): convert onboarding-moved-literals.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: the owning skills' E2E cases and workflow judges; CLI/hook output and fixture-data pins in the tail were left alone.
Sentence pins: 2 -> 2.

* test(skills): convert open-gstack-browser-liveness.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: the owning skills' E2E cases and workflow judges; CLI/hook output and fixture-data pins in the tail were left alone.
Sentence pins: 3 -> 2.

* test(skills): convert plan-floor-review.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: the owning skills' E2E cases and workflow judges; CLI/hook output and fixture-data pins in the tail were left alone.
Sentence pins: 3 -> 2.

* test(skills): convert plan-review-report-recording.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: the owning skills' E2E cases and workflow judges; CLI/hook output and fixture-data pins in the tail were left alone.
Sentence pins: 4 -> 2.

* test(skills): convert regression-1539-review-self-verify.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: the owning skills' E2E cases and workflow judges; CLI/hook output and fixture-data pins in the tail were left alone.
Sentence pins: 4 -> 0.

* test(skills): convert skill-fixture.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: the owning skills' E2E cases and workflow judges; CLI/hook output and fixture-data pins in the tail were left alone.
Sentence pins: 6 -> 3.

* test(skills): convert template-context-parity.test.ts sentence pins

Safety and authority sentences become expectMentions keyword checks (reword
freely, keep the rule); other English sentence pins are dropped. Headings,
labels, placeholders, commands, field names, enum/status tokens and ordering
checks stay. Behavior and wording: the owning skills' E2E cases and workflow judges; CLI/hook output and fixture-data pins in the tail were left alone.
Sentence pins: 1 -> 0.

* test: restore pins on renderer output and paid-fixture inputs

cso-contracts (the report renderer's required empty phrase), memory-ingest
(binary output), carve-plan-fixture, ship-skip-actor and cso-eval (inputs the
paid harness builds) assert product or fixture output, not skill prose, so the
value-bar narrowing does not apply to them.

* feat(eval-policy): v2 series identity, HARNESS_VERSION guard and identity backtest

W4a (CEO-27/ENG-3/DX-6), not yet wired to the writer: caseSeriesIdentitiesV2
keys a case by the bytes it owns (paid test file, fixtures, its skills' prompt
files including the generated SKILL.md) plus HARNESS_VERSION, and records the
full consumed-input fingerprint as provenance. scripts/harness-version.json
pins the blob of every shared-harness file (GLOBAL_TOUCHFILES plus the session
runners, PTY harness, e2e gate and LLM judge), one line per file;
test/harness-version.test.ts fails on drift with both fixes, and
scripts/bump-harness-version.ts records the decision: --bump (new series for
every case) or --non-behavioral (compatibility entry, no reset).
eval-trial-series --backtest replays identities over weekly main revisions
and recorded trials (ENG-3/DX-12).

* feat(pass-rates): weekly history is main's scheduled runs plus main dispatches

W4b: pass-rates reads evals-periodic history from main only, keeping scheduled
runs and main dispatches and never a branch dispatch, so back-to-back branch
validation runs neither feed pass rates nor count as weeks for quarantine
expiry or drift. --branch <name> still reads one branch's runs for inspection.

* docs(test-audit): EVAL_POLICY v2 decision memo with the identity backtest

D1 memo (CEO-33, ENG-3, DX-12, CEO-27): P(green) arithmetic, false-blocking
targets, the v2 identity rule and harness guard, weekly history, W4c evidence
(the named 'stochastic' cases pass 26/27 to 34/34, so they stay rule), the
backtest over 29 weekly main revisions and 14,898 recorded trials, what it
means for quarantine reachability, alternatives (gating vs trended, adaptive
panels not adopted, buy vs build), and the rollback proof on the pre-PR reader.

* feat(eval-policy): EVAL_POLICY v2 writer: case-owned series identity

The v2 writer, last commit of the W4 block (DX-12/ENG-14/ENG-21): the report
job's stamp now writes caseSeriesIdentitiesV2 (case-owned bytes plus
HARNESS_VERSION) as series_identity, the full consumed-input fingerprint as
series_fingerprint and harness_version as provenance, and EVAL_POLICY.version
is 2 (approved 2026-10-04, D1). The v1 touchfile identity is removed.
Rollback = revert this commit (and the W4 commits above the reader-compat
floor); readers then ignore the v2 records with a printed count.

* test: restore pins on paid-harness prompt inputs

review-enum-lifecycle and plan-review-report-recording assert the prompt a
paid case's harness builds (opts.prompt / call.prompt), a fixture contract,
not skill prose.

* test(security): check injected safety lines on meaning, not capitals

content-security, the canary instruction and the arm judge prompt still must
carry their never-follow / never-output / exact-"none" rules; the checks are
case-insensitive keyword checks so emphasis can change. The UNTRUSTED envelope
markers and "none" value stay exact tokens. (Hidden element stripping fails
locally only because Playwright Chromium is not installed; same at base.)

* test(plan-ceo): keep the outside-voice scope-summary rule as a meaning check

The first codemod pass left an empty if body (TS1313).

* chore(windows): re-record the Windows duration seed for the 631-file subset (run 37222668939)

* ci(free-tests): summarize every shard's flake ledger in the aggregate job (W7a)

The aggregate downloads flake-ledger-* (one subdirectory per shard) and
appends lane C's `scripts/test-health-report.ts flake-summary` output to the
job summary before strict verification. The runner's own flaky table is
dropped so the ledger reader stays the single source; --ci-verify keeps the
shard-overrun warning.

* feat(evals): free test files anywhere and the stored-zip helper never restore the full PR gate (W1a)

The CEO-23 replay found design/test free tests forcing fallback (36485436963).

* feat(evals): replay recorded PR pushes through today's selector (CEO-23, ENG-18)

scripts/replay-pr-selection.ts reports per push the recorded vs replayed
mode and case count, dropped gate cases, retired failed cases and every
miss (a failed case that depends on the diff but is no longer selected).

* refactor(evals): one case-sharded carve-section-loading file with a case id and touchfiles per skill (W5a)

* test(free): hold qa-deadline's full-pipe case on a FIFO, not a paused Bun stream

Bun gives a child 'pipe' stdio a unix socketpair, so whether the 2 MB fill
actually blocks depends on the parent's reader and the host's socket buffer
sizes. CI (run 36761671811, both attempts) saw exit 0 after ~130 ms; with
net.core.{w,r}mem_default=4 MiB locally the old case fails 3/3 the same way.
A FIFO the test never reads is bounded by the kernel pipe buffer, so the
receipt write genuinely blocks and the 5 s settlement deadline must fire.
The 7 s bound now starts once the preload has queued the write.

* test(free): event-driven waits in pty-output-wake

close-releases-observers: the 500 ms wall race becomes an ordering check
(the waiter is released while only SIGINT has been sent, before close's
escalation finishes), and the Bun.spawn spy fakes only the PTY launch so a
shard neighbor's in-process spawn cannot add a stray SIGTERM (CI runs
36015568981, 36036582721, 36074636848).

continuous-redraws: the fixture spinner stops once the observer has made
five coalesced reads, so the run reaches its work deadline with no redraw
in flight. Streaming right up to the deadline raced the helper's screen
drain and failed as 'PTY screen parse failed; viewport is incomplete'
(5 CI runs 09-30..10-03; 4/40 locally under 8 busy loops, 0/40 after).

* test(free): session-runner long-capture handshake waits for the collected Read event

The fake CLI's init line arms the runner's work-phase timer, so the worker's
handshake (work-ready + a >200 s timer) could pass before the runner's read
loop had collected the Read event printed just before work-ready. Advancing
the clock then killed the run with the Read lost: readSection false (CI run
37194511124). The worker now also waits for the runner's own progress line
for that Read. Forcing the observed ordering (work-ready 200 ms before the
Read line) fails the old test deterministically and passes the new one.

* test(free): budget-override restores the CI variables it rewrites

Its provenance cases set and then deleted CI, GITHUB_ACTIONS, GITHUB_REF_NAME,
GITHUB_SHA and the GitLab CI_* names without restoring them, so in a CI shard
every later file ran with CI unset. qa-only-cleanup's real browse daemons
then launched Chromium without --no-sandbox, the sandbox failed on the
runner, and both real-Chromium cases timed out with 'QA cleanup fixture did
not become ready' (shard 12 attempt 1 of six runs on 10-04, retry alone
green). Retained startup log: 'Chromium sandboxing failed!', child env with
no CI. Reproduced 3/3 with CI=true, userns denied and budget-override ahead
of qa-only-cleanup in one process; 0/3 after.

* test(free): pr-shared-input-selection names its base and package history

Every selection now passes EVALS_BASE and packageVersionOnly explicitly, so
no case reads the checkout's git state. Before, 12 calls ran
detectBaseBranch and the cumulative case diffed package.json against
merge-base(origin/main, HEAD) — the ambient input that turned main red in
runs 36572856858 and 36594314027. A PATH git spy counts 14 git calls in the
old file and 0 now.

* feat(evals): derive PR-lane dependents for unmapped files instead of restoring the full gate

scripts/pr-dependencies.ts derives, from the checked-out tree, which paid
cases consume each repository file: test import closures, repo paths and
path.join segments in code/shell/skill text (whole-line comments and
selection data excluded), bin script names, compiled binaries by outfile
path (scripts/build.sh), package scripts, template placeholders through
RESOLVERS, and host configs by host id. The global touchfiles' import
closure is global.

PR selection: an unmapped file with derived consumers puts the run in the
new 'dependents' mode (every dependent gate case and judge, no profile cut);
a tracked file under a derivable directory that nothing reaches is exempt;
periodic/marathon workflows, .gitignore and tsconfig.test.json never run
the PR gate. PR_FULL_GATE_FILES is the fail-closed list (deps, CI image,
setup, build, evals.yml and its actions, test preload, tsconfig.json,
.gitattributes, the skill generator and preamble resolvers, the eval
policy). Untracked or underivable files restore the full gate with fix
text. The summary and PR comment list derived dependents.

* feat(evals): replay misses count derived dependents; report wave vs ordinary pushes (CEO-23)

* test: drop FREE_FIXTURES entries for fixtures deleted in W8b

* test: re-shape the census attribution fixture to qa-workflow and carve case shards

* test: census fixture case order

* ci: 420 s PR-lane slices with per-slice ceilings; periodic tracking issue only on main

evals.yml joins the census lanes at the 420 s slice budget (W5c/CEO-15) and
indexes each eval slice's job timeout from .plan.sliceCiTimeoutMinutes with
the slice-deadline clock as its first step (W2c/ENG-2). evals-periodic.yml's
tracking-issue upsert and close run only on refs/heads/main, so a branch
dispatch whose gate census is skipped (CEO-04) never opens or closes #2755.

* docs: integrate lane docs for the audit wave (eval-bg backends, PR fallback, policy v2, ceilings, evidence)

- CLAUDE.md: 'Running evals as an agent' describes scripts/eval-bg.ts's
  dispatch and local backends, forcing flags, the sentinel and status;
  eval:select's PR-profile default; prompt-structure helper and value-bar
  terms. instruction-facts now requires scripts/eval-bg.ts in that section.
- CONTRIBUTING.md: decision table gains test:health, eval:select default,
  eval:bg backends and the include_gate_census / evals_all dispatch lines;
  420 s runners and per-runner ceilings; flake ledger, OSV tracking issue
  and expiry test, weekly test health; prompt-structure guidance.
- AGENTS.md: build commands name the eval:bg backend choice and test:health.
- docs/TESTING_INTERNALS.md: anchors the fix texts point to
  (#pr-paid-lane-fallback, #pass-rate-policy-versions, #harness-version,
  #flake-ledger, #duration-seed), receipts/recovery/debounce, per-slice
  ceilings, the slice deadline with not_run/hung and checkpoints, the eval-bg
  cap formula in place of the detach floors, EVAL_POLICY v2 history, carve
  case shards via --case.
- docs/test-audit-2026-10.md: CEO-23 replay (165/168 -> 164/168
  full-fallback, 0 misses), ENG-17 slice table (re-measured on this tree),
  D2 prose-pin metric.
- TODOS.md: progress note on 'Let pass-rate history decide the rest'.
- test/testing-internals-anchors.test.ts: every TESTING_INTERNALS.md#anchor
  named in code must match a heading.

* test(free): hold qa-deadline's blocked-output-pipe receipts on a FIFO

The five 'guard %s receipts survive a blocked output pipe' cases filled a
paused Bun child pipe with 2 MiB. That pipe is a unix socketpair, so the
fill only blocks while the host's socket buffers are smaller than the write:
with net.core.{w,r}mem_default=4 MiB the old cases fail 13 of 15 case runs
(the guard finishes before the test resumes the stream). The held stream is
now a FIFO the test drains only after resume(), bounded by the kernel pipe
buffer; Windows keeps the paused pipe. Bounds and assertions are unchanged.

* test(free): qa-deadline waits for a written pid, not just the pid file

DRIVER and LEAF write their pid with writeFileSync, so under load ready()
can see the file before its digits and fail 'expected > 0, received 0'
(seen once in 150 loaded runs). After any early failure the finally
SIGKILLs the CLI, which orphans the detached command group; a leaf whose pid
file is not yet readable then keeps the output stream open and the case
hangs to its 15 s timeout (2/80 old-file runs and 3/310 FIFO-only runs
under 8 busy loops; the instrumented hang showed the CLI already SIGKILLed
by the finally). ready() now polls within the same 3 s bound until the file
holds a positive pid.

* fix(evals): a deleted file selects the dependents of the live files that still reference it

PR selection treated every path absent from the head tree as an unknown
dependency, so any PR that deleted a file forced the full gate. A deleted
path is now placed like a live one, against the head tree: a matching
touchfile selects its cases; live code, skill text or a full-gate input that
still references it (path, extensionless import target, relative import,
bin name, ancestor directory, compiled-binary outfile; whole-line comments
and data files excluded) contributes its dependents, a full-gate referencer
restores the full gate with a 'deleted but still referenced' fix, and an
unreferenced deleted path has no dependents. Deleted PR_FULL_GATE_FILES
entries still force the full gate. Tests that used absent paths as stand-ins
for new unmapped files now use tracked root files (or an explicit tracked
set); the CEO-23 replay counts misses through those references too.

* docs: integrate free-suite lane docs (seed anchor, Windows lane, native qualification, install fixture, flake rules)

- docs/TESTING_INTERNALS.md: '### Free suite duration seed' (the anchor the
  seed messages link) with DX-13, the 99th-percentile packing, --ci-plan
  warning, --ci-verify overruns and the CEO-10 seed ratchet; the Windows
  6-job lane, its Windows-measured seed and refresh dispatch, curation and
  WINDOWS_CURATED_FLOOR; native-qualification.yml modes; the merged
  install fixture; test-only timing knobs; the flake-ledger job summary,
  Windows ledger names and three free-suite flake rules; zsh in the
  Ubicloud mirror.
- scripts/test-health-report.ts links #free-suite-duration-seed, so the
  two seed messages share one heading (the anchor test caught the split).
- CONTRIBUTING.md: Windows seed refresh and native qualification rows;
  seed-source pointer. AGENTS.md: Windows six-job lane.
- docs/cso-release-qualification.md: the free CSO Docker job runs only
  cso-docker-integration.test.ts.
- docs/test-audit-2026-10.md: free-suite evidence lines.
- TODOS.md: CEO-11b progress note on the pre-push hook hang.

* test: final duration seeds on the integrated tree; retire the emptied cookie-validation-phases file

Linux seed re-recorded on Ubicloud standard-16 and the Windows seed from
dispatch run 37227140871, both at c903310. The seed allowlist drops the three
entries that are no longer over the ceiling. cookie-validation-phases lost its
validation-phase pins with W8f and its Windows/Dia pins moved to
windows-native-workflows with native-qualification.yml, so the file is
deleted and the curated Windows floor rises to 638. The Windows recorder writes
the seed at its default path so GSTACK_FREE_TEST_DURATIONS never leaks into
timed tests.

* test: re-express stale PR-lane pins against the new evals.yml contract

- ci-eval-cache: the profile/fresh expressions now include evals_all=false
  dispatches and pr_receipts/evals-fresh; the PR store is restored only by
  recover-receipts (still scoped to repository_id + PR, PR events only),
  plan-slices takes it as an artifact and never touches the cache, saves
  stay PR-only, EVALS_CACHE_PR binds pr_receipts dispatches, and the report
  verdict artifact carries report receipts.
- ci-paid-coordination: plan-slices needs only the two ubuntu coordination
  jobs (never the image); the fork/Dependabot clause is unchanged on
  plan-slices and also gates debounce and recover-receipts; only recovery
  holds actions: read.
- qa-supervision-selection: auq-consistency and auq-verbose-vs-carved-ab
  (W1b) reach claude-pty-runner and pty-screen through auq-sdk-capture,
  exactly as auq-format-gate does.
- paid-retry-supervision: the full-validation plan uses a tracked full-gate
  input (setup); an absent path is now a deletion placed by its references.

* ci(windows): record the Windows seed at the default path

* chore: HARNESS_VERSION non-behavioral decision for the audit-wave integration

* v1.91.20.0 release metadata: test, eval and CI audit wave

* test(compare-board): wait for the post-submit state the feedback POST settles

The two post-submit assertions read the board once, but the board disables
the submit button and shows the message only after its feedback POST
resolves. On a loaded Ubicloud shard the read beat the round trip (FLAKY-PASS
in the final free-suite run). Delaying the POST by 400 ms reproduces both
failures at HEAD; polling for the settled state passes.

* test(plan-eng plan-mode): run the seeded STOP-gate smoke in its own fixture project

The seeded plan proposes a custom test runner, so the review's Step 0 reads
the working tree's test setup. In the gstack checkout that is gstack's own
sharded runner, and the case timed out at 300 s in census 37228573062 after
this wave reshaped the runner. It now runs in a four-file Bun project with
git history, with the product-notice suppression auto-decide-preserved's
standalone fixture already uses. Local pass on Bun 1.4.0 + Claude Code
2.1.284: asked in 121 s, seed tokens observed.

* test(plan-mode evidence): pin the seeded eng smoke's isolated fixture cwd and env

* ci(image): Git >= 2.44 so paid shared-libs cases run the supported safe-git path

bin/gstack-safe-git prefixes every /deslop-shared-libs Git read with
--no-lazy-fetch, which noble's git 2.43 rejects (exit 129). The eval image
therefore ran every paid shared-libs case on the unsupported-Git fallback:
local history unavailable, branch HEAD unknown. shared-libs-read-only failed
on exactly that in PR run 37230639146 ("Current branch HEAD: unknown. The
safe-git probe failed (unknown option: --no-lazy-fetch, git 2.43.0)") and in
2 of 74 earlier PR runs. The image installs current Git from the Ubuntu Git
Maintainers PPA and fails its build if --no-lazy-fetch is missing; the
deliberate unsupported-Git case keeps its fake Git.

* eval: pool matching branch census trials into main's pass-rate series (D1 option b)

Approved 2026-10-05. eval:pass-rates also reads completed branch census runs
in the weekly window. A branch trial counts only toward a series a main run
also has (same case-owned bytes, HARNESS_VERSION, model and CLI), so a branch
extends main's history but never starts or becomes a case's current series;
weeks for quarantine expiry still count main runs only. The D1 backtest put
this at 67 of 210 cases with enough trials for the entry rule, against 0 of
195 on main alone.

* 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).

(cherry picked from commit e14c0c1de1)

* 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.

(cherry picked from commit 78d4a2a343)

* qa: fit the C2 judge fixes under the qa and review size caps

Brings GSTA-21's qa.ts trims (3bd625d, ce73af0) for the cherry-picked C2
wording: PROBE_DIR keeps 'owned', the stop line points at §4, and the
post-expiry rule is one sentence, so /review fits its cap. qa measures
93,303 / 84,049 = 1.11010 against the same 1.1102 cap GSTA-21 set. The
qa-only workflow judge passed 10 of 10 local trials on this wording (7 of 10
before the C2 fixes).

* 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.

(cherry picked from commit e36e622add)

* 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.

(cherry picked from commit f8dc64031e)

* chore: restore the audit wave's package scripts after the main merge (version 1.91.23)

* qa: keep main's one-sentence post-expiry rule for /review and /ship

The C2 variants ("step 4c reruns plan checks only" and "even in 4c") read
to the review workflow judge as conflicting with Step 5.8's repeat-pass
reruns: 6 of 10 local trials passed with the longer sentence and PR run
37248650879 failed on the shorter one. Main's "Post-expiry smoke rechecks are
not-run." passed 10 of 10. qa (9/10), qa-only (10/10) and
ship-managed-hook-refresh (10/10) were measured on the same tree.

* v1.91.24.0: move off the slot #3036 claims
2026-10-05 01:29:54 +00:00

92 KiB
Raw Blame History

Skill Deep Dives

Detailed guides for every gstack skill — philosophy, workflow, and examples.

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.
/spec Spec Author Turn vague intent into a precise, executable spec in five phases. Backlog-ready output that downstream skills can pick up. Optional agent spawn at the end.
/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 Interactive plan-mode design review. Rates each dimension 0-10, explains what a 10 looks like, fixes the plan. Works in plan mode.
/design-consultation Design Partner Build a complete design system from scratch. Knows the landscape, proposes creative risks, generates realistic product mockups. Design at the heart of all other phases.
/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.
/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 Live-site visual audit + fix loop. 80-item audit, then fixes what it finds. Atomic commits, before/after screenshots.
/design-shotgun Design Explorer Generate multiple AI design variants, open a comparison board in your browser, and iterate until you approve a direction. Taste memory biases toward your preferences.
/design-html Design Engineer Generates production-quality Pretext-native HTML. Works with approved mockups, CEO plans, design reviews, or from scratch. Text reflows on resize, heights adjust to content. Smart API routing per design type. Framework detection for React/Svelte/Vue. Previews render through your Aside browser.
/qa QA Lead Explore browser and functional behavior (APIs, CLIs, jobs, workers, webhooks), reproduce defects, prove regressions fail before repair, then fix and re-verify.
/qa-only QA Reporter Explore the same surfaces and propose regression cases with evidence, without changing product code or tests.
/scrape Browser Data Extractor Pull structured data off a web page — tables, lists, prices — in your Aside browser with the page's real logged-in state. Same driver contract as /browse. On the fallback browser, a codified browser-skill answers a repeat intent in ~200ms.
/skillify Skill Codifier Fallback-browser skill: walks back through your conversation, finds the last /scrape prototype, synthesizes script + test + fixture, runs the test, asks before committing. On Aside, durable per-site automation belongs to Aside's own skills.
/ship Release Engineer Sync main, run tests, explore changed behavior within a bound, audit coverage and docs before final verification, then push and open or update a PR. Bootstraps test frameworks when appropriate.
/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 in your Aside browser.
/benchmark Performance Engineer Baseline page load times, Core Web Vitals, and resource sizes. Compare before/after on every PR. Track trends over time.
/cso Chief Security Officer Supported security findings with explicit coverage. Static assessment remains available without catalog profiles; contained runtime/scanner execution requires matching qualified profiles. 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.
/document-release Technical Writer Audit relevant docs on every ship before final verification; standalone runs can also update docs after a PR exists. Catches stale READMEs and reports unresolved gaps.
/document-generate Technical Writer Generate Diataxis docs (tutorial / how-to / reference / explanation) for a feature from code.
/retro Eng Manager Team-aware weekly retro. Per-person breakdowns, shipping streaks, test health trends, growth opportunities.
/browse QA Engineer Give the agent eyes. Drives your Aside browser first — real sessions, real clicks, real screenshots — through deterministic aside repl scripts, and falls back to gstack's own Chromium (~100ms per command) when Aside isn't there.
/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 the fallback browser. Choose your profile and domains; check sign-in separately. Unnecessary on Aside, which 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.
/plan-devex-review DX Reviewer Plan-stage DX review. TTHW (time-to-hello-world), magical moments, friction points, persona traces. Three modes: Expansion, Polish, Triage.
/devex-review DX Reviewer (live) Live developer experience audit. Walks the actual onboarding flow, measures TTHW, catches the docs lies.
/plan-tune Question Tuner Self-tune AskUserQuestion sensitivity per question. Mark questions as never-ask, always-ask, or only-for-one-way.
/spec Spec Author Turn vague intent into a precise, executable spec in five phases. Files a GitHub issue, optionally spawns a Claude Code agent in a fresh worktree, and lets /ship close the source issue on merge.
/learn Memory Manage what gstack learned across sessions. Review, search, prune, and export project-specific patterns and preferences.
/context-save Save State Save working context (git state, decisions, remaining work) so any future session can resume.
/context-restore Restore State Resume from a saved context, even across Conductor workspace handoffs.
/health Code Quality Dashboard Wraps type checker, linter, tests, dead code detection. Computes a weighted 0-10 score; tracks trends over time.
/deslop-shared-libs Shared Code Reviewer Find worthwhile shared-code extractions in recent work. Recommendations only.
/test-audit Test Auditor Sweep existing tests for low-value, implementation-coupled or duplicate tests. Report-only unless you approve a batch.
/landing-report Ship Queue Dashboard Read-only snapshot of the workspace-aware ship queue. Which version slots are claimed, which sibling workspaces have WIP.
/benchmark-models Model Benchmark Side-by-side cross-model benchmark for skills (Claude vs GPT vs Gemini). Latency, tokens, cost, optional LLM-judged quality.
Multi-AI
/codex Second Opinion OpenAI Codex review, challenge, and consultation. Available outside the Codex harness.
/claude-code Second Opinion Claude Code review, challenge, and consultation. Available outside the Claude Code harness; used for automatic outside reviews in Codex.
/pair-agent Remote Agent Bridge Pair a remote AI agent (OpenClaw, Codex, Cursor, Hermes) with gstack's own browser. Scoped tunnel, locked allowlist, session token. Fallback-browser skill; agents driving Aside open their own tabs.
/setup-gbrain Memory Sync Set up gbrain for cross-machine session memory sync. One command from zero to live.
/sync-gbrain Keep Brain Current Refresh gbrain against this repo's code; teach the agent when to use gbrain search/code-def over Grep. Idempotent; safe to re-run.
Safety & Utility
/careful Safety Guardrails Warns before destructive commands (rm -rf, DROP TABLE, force-push, git reset --hard). Override any MEDIUM warning; root/home recursive deletes and default-branch force-pushes are hard-denied. Common build cleanups whitelisted.
/freeze Edit Lock Restrict all file edits to a single directory. Blocks Edit and Write outside the boundary. Accident prevention for debugging.
/guard Full Safety Combines /careful + /freeze in one command. Maximum safety for prod work.
/unfreeze Unlock Remove the /freeze boundary, allowing edits everywhere again.
/open-gstack-browser GStack Browser Launch gstack's own browser headed, with sidebar, anti-bot stealth, auto model routing, cookie import, and Claude Code integration. The visible face of the fallback engine; with Aside open you watch the agent's tabs there.
/setup-deploy Deploy Configurator One-time setup for /land-and-deploy. Detects your platform, production URL, and deploy commands.
/gstack-upgrade Self-Updater Upgrade gstack to the latest version. Detects global vs vendored install, syncs both, shows what changed.
/make-pdf PDF Generator Turn any markdown file into a publication-quality PDF. Proper margins, page numbers, cover pages, clickable TOC. Mermaid/excalidraw fences render as vector diagrams; --to html|docx for other formats. Prints through your Aside browser (macOS 15+), or gstack's bundled browser when Aside is absent.
/diagram Diagram Maker English in, diagram out: mermaid source + editable .excalidraw (open it on excalidraw.com, hand-drawn style) + rendered SVG/PNG. Fully offline, rendered through your Aside browser (macOS 15+) or gstack's bundled browser when Aside is absent.
/ios-qa iOS QA Lead Live-device iOS QA via USB CoreDevice tunnel + embedded StateServer. Reads Swift source, codegens accessors, drives the real iPhone. Optionally exposes the device over Tailscale for remote agents.
/ios-fix iOS Autonomous Fixer Closes the find→fix→verify loop on a real iPhone. Captures a reproducing snapshot, fixes the source, rebuilds, redeploys, verifies.
/ios-design-review iOS Designer's Eye 10-dimension Apple HIG audit on a real iPhone. Rates each screen, says what would make it a 10.
/ios-clean iOS Bridge Cleanup Convenience wrapper to strip DebugBridge SPM + #if DEBUG wiring. The structural Release-build guard is in Package.swift + CI; this skill is for guided manual removals.
/ios-sync iOS Bridge Resync Regenerate accessors and Swift templates against the latest upstream gstack. Run when you add new @Observable classes or upgrade gstack.

/office-hours

This is where every project should start.

Before you plan, before you review, before you write code — sit down with a YC-style partner and think about what you're actually building. Not what you think you're building. What you're actually building.

The reframe

Here's what happened on a real project. The user said: "I want to build a daily briefing app for my calendar." Reasonable request. Then it asked about the pain — specific examples, not hypotheticals. They described an assistant missing things, calendar items across multiple Google accounts with stale info, prep docs that were AI slop, events with wrong locations that took forever to track down.

It came back with: "I'm going to push back on the framing, because I think you've outgrown it. You said 'daily briefing app for multi-Google-Calendar management.' But what you actually described is a personal chief of staff AI."

Then it extracted five capabilities the user didn't realize they were describing:

  1. Watches your calendar across all accounts and detects stale info, missing locations, permission gaps
  2. Generates real prep work — not logistics summaries, but the intellectual work of preparing for a board meeting, a podcast, a fundraiser
  3. Manages your CRM — who are you meeting, what's the relationship, what do they want, what's the history
  4. Prioritizes your time — flags when prep needs to start early, blocks time proactively, ranks events by importance
  5. Trades money for leverage — actively looks for ways to delegate or automate

That reframe changed the entire project. They were about to build a calendar app. Now they're building something ten times more valuable — because the skill listened to their pain instead of their feature request.

Premise challenge

After the reframe, it presents premises for you to validate. Not "does this sound good?" — actual falsifiable claims about the product:

  1. The calendar is the anchor data source, but the value is in the intelligence layer on top
  2. The assistant doesn't get replaced — they get superpowered
  3. The narrowest wedge is a daily briefing that actually works
  4. CRM integration is a must-have, not a nice-to-have

You agree, disagree, or adjust. Every premise you accept becomes load-bearing in the design doc.

Implementation alternatives

Then it generates 2-3 concrete implementation approaches with honest effort estimates:

  • Approach A: Daily Briefing First — narrowest wedge, ships tomorrow, M effort (human: ~3 weeks / CC: ~2 days)
  • Approach B: CRM-First — build the relationship graph first, L effort (human: ~6 weeks / CC: ~4 days)
  • Approach C: Full Vision — everything at once, XL effort (human: ~3 months / CC: ~1.5 weeks)

Recommends A because you learn from real usage. CRM data comes naturally in week two.

Two modes

Startup mode — for founders and intrapreneurs building a business. You get six forcing questions distilled from how YC partners evaluate products: demand reality, status quo, desperate specificity, narrowest wedge, observation & surprise, and future-fit. These questions are uncomfortable on purpose. If you can't name a specific human who needs your product, that's the most important thing to learn before writing any code.

Builder mode — for hackathons, side projects, open source, learning, and having fun. You get an enthusiastic collaborator who helps you find the coolest version of your idea. What would make someone say "whoa"? What's the fastest path to something you can share? The questions are generative, not interrogative.

The design doc

Both modes end with a design doc written to ~/.gstack/projects/ — and that doc feeds directly into /plan-ceo-review and /plan-eng-review. The full lifecycle is now: office-hours → plan → implement → review → QA → ship → retro.

After the design doc is approved, /office-hours reflects on what it noticed about how you think — not generic praise, but specific callbacks to things you said during the session. The observations appear in the design doc too, so you re-encounter them when you re-read later.


/plan-ceo-review

This is my founder mode.

This is where I want the model to think with taste, ambition, user empathy, and a long time horizon. I do not want it taking the request literally. I want it asking a more important question first:

What is this product actually for?

I think of this as Brian Chesky mode.

The point is not to implement the obvious ticket. The point is to rethink the problem from the user's point of view and find the version that feels inevitable, delightful, and maybe even a little magical.

Example

Say I am building a Craigslist-style listing app and I say:

"Let sellers upload a photo for their item."

A weak assistant will add a file picker and save an image.

That is not the real product.

In /plan-ceo-review, I want the model to ask whether "photo upload" is even the feature. Maybe the real feature is helping someone create a listing that actually sells.

If that is the real job, the whole plan changes.

Now the model should ask:

  • Can we identify the product from the photo?
  • Can we infer the SKU or model number?
  • Can we search the web and draft the title and description automatically?
  • Can we pull specs, category, and pricing comps?
  • Can we suggest which photo will convert best as the hero image?
  • Can we detect when the uploaded photo is ugly, dark, cluttered, or low-trust?
  • Can we make the experience feel premium instead of like a dead form from 2007?

That is what /plan-ceo-review does for me.

It does not just ask, "how do I add this feature?" It asks, "what is the 10-star product hiding inside this request?"

Four modes

  • SCOPE EXPANSION — dream big. The agent proposes the ambitious version. Every expansion is presented as an individual decision you opt into. Recommends enthusiastically.
  • SELECTIVE EXPANSION — hold your current scope as the baseline, but see what else is possible. The agent surfaces opportunities one by one with neutral recommendations — you cherry-pick the ones worth doing.
  • HOLD SCOPE — maximum rigor on the existing plan. No expansions surfaced.
  • SCOPE REDUCTION — find the minimum viable version. Cut everything else.

Visions and decisions are persisted to ~/.gstack/projects/ so they survive beyond the conversation. Exceptional visions can be promoted to docs/designs/ in your repo for the team.


/plan-eng-review

This is my eng manager mode.

Once the product direction is right, I want a different kind of intelligence entirely. I do not want more sprawling ideation. I do not want more "wouldn't it be cool if." I want the model to become my best technical lead.

This mode should nail:

  • architecture
  • system boundaries
  • data flow
  • state transitions
  • failure modes
  • edge cases
  • trust boundaries
  • test coverage

And one surprisingly big unlock for me: diagrams.

LLMs get way more complete when you force them to draw the system. Sequence diagrams, state diagrams, component diagrams, data-flow diagrams, even test matrices. Diagrams force hidden assumptions into the open. They make hand-wavy planning much harder.

So /plan-eng-review is where I want the model to build the technical spine that can carry the product vision.

Example

Take the same listing app example.

Let's say /plan-ceo-review already did its job. We decided the real feature is not just photo upload. It is a smart listing flow that:

  • uploads photos
  • identifies the product
  • enriches the listing from the web
  • drafts a strong title and description
  • suggests the best hero image

Now /plan-eng-review takes over.

Now I want the model to answer questions like:

  • What is the architecture for upload, classification, enrichment, and draft generation?
  • Which steps happen synchronously, and which go to background jobs?
  • Where are the boundaries between app server, object storage, vision model, search/enrichment APIs, and the listing database?
  • What happens if upload succeeds but enrichment fails?
  • What happens if product identification is low-confidence?
  • How do retries work?
  • How do we prevent duplicate jobs?
  • What gets persisted when, and what can be safely recomputed?

And this is where I want diagrams — architecture diagrams, state models, data-flow diagrams, test matrices. Diagrams force hidden assumptions into the open. They make hand-wavy planning much harder.

That is /plan-eng-review.

Not "make the idea smaller." Make the idea buildable.

One note on invocation: in plan mode, the skill skips the "what should I review?" scope question and reviews your active plan automatically, announcing its pick in one line ("Scope gate: plan mode — auto-selected B") so you can redirect it. Name a target explicitly ("review PLAN.md") and your choice wins in any mode. Outside plan mode with nothing named, it asks first — that gate is a hard stop.

Review Readiness Dashboard

Every review (CEO, Eng, Design) logs its result. At the end of each review, you see a dashboard:

+====================================================================+
|                    REVIEW READINESS DASHBOARD                       |
+====================================================================+
| Review          | Runs | Last Run            | Status    | Required |
|-----------------|------|---------------------|-----------|----------|
| Eng Review      |  1   | 2026-03-16 15:00    | CLEAR     | YES      |
| CEO Review      |  1   | 2026-03-16 14:30    | CLEAR     | no       |
| Design Review   |  0   | —                   | —         | no       |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| VERDICT: CLEARED — Eng Review passed                                |
+====================================================================+

Eng Review is the only required gate (disable with gstack-config set skip_eng_review true). CEO and Design are informational — recommended for product and UI changes respectively.

Diff reviews use the review_freshness grade computed by gstack-review-read, shared by /ship and /land-and-deploy. CURRENT requires a clean, reviewer-reported completed and converged pass whose captured start and finish fingerprints match the current working-tree content. Tracked edits and non-ignored untracked source both count; an identical commit hash or zero commits since review is not a fallback.

A captured pass with different start/end content grades STALE, as does a previously verified pass whose fingerprint no longer matches. Missing or reused start receipts, legacy log-only records, incomplete or nonconverged passes, and unresolved findings cannot grade CURRENT; missing evidence grades UNVERIFIED. Ship telemetry is not a review pass. After fixes, run a genuine full re-review with a new start receipt rather than capturing one only to log the result. Completion remains reviewer-reported, not independent proof that a model read the source.

Plan-file reviews retain their existing seven-day freshness handling and optional plan-hash comparison; repository-content rules do not apply to them. A diff review must grade CURRENT before it can clear Eng Review, in addition to the dashboard's existing age and clean-status requirements.

Plan-to-QA flow

When /plan-eng-review finishes the test review section, it writes a test plan artifact to ~/.gstack/projects/. When you later run /qa, it picks up that test plan automatically — your engineering review feeds directly into QA testing with no manual copy-paste.


/plan-design-review

This is my senior designer reviewing your plan — before you write a single line of code.

Most plans describe what the backend does but never specify what the user actually sees. Empty states? Error states? Loading states? Mobile layout? AI slop risk? These decisions get deferred to "figure it out during implementation" — and then an engineer ships "No items found." as the empty state because nobody specified anything better.

/plan-design-review catches all of this during planning, when it's cheap to fix.

It works like /plan-ceo-review and /plan-eng-review — interactive, one issue at a time, with the STOP + AskUserQuestion pattern. It rates each design dimension 0-10, explains what a 10 looks like, then edits the plan to get there. The rating drives the work: rate low = lots of fixes, rate high = quick pass. Like /plan-eng-review, it skips the "what should I review?" scope question in plan mode and targets your active plan automatically (announced in one line so you can redirect); an explicitly named target wins in any mode.

Seven passes over the plan: information architecture, interaction state coverage, user journey, AI slop risk, design system alignment, responsive/accessibility, and unresolved design decisions. For each pass, it finds gaps and either fixes them directly (obvious ones) or asks you to make a design choice (genuine tradeoffs).

Example

You:   /plan-design-review

Claude: Initial Design Rating: 4/10

        "This plan describes a user dashboard but never specifies
         what the user sees first. It says 'cards with icons' —
         which looks like every SaaS template. It mentions zero
         loading states, zero empty states, and no mobile behavior."

        Pass 1 (Info Architecture): 3/10
        "A 10 would define primary/secondary/tertiary content
         hierarchy for every screen."
        → Added information hierarchy section to plan

        Pass 2 (Interaction States): 2/10
        "The plan has 4 UI features but specifies 0 out of 20
         interaction states (4 features × 5 states each)."
        → Added interaction state table to plan

        Pass 4 (AI Slop): 4/10
        "The plan says 'clean, modern UI with cards and icons'
         and 'hero section with gradient'. These are the top 2
         AI-generated-looking patterns."
        → Rewrote UI descriptions with specific, intentional alternatives

        Overall: 4/10 → 8/10 after fixes
        "Plan is design-complete. Run /design-review after
         implementation for visual QA."

When you re-run it, sections already at 8+ get a quick pass. Sections below 8 get full treatment. For live-site visual audits post-implementation, use /design-review.


/design-consultation

This is my design partner mode.

/plan-design-review audits a site that already exists. /design-consultation is for when you have nothing yet — no design system, no font choices, no color palette. You are starting from zero and you want a senior designer to sit down with you and build the whole visual identity together.

It is a conversation, not a form. The agent asks about your product, your users, and your audience. It thinks about what your product needs to communicate — trust, speed, craft, warmth, whatever fits — and works backward from that to concrete choices. Then it proposes a complete, coherent design system: aesthetic direction, typography (3+ fonts with specific roles), color palette with hex values, spacing scale, layout approach, and motion strategy. Every recommendation comes with a rationale. Every choice reinforces every other choice.

But coherence is table stakes. Every dev tool dashboard looks the same — clean sans-serif, muted grays, a blue accent. They are all coherent. They are all forgettable. The difference between a product that looks "nice" and one that people actually recognize is the deliberate creative risks: the unexpected serif for headings, the bold accent nobody else in your category uses, the tighter spacing that makes your data feel authoritative instead of airy.

That is what /design-consultation is really about. It does not just propose a safe system. It proposes safe choices AND risks — and tells you which is which. "Here are the choices that keep you literate in your category. And here is where I think you should break from convention, and why." You pick which risks to take. The agent checks that the whole system still coheres either way.

If you want, the agent will research what's already out there in your space — take screenshots of real sites, analyze their fonts and colors and spacing — so you can see the landscape before you make choices. This is not about copying. It is about getting in the ballpark so you know what the conventions are, and then deciding which ones are worth breaking.

After you agree on the system, it generates an interactive HTML preview page — not just swatches and font samples, but realistic product pages. If you are building a dashboard, you see a dashboard with a sidebar, data tables, and stat cards. If you are building a marketing site, you see a hero section with real copy and a CTA. Everything rendered in your design system, with your product name, in light and dark mode. You see what your product could feel like before a single line of production code is written.

Then it writes DESIGN.md to your repo root — your project's design source of truth — and updates CLAUDE.md so every future Claude Code session respects the system. From that point on, /design-review can audit against it, and any agent working on your frontend knows the rules.

The file is written in the open DESIGN.md format (google-labs-code/design.md): every token in YAML front matter (colors, typography, rounded, spacing, components), the rationale in the spec's canonical sections, so impeccable, Google Stitch, and anything else that reads the format share one file. If you already have a legacy gstack DESIGN.md, the skill offers a conversion once (a backup is kept) and records your answer in the file so it never asks again. A PRODUCT.md in the repo root prefills the product questions instead of re-asking them.

Example

You:   /design-consultation

Claude: From the README, this looks like a developer analytics dashboard
        for engineering teams. Sound right? Tell me about the feeling
        you want — and would you like me to look at what's out there
        first so we can see the landscape?

You:    Yes, it's for eng managers. Show me what's out there.

Claude: [browses Linear, Vercel, Datadog, Posthog — takes screenshots]

        Here's the landscape. They all converge on clean sans-serifs
        and muted blue-gray palettes. Linear stands out with dark-first
        and tight spacing. The rest feel interchangeable.

        Here's my proposal — and where I'd play it safe vs. take risks:

        AESTHETIC: Industrial/Utilitarian — data-first, every pixel earns its place
        TYPOGRAPHY: Geist (body + UI), Instrument Serif (display), JetBrains Mono (data)
        COLOR: Restrained — slate neutrals, single teal accent (#0D9488)
        SPACING: 4px base, compact density
        LAYOUT: Grid-disciplined, 12-column
        MOTION: Minimal-functional — only transitions that aid comprehension

        SAFE CHOICES (match category expectations):
          Geist for body — your users already know this font from Vercel
          Slate neutrals — warm grays feel right for data-heavy UIs
          Grid-disciplined layout — dashboards need predictable alignment

        RISKS (where you'd stand out):
          Instrument Serif for display headings — nobody in dev tools
            uses a serif. It creates instant hierarchy contrast and
            signals "we care about craft" in a space full of sans-serifs.
          Single teal accent instead of blue — everyone else in this space uses blue.
            Teal is close enough to feel trustworthy, different enough
            to be recognizable.
          4px compact density — tighter than Linear, says "we respect
            your screen real estate."

        The safe choices keep you literate. The risks are where your
        product gets its own face. Which risks appeal to you?

You:    Love the serif risk. Let's see it.

Claude: Preview opened in your browser.
        [/tmp/design-consultation-preview-1710000000.html]

        The page shows a realistic dashboard: sidebar nav, header with
        avatar, stat cards, data table — all in your design system.
        Instrument Serif at hero scale, Geist in body text, JetBrains
        Mono in the data table. Teal accent on buttons and active states.
        Light and dark mode toggle in the corner.

        How does it feel? Want to adjust anything before I write DESIGN.md?

You:    Ship it.

Claude: Wrote DESIGN.md (typography, color, spacing, layout, motion).
        Updated CLAUDE.md with design system guidelines.
        All future sessions will respect these choices.

/design-review

This is my designer who codes mode.

/plan-design-review reviews your plan before implementation. /design-review audits and fixes the live site after.

It runs an 80-item visual audit on your live site — in your Aside browser, so it sees exactly what a logged-in you sees — then enters a fix loop: for each design finding, it locates the source file, makes the minimal CSS/styling change, commits with style(design): FINDING-NNN, re-navigates to verify, and takes before/after screenshots. One commit per fix, fully bisectable.

The self-regulation heuristic is tuned for design work — CSS-only changes get a free pass (they are inherently safe and reversible), but changes to component JSX/TSX files count against the risk budget. Hard cap at 30 fixes. If the risk score exceeds 20%, it stops and asks.

Design detector. When you have impeccable installed, its engine runs first: on a URL the page's rendered DOM is dumped (linked styles inlined) and scanned; on a feature branch with no URL the changed frontend files are scanned. Every mechanical finding arrives as a FINDING-NNN tagged with its rule id ([nested-cards], [low-contrast]), and the report closes with Detector: N → M. gstack never runs impeccable's installer; when no engine is present it offers, once, to download the engine binary (checksum-pinned, logged in the egress ledger) and remembers the answer; without it the audit is unchanged. gstack-config set design_detector off disables the pre-pass.

Example

You:   /design-review https://myapp.com

Claude: [Runs full 80-item visual audit on the live site]
        Design Score: C  |  AI Slop Score: D
        12 findings (4 high, 5 medium, 3 polish)

        Fixing 9 design issues...

        style(design): FINDING-001 — replace 3-column icon grid with asymmetric layout
        style(design): FINDING-002 — add heading scale 48/32/24/18/16
        style(design): FINDING-003 — remove gradient hero, use bold typography
        style(design): FINDING-004 — add second font for headings
        style(design): FINDING-005 — vary border-radius by element role
        style(design): FINDING-006 — left-align body text, reserve center for headings
        style(design): FINDING-007 — add hover/focus states to all interactive elements
        style(design): FINDING-008 — add prefers-reduced-motion media query
        style(design): FINDING-009 — set max content width to 680px for body text

        Final audit:
        Design Score: C → B+  |  AI Slop Score: D → A
        9 fixes applied (8 verified, 1 best-effort). 3 deferred.

        [Report with before/after screenshots saved to .gstack/design-reports/]

Nine commits, each touching one concern. The AI Slop score went from D to A because the three most recognizable patterns (gradient hero, 3-column grid, uniform radius) are gone.


/design-shotgun

This is my design exploration mode.

You know the feeling. You have a feature, a page, a landing screen... and you're not sure what it should look like. You could describe it to Claude and get one answer. But one answer means one perspective, and design is a taste game. You need to see options.

/design-shotgun generates 3 visual design variants using the GPT Image API, opens a comparison board in your browser, and waits for your feedback. You pick a direction, request changes, or ask for entirely new variants. The board supports remix, regenerate, and approval actions.

The loop

  1. You describe what you want (or point at an existing page)
  2. The skill reads your DESIGN.md for brand constraints (if it exists)
  3. It generates 3 distinct design variants as PNGs
  4. A comparison board opens in your browser with all 3 side-by-side
  5. You click "Approve" on the one you like, or give feedback for another round
  6. The approved variant saves to ~/.gstack/projects/$SLUG/designs/ with an approved.json

That approved.json is one way to feed /design-html. The design pipeline chains: shotgun picks the direction, design-html renders it as working code. But /design-html also works with CEO plans, design reviews, or just a description.

Taste memory

The skill remembers your preferences across sessions. If you consistently prefer minimal designs over busy ones, it biases future generations. This isn't a setting you configure... it emerges from your approvals.

Example

You:   /design-shotgun — hero section for a developer tools landing page

Claude: [Generates 3 variants]
        Variant A: Bold typography, dark background, code snippet hero
        Variant B: Split layout, product screenshot left, copy right
        Variant C: Minimal, centered headline, gradient accent

        [Opens comparison board at localhost:PORT]

You:    [Clicks "Approve" on Variant A in the browser]

Claude: Approved Variant A. Saved to ~/.gstack/projects/myapp/designs/
        Next: run /design-html to generate production HTML from this mockup.

/design-html

This is my design-to-code mode.

Every AI code generation tool produces static CSS. Hardcoded heights. Text that overflows on resize. Breakpoints that snap instead of flowing. The output looks right at exactly one viewport size and breaks at every other.

/design-html fixes this. It generates HTML using Pretext by Cheng Lou (ex-React core, Midjourney frontend). Pretext is a 15KB library that computes text layout without DOM measurement. Text reflows. Heights adjust to content. Cards size themselves. Chat bubbles shrinkwrap. All sub-millisecond, all dynamic.

It works with multiple input sources: an approved mockup from /design-shotgun, a CEO plan from /plan-ceo-review, design review context from /plan-design-review, a PNG you provide, or just a description of what you want. It detects what context exists and asks how you want to proceed.

Smart API routing

Not every page needs the full Pretext engine. The skill reads the design and picks the right tools:

  • Simple layouts (landing, marketing): prepare() + layout() for resize-aware heights
  • Card grids (dashboard, listing): prepare() + layout() for self-sizing cards
  • Chat UIs: walkLineRanges() for tight-fit bubbles with zero wasted pixels
  • Editorial layouts: layoutNextLine() for text flowing around obstacles
  • Complex editorial: Full engine with layoutWithLines() for manual line rendering

The refinement loop

  1. Reads the approved mockup from approved.json
  2. Uses GPT-4o vision to extract implementation spec (colors, typography, layout)
  3. Generates self-contained HTML with Pretext inlined (15KB, zero network dependency)
  4. Spins up a live-reload server so you see changes instantly
  5. Screenshots at 3 viewports (mobile, tablet, desktop) to verify layout
  6. AskUserQuestion: what needs to change?
  7. Surgical edits via the Edit tool (not full regeneration)
  8. Repeat until you say "done"

Slop gate. If you have impeccable installed, the finalized page gets one scan through its engine before the verification screenshots: findings trigger a single surgical fix pass over the non-advisory rules, then one more scan. Whatever remains is presented as accepted-with-reason (the approved mockup contains it, DESIGN.md blesses it, or you agreed to an inline impeccable-disable comment). One pass, never a loop; without impeccable the step is skipped silently. The skill's never-include list carries the same rule ids the detector reports, from lib/design-catalog.ts.

Framework detection

If your project uses React, Svelte, or Vue (detected from package.json), the skill offers to generate a framework component instead of vanilla HTML. Framework output uses npm install @chenglou/pretext instead of inline vendoring.

Example

You:   /design-html

Claude: Found approved mockup: variant-A.png (hero section)
        Design type: simple layout → using prepare() + layout()

        [Generates HTML with Pretext, opens live-reload server]
        [Screenshots at 375px, 768px, 1440px — all verified]

        The HTML is live at localhost:3456. Resize your browser.
        Text reflows dynamically. What needs to change?

You:    Make the headline bigger and add more spacing below the CTA

Claude: [Edits font-size and margin, browser auto-reloads]
        Updated. Two changes applied.

You:    Done

Claude: Saved to ~/.gstack/projects/myapp/designs/hero-20260330/finalized.html

/review

This is my paranoid staff engineer mode.

Passing tests do not mean the branch is safe.

/review exists because there is a whole class of bugs that can survive CI and still punch you in the face in production. This mode is not about dreaming bigger. It is not about making the plan prettier. It is about asking:

What can still break?

This is a structural audit, not a style nitpick pass. I want the model to look for things like:

  • N+1 queries
  • stale reads
  • race conditions
  • bad trust boundaries
  • missing indexes
  • escaping bugs
  • broken invariants
  • bad retry logic
  • tests that pass while missing the real failure mode
  • forgotten enum handlers — add a new status or type constant, and /review traces it through every switch statement and allowlist in your codebase, not just the files you changed

Fix-First

Findings get action, not just listed. Obvious mechanical fixes (dead code, stale comments, N+1 queries) are applied automatically — you see [AUTO-FIXED] file:line Problem → what was done for each one. Genuinely ambiguous issues (security, race conditions, design decisions) get surfaced for your call.

Completeness gaps

/review now flags shortcut implementations where the complete version costs less than 30 minutes of CC time. If you chose the 80% solution and the 100% solution is a lake, not an ocean, the review will call it out.

One exception: a shortcut you took deliberately and logged. A gstack-shortcut(dec-<id>) marker whose decision id resolves in the decision ledger downgrades the finding to acknowledged debt. An orphan marker — one with no ledger entry behind it — doesn't suppress anything; the gap is reported normally and the marker itself gets flagged.

Design pass. When the diff touches frontend files, the Design specialist reads review/design-checklist.md, which is generated from lib/design-catalog.ts, so /review, /ship, and /design-review flag the same patterns under the same rule ids. If you have impeccable installed, its engine scans the changed frontend files first: its rows bucket by tier (auto-fix, ask, possible), a detector hit and a checklist hit at the same file:line collapse into one row, and your repo's .impeccable/config*.json ignores are read as settled decisions. Without it, the checklist pass runs alone.

Example

Suppose the smart listing flow is implemented and the tests are green.

/review should still ask:

  • Did I introduce an N+1 query when rendering listing photos or draft suggestions?
  • Am I trusting client-provided file metadata instead of validating the actual file?
  • Can two tabs race and overwrite cover-photo selection or item details?
  • Do failed uploads leave orphaned files in storage forever?
  • Can the "exactly one hero image" rule break under concurrency?
  • If enrichment APIs partially fail, do I degrade gracefully or save garbage?
  • Did I accidentally create a prompt injection or trust-boundary problem by pulling web data into draft generation?

That is the point of /review.

I do not want flattery here. I want the model imagining the production incident before it happens.


/investigate

When something is broken and you don't know why, /investigate is your systematic debugger. It follows the Iron Law: no fixes without root cause investigation first.

Instead of guessing and patching, it traces data flow, matches against known bug patterns, and tests hypotheses one at a time. If three fix attempts fail, it stops and questions the architecture instead of thrashing. This prevents the "let me try one more thing" spiral that wastes hours.


/qa

This is my QA lead mode.

/browse gives the agent eyes. /qa gives it a testing methodology.

The most common use case: you're on a feature branch, you just finished coding, and you want to verify everything works. Just say /qa — it uses your request, repository contracts, test plan and diff to select browser, functional (API, CLI, job, worker or webhook), or mixed surfaces. No URL or manual test plan is required. Browser targets still open affected pages in Aside tabs (or gstack's fallback browser); functional-only targets use documented native commands and isolated local fixtures without starting a browser.

Choose Full, Quick or Regression depth; diff-aware selects what to test:

  • Diff-aware (automatic on feature branches) — selects changed and adjacent behavior. Standalone /qa first resolves a dirty working tree through its commit/stash/abort question; it tests the resulting checkout. For browser targets it identifies affected pages and tests them specifically.
  • Full — browser QA systematically explores the entire app (typically 5-15 minutes, documenting 5-10 well-evidenced issues); functional QA covers applicable documented contracts and reports blocked or untested ones separately.
  • Quick (--quick) — browser QA keeps its 30-second homepage + top-five-navigation smoke; functional QA checks a successful operation and the highest-risk changed edge, marking other contracts not run.
  • Regression (--regression <previous-report-or-baseline>) — browser QA runs full mode and diffs against a previous baseline.json; functional QA requires a readable prior functional report and replay evidence, repeats its failed probes against the intended contract, then checks changed adjacent behavior. A browser-only baseline is not a functional baseline.

Exploration retains a written trail: before each next discovery probe, QA saves an exploration-NNN.json checkpoint in its owned report directory with the previous command and result, the hypothesis and the next exact command. The final report links those files. /qa-only and the bounded review/ship pass use the same evidence contract without gaining permission to edit product code or tests.

Time limits include checkpoint and evidence work; unfinished probes remain untested. New runs preserve prior reports and baselines, using a fresh owned run directory when the selected output directory already contains artifacts. Mixed runs put browser and functional results in separate sections of one report; browser scores never apply to functional coverage. Conflicting Quick/Regression requests are resolved before probing.

Automatic regression tests

For a reproduced defect, /qa writes a native regression test when infrastructure is available and proves it fails for that defect before the repair; CSS-only defects may use browser evidence instead. After the root-cause repair, it requires the original probe, adjacent happy path and native regression when available to pass before calling the fix verified. Tests trace back to the QA report. /qa-only can propose the case and retain replayable evidence but never changes product code or tests; missing native test infrastructure remains an explicit coverage limit, not permission to install a new framework for functional QA.

Example

You:   /qa https://staging.myapp.com

Claude: [Explores 12 pages, fills 3 forms, tests 2 flows]

        QA Report: staging.myapp.com — Health Score: 72/100

        Top 3 Issues:
        1. CRITICAL: Checkout form submits with empty required fields
        2. HIGH: Mobile nav menu doesn't close after selecting an item
        3. MEDIUM: Dashboard chart overlaps sidebar below 1024px

        [Full report with screenshots saved to .gstack/qa-reports/]

Testing authenticated pages: with Aside, nothing to set up. Aside is your browser, so /qa already has your sessions; if it hits a sign-in wall, sign in inside Aside and tell it you're done — it re-runs the step. It never types a password for you. On the fallback browser, run /setup-browser-cookies first to import your real sessions, or log in once in headed mode.


/ship

This is my release machine mode.

Once I have decided what to build, nailed the technical plan, and run a serious review, I do not want more talking. I want execution.

/ship is for the final mile. It is for a ready branch, not for deciding what to build.

This is where the model should stop behaving like a brainstorm partner and start behaving like a disciplined release engineer: sync with main, run the right tests, make sure the branch state is sane, update changelog or versioning if the repo expects it, push, and create or update the PR.

Test bootstrap

If your project doesn't have a test framework, /ship sets one up — detects your runtime, researches the best framework, installs it, writes 3-5 real tests for your actual code, sets up CI/CD (GitHub Actions), and creates TESTING.md. 100% test coverage is the goal — tests make vibe coding safe instead of yolo coding.

Coverage audit

Every /ship run builds a code path map from your diff, searches for corresponding tests, and produces an ASCII coverage diagram with quality stars. Gaps get tests auto-generated. Your PR body shows the coverage: Tests: 42 → 47 (+5 new).

/review and /ship also run a bounded exploratory pass on changed behavior and nearby risks, even for a small diff without a plan or web server. Their existing approval and test rules govern any fixes or permanent tests; a blocked probe remains a coverage gap, not a passing QA result.

Review gate

/ship displays historical review readiness in the Review Readiness Dashboard during preflight. A missing Eng Review is reported without an extra question; it does not replace or waive the current pre-landing review. Step 9 still runs the checklist, applicable specialists and bounded exploratory QA, with its existing approval and completion gates.

A lot of branches die when the interesting work is done and only the boring release work is left. Humans procrastinate that part. AI should not.

Versions: where /ship looks, and when it ships without one

/ship bumps a version only when the project says where the version lives. It checks, in order:

  1. --version-path <path> passed to gstack-version-bump / gstack-next-version.
  2. .gstack/version-path: a committed one-line file holding the version file's repo-relative path, for example package.json or apps/web/package.json. A .json path is read and written as its "version" field; 3-digit semver stays 3-digit.
  3. A root VERSION file (gstack's own 4-digit MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.MICRO format).

A root package.json on its own does not count, because many apps carry a placeholder there. To have /ship version it, run echo package.json > .gstack/version-path and commit the file.

When none of these exist, /ship ships without a version change: no bump, no CHANGELOG version header, no v1.2.3 title prefix, no tag. It prints:

Shipped without a version change: no version source is configured (no VERSION file, no .gstack/version-path). To version releases, create VERSION or write the version file's path (for example package.json) to .gstack/version-path.

It does the same, with the reason, when release-please, Changesets or semantic-release is configured, when the repo is a workspace monorepo, or when package.json holds a placeholder such as 0.0.0-development; those tools own the version. /land-and-deploy and /document-release read the same signal. A configured version file that is missing, empty, unreadable or malformed stops /ship with the file's path and the problem; gstack never substitutes 0.0.0.0.

Third-party web actions (v1.72.0.0+)

Sometimes the release work leaves the terminal: registering an API key, creating a vendor account, wiring a webhook or OAuth app. Instead of handing you a manual step list, /ship (and /spec, /office-hours, /land-and-deploy, /setup-deploy) offers to drive the browser for you. Aside first — it acts across your real logged-in sessions, which is exactly what vendor dashboards need. No Aside? gstack's own visible browser (headed $B with handoff for sign-in) is the fallback on every platform, with one pointer to aside.com (macOS 15+) per task.

The consent rules are strict and pin-tested: one explicit question per task naming the exact site and actions, no standing permission, no auto-install ever (on a Mac without Aside you get one download pointer — aside.com, macOS 15+ — once per task). Passwords, payment, CAPTCHAs, and identity verification stay yours; Apple credential creation is never a drive target in any skill. A captured secret never appears in chat — it lands in an owner-only file and gets verified with one read-only API call before gstack claims success.


/land-and-deploy

This is my deploy pipeline mode.

/ship creates the PR. /land-and-deploy finishes the job: merge, deploy, verify.

It confirms PR readiness and your merge approval, merges, then monitors CI and deployment before checking production. If deployment breaks, it reports what failed and whether rollback is available. If the new revision's deployment cannot be confirmed, it reports that uncertainty rather than treating a healthy old page as proof.

The first run, or a changed deployment configuration, triggers a dry-run walk-through so you can verify the pipeline before anything irreversible happens. An unchanged, previously confirmed configuration skips that walkthrough, not readiness checks or merge approval. Approval is bound to the exact PR head and destination branch; changing either requires fresh readiness and approval.

Setup

Run /setup-deploy first. It detects your platform (Fly.io, Render, Vercel, Netlify, Heroku, GitHub Actions, or custom), discovers your production URL and health check endpoints, and writes the config to CLAUDE.md. One-time, 60 seconds.

Example

You:   /land-and-deploy

Claude: Merging PR #42...
        CI: 3/3 checks passed
        Deploy: Fly.io — deploying v2.1.0...
        Health check: https://myapp.fly.dev/health → 200 OK
        Canary: 5 pages checked, 0 console errors, p95 < 800ms

        Production verified. v2.1.0 is live.

/canary

This is my post-deploy monitoring mode.

After deploy, /canary watches the live site for trouble. It loops through your key pages in your Aside browser (one aside repl script per page, so every cycle is a fresh load), checking for console errors, performance regressions, page failures, and visual anomalies. Takes periodic screenshots and compares against pre-deploy baselines.

Use it right after /land-and-deploy, or schedule it to run periodically after a risky deploy.

You:   /canary https://myapp.com

Claude: Monitoring 8 pages every 2 minutes...

        Cycle 1: ✓ All pages healthy. p95: 340ms. 0 console errors.
        Cycle 2: ✓ All pages healthy. p95: 380ms. 0 console errors.
        Cycle 3: ⚠ /dashboard — new console error: "TypeError: Cannot read
                   property 'map' of undefined" at dashboard.js:142
                 Screenshot saved.

        Alert: 1 new console error after 3 monitoring cycles.

/deslop-shared-libs

Find shared code worth extracting from recent work. By default, the skill reviews the preceding 14 UTC days of commits and PRs, plus relevant current-branch work. It checks existing helpers, verifies compatible authored callers, and compares up to five new opportunities before recommending up to three. Estimates include tests and integration, so moving code into a new file does not count as savings. Fewer recommendations, including none, are valid.

You: /deslop-shared-libs
You: /deslop-shared-libs — focus on the API and workers over the past 30 days

The report links the reviewed source, names the smallest useful helper and its callers, explains reliability gains and shared-failure risks, and separates work already covered by PRs. It checks older open PRs for candidate overlap within a bounded scan and discloses inaccessible history or incomplete coverage. It reads raw uncommitted source without running project hooks or filters. It never edits code, runs project tests, saves a report, or creates issues or PRs.

/plan-eng-review applies the same criteria to the plan and proposed callers. /review checks the diff and related callers even on tiny changes. These scoped checks do not run the history audit. Optional extractions are advisory and require approval; they do not block a clean review or reduce its score. Actual defects keep their normal fix handling.

/test-audit

Find existing tests that cost more than they protect. /review, /ship, /qa and /plan-eng-review apply the same test value bar to tests in a diff; /test-audit sweeps the tests that already exist.

You: /test-audit
You: /test-audit test/ --max-candidates 5
You: /test-audit --since origin/main

A mechanical pre-filter shortlists assertion-free probes, source greps, export-list copies and near-duplicate files before any model reading. Each candidate gets a retirement card (what it detects, non-test callers with the search command, the stronger remaining proof, history, what retiring it unlocks, and the validation command). Contract tests such as SKILL.md goldens and prompt-byte checks (machine-read tokens, not English sentences; see the value bar) are retained. The report and a JSON sidecar land in ~/.gstack/projects/<slug>/. Nothing is edited unless you approve a batch; spawned sessions stay report-only. Tests marked gstack:test-value keep reason="..." are skipped and listed in the report's appendix.

/benchmark

This is my performance engineer mode.

/benchmark establishes performance baselines for your pages: load time, Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, INP), resource counts, and total transfer size. Run it before and after a PR to catch regressions.

It measures in your Aside browser — the page's own performance navigation and resource entries from a real load, not synthetic estimates. Multiple runs averaged. Results persist so you can track trends across PRs.

You:   /benchmark https://myapp.com

Claude: Benchmarking 5 pages (3 runs each)...

        /           load: 1.2s  LCP: 0.9s  CLS: 0.01  resources: 24 (890KB)
        /dashboard  load: 2.1s  LCP: 1.8s  CLS: 0.03  resources: 31 (1.4MB)
        /settings   load: 0.8s  LCP: 0.6s  CLS: 0.00  resources: 18 (420KB)

        Baseline saved. Run again after changes to compare.

/cso

This is my Chief Security Officer.

Run /cso for a bounded static investigation with an application model, challenged findings, and explicit coverage; static assessment remains available when no runtime or scanner catalog profile is qualified. With matching qualified profiles, /cso --comprehensive can prepare Node/Bun, Python, and Rails applications in contained local runtimes, reproduce a defect, and retain a reviewable repair candidate without changing the working branch. An out-of-process witness can authenticate the external boot, legitimate-control, and security assertions and issue a runtime_tested bundle. Project-test completion remains self_reported because target code shares that process and can forge reporter output or terminate the runner; recorded command, count, exit, and output hashes are diagnostic evidence, not a target-independent completion witness. Every report shows assertion, test-completion, and review assurance separately. The tested state is reserved for a future target-independent witness and is not emitted today. /cso --doctor, --resume, --replay, and --recheck diagnose prerequisites, recover interrupted work, repeat recorded verification, and establish current-source closure from fresh evidence.

You:   /cso

Claude: complete — assessed application routes, tenant authorization, secrets,
        dependency exposure, and deployment configuration.

        HIGH: Cross-tenant invoice access (app/controllers/invoices.rb:47)
        Confidence: high — caller, middleware, and policy checks traced
        Evidence: supported static finding; runtime not requested

        1 supported finding. Run ID: cso-…

/document-release

This is my technical writer mode.

On every /ship run, including reruns and existing-PR updates, a ship-owned /document-release audit checks relevant authored docs against committed and selected uncommitted changes before the final commit, verification and publication. Clear factual corrections join the checked change; the ship parent owns versioning, Git and PR publication. A blocked or incomplete audit requires recovery or explicit acceptance of the named documentation risk before shipping, and never silently becomes current. You can still invoke /document-release standalone after a PR exists; that workflow retains its own approval, commit and PR-body steps.

You:   /document-release

Claude: Analyzing 21 files changed across 3 commits. Found 8 documentation files.

        README.md: updated skill count from 9 to 10, added new skill to table
        CLAUDE.md: added new directory to project structure
        CONTRIBUTING.md: current — no changes needed
        TODOS.md: marked 2 items complete, added 1 new item

        All docs updated and committed. PR body updated with doc diff.

It also polishes CHANGELOG voice (without ever overwriting entries), cleans up completed TODOS, checks cross-doc consistency, and asks about VERSION bumps only when appropriate.


/retro

This is my engineering manager mode.

At the end of the week I want to know what actually happened. Not vibes — data. /retro analyzes commit history, work patterns, and shipping velocity and writes a candid retrospective.

It is team-aware. It identifies who is running the command, gives you the deepest treatment on your own work, then breaks down every contributor with specific praise and growth opportunities. It computes metrics like commits, LOC, test ratio, PR sizes, and fix ratio. It detects coding sessions from commit timestamps, finds hotspot files, tracks shipping streaks, and identifies the biggest ship of the week.

It also tracks test health: total test files, tests added this period, regression test commits, and trend deltas. If test ratio drops below 20%, it flags it as a growth area.

Example

You:   /retro

Claude: Week of Mar 1: 47 commits (3 contributors), 3.2k LOC, 38% tests, 12 PRs, peak: 10pm | Streak: 47d

        ## Your Week
        32 commits, +2.4k LOC, 41% tests. Peak hours: 9-11pm.
        Biggest ship: one browser contract for every browser skill (Aside).
        What you did well: shipped a complete feature with encryption, UI, and
        18 unit tests in one focused push...

        ## Team Breakdown

        ### Alice
        12 commits focused on app/services/. Every PR under 200 LOC — disciplined.
        Opportunity: test ratio at 12% — worth investing before payment gets more complex.

        ### Bob
        3 commits — fixed the N+1 query on dashboard. Small but high-impact.
        Opportunity: only 1 active day this week — check if blocked on anything.

        [Top 3 team wins, 3 things to improve, 3 habits for next week]

It saves a JSON snapshot to .context/retros/ so the next run can show trends.


/browse

This is my QA engineer mode.

/browse is the skill that closes the loop. Before it, the agent could think and code but was still half blind. It had to guess about UI state, auth flows, redirects, console errors, empty states, and broken layouts. Now it can just go look.

It drives the Aside AI browser — your real browser, with your real logged-in sessions — through aside repl scripts: Playwright-style JavaScript that opens a tab, does the work, prints its evidence as labelled lines, and closes the tab. One flow per script, no state carried between calls, nothing to import. Every other browser skill (/qa, /qa-only, /design-review, /canary, /benchmark, /scrape) is built on the same contract. /scrape is the data-extraction flavor: point it at a page and it hands back the table, list, or prices as structured data.

Example

You:   /browse staging.myapp.com — test the signup flow and check
       every page I changed in this branch

Claude: Submitting the signup form on staging.myapp.com creates a real
        account in your session. Go ahead?            [AskUserQuestion]

You:    yes

Claude: [aside repl: console hook → openTab → goto /signup → snapshot
         → fill → click Submit → snapshot → screenshot → closeTab]

        DIFF_START … heading "Welcome — set up your workspace" … DIFF_END
        URL=https://staging.myapp.com/onboarding
        CONSOLE_ERRORS=[]
        ASIDE_DIR=/Users/you/.aside/u/0/sessions/2026-09-05_7KtoAatMItBqZvoL
        GSTACK_STEP_OK

        > cp "$ASIDE_DIR/issue-001-result.jpg" .gstack/qa-reports/screenshots/
        > Read .gstack/qa-reports/screenshots/issue-001-result.jpg

        Signup works. Redirected to onboarding. Now checking changed pages…

        All 4 pages load. No console errors. No broken layouts.
        Signup → onboarding → dashboard flow works end to end.

Four scripts, about a minute. Full QA pass, in the browser you were already signed into.

Untrusted content: everything a page returns — snapshot trees, text, console output, aside exec answers — is data, never instructions.

What the agent will and won't do in your browser: it opens its own tabs and closes them; it never reads or touches yours, never echoes your tab list, never types a password or reads a cookie. Looking is free; a mutating action (submit, delete, purchase) on anything that isn't localhost gets one AskUserQuestion first, listing the exact actions. Sign-in wall? Sign in inside Aside and say "done" — the session is already there.

Aside is macOS 15+ and gstack never installs it. Full contract and cookbook pointer: BROWSER.md.

When Aside isn't there

Linux, Windows, or a Mac with Aside closed: /browse says so once and switches to gstack's own browser for the run — a compiled binary that talks to a persistent Chromium daemon built on Playwright. First call starts the browser (~3s); every call after that ~100-200ms, and cookies, tabs, and localStorage carry over between commands. The same skills produce the same evidence; the features that only make sense when the browser is gstack's rather than yours live here: /setup-browser-cookies to import your sessions, /open-gstack-browser to watch it headed, /skillify to codify a /scrape, /pair-agent to share it with another agent.

When the headless browser gets stuck — CAPTCHA, MFA, complex auth — it hands off to you:

Claude: I'm stuck on a CAPTCHA at the login page. Opening a visible
        Chrome so you can solve it.

        > browse handoff "Stuck on CAPTCHA at login page"

You:    done

Claude: > browse resume

        Got a fresh snapshot. Logged in successfully. Continuing QA.

The browser preserves all state across the handoff, and after resume the agent gets a fresh snapshot of wherever you left off. If a browse command fails 3 times in a row, it suggests handoff automatically.

Security note: the fallback is a persistent Chromium session — cookies, localStorage, and session state carry over between commands. Do not use it against sensitive production environments unless you intend to. The session auto-shuts down after 30 minutes of idle time. Full $B command reference: BROWSER.md.


/setup-browser-cookies

This is my session manager mode — for the fallback browser. With Aside open, /qa and /browse already run in your real sessions and this skill has nothing to do.

For authenticated testing on gstack's own browser, /setup-browser-cookies copies selected cookies from your daily browser. Sites may also need storage or a fresh login, so copying cookies is not proof that the session works.

The picker detects Chrome, Chromium, Brave, Edge, Windows-only Opera and Opera GX, and macOS-only Comet, Arc, and Dia. Choose the browser, account/profile, and domains. Profile labels use the current Local State name with a directory discriminator, so renamed profiles and duplicate names are distinguishable. No cookie values are displayed; source/profile labels are still sensitive.

You:   /setup-browser-cookies

Claude: Cookie picker opened. Select your browser, profile, and domains,
        then tell me when you're done.

        [You choose a browser/profile and pick github.com, myapp.com]

You:    done

Claude: Imported 2 domains (47 cookies). Sign-in has not been checked.

For direct import, select the browser and profile first and navigate to a matching target. Do not infer an account from the CLI's legacy Comet default:

You:   /setup-browser-cookies github.com from Chrome, Profile 2

Claude: Imported 12 cookies; sign-in has not been checked.

--verify-auth is explicit and requires a selector and expected identity configured privately in the daemon environment before startup. It checks one exact visible identity on the captured target, not just HTTP 200 or a cookie count. Missing configuration fails before mutation. --clear-storage is separate, opt-in recovery for Chromium targets: it clears only the captured origin's localStorage (shared across that origin's tabs) and the target tab's sessionStorage in an isolated world with a native deadline. Other target engines retain import/auth checks but reject reset. It is never automatic and cannot be combined with --all. Partial imports and unsuccessful checks remain visible rather than becoming a false "ready."

macOS may prompt for Keychain approval; Linux uses its supported keyring/fallback paths; Windows can import DPAPI-compatible cookies, but native App-Bound Encryption extraction remains disabled pending qualification. Closing Chrome does not bypass Chrome 136+ default-directory protection. Use manual sign-in in the headed fallback browser when needed and a display is available, never a TCP downgrade or real-profile copy. Full flags, configuration, and privacy guidance: cookie import reference.


/make-pdf

Turn any markdown file into a publication-quality PDF: proper margins, page numbers, cover page, clickable TOC, mermaid and excalidraw fences rendered as vector diagrams, --to html|docx when you need another format. The compiled pdf binary does the typesetting; the printing happens in a browser — your Aside browser first. make-pdf serves the finished HTML from your machine on loopback, opens it in a tab Aside closes when it is done, prints through the browser's own PDF engine (tagged PDF, document outline, header and footer templates all intact), and copies the file out. Nothing leaves the box. When Aside is absent (Linux, Windows, or the app closed) the same pipeline prints through gstack's bundled browser instead, so a PDF comes out on every platform. Full guide to fences and formats: howto-diagrams-and-formats.md.


/diagram

English in, diagram out. Describe the diagram (or paste mermaid source) and you get a triplet: the mermaid source, an editable .excalidraw file you can open on excalidraw.com in hand-drawn style, and rendered SVG + PNG. The mermaid and excalidraw runtimes are vendored in lib/diagram-render/ and rendered by bin/gstack-render.ts, the same one-script render make-pdf uses — through your Aside browser when it is open, through gstack's bundled browser otherwise — so it is fully offline on every platform.


/autoplan

This is my review autopilot mode.

Running /plan-ceo-review, then /plan-design-review, then /plan-eng-review individually means answering 15-30 intermediate questions. Each question is valuable, but sometimes you want the gauntlet to run without stopping for every decision.

/autoplan reads the review skills from disk and runs them sequentially: CEO → Design (if UI scope) → DX (if developer-facing scope) → Eng, always last — the required shipping gate reviews the final amended plan, not a stale one. It makes decisions automatically: each question resolves to its recommended option by default, with six encoded principles (prefer completeness, match existing patterns, choose reversible options, prefer the option the user chose for similar past decisions, defer ambiguous items, and escalate security) breaking ties and deciding questions that carry no recommendation. Taste decisions (close approaches, borderline scope expansions, cross-model disagreements) get saved and presented at a final approval gate.

One command, fully reviewed plan out.

You:   /autoplan

Claude: Running CEO review... [4 scope decisions auto-resolved]
        Running design review... [3 design dimensions auto-scored]
        Running eng review... [2 architecture decisions auto-resolved]

        TASTE DECISIONS (need your input):
        1. Scope: Codex suggested adding search — borderline expansion. Add?
        2. Design: Two approaches scored within 1 point. Which feels right?

        [Shows both options with context]

You:    1) Yes, add search. 2) Option A.

Claude: Plan complete. 9 decisions auto-resolved, 2 taste decisions approved.

/learn

This is my institutional memory mode.

gstack learns from every session. Patterns, pitfalls, preferences, architectural decisions... they accumulate in ~/.gstack/projects/$SLUG/learnings.jsonl. Each learning has a confidence score, source attribution, and the files it references.

/learn lets you see what gstack has absorbed, search for specific patterns, prune stale entries (when referenced files no longer exist), and export learnings for team sharing. The real magic is in other skills... they automatically search learnings before making recommendations, and display "Prior learning applied" when a past insight is relevant.

You:   /learn

Claude: 23 learnings for this project (14 high confidence, 6 medium, 3 low)

        Top patterns:
        - [9/10] API responses always wrapped in { data, error } envelope
        - [8/10] Tests use factory helpers in test/support/factories.ts
        - [8/10] All DB queries go through repository pattern, never direct

        3 potentially stale (referenced files deleted):
        - "auth middleware uses JWT" — auth/middleware.ts was deleted
        [Prune these? Y/N]

/open-gstack-browser

This is my co-presence mode — for the fallback browser. With Aside open, you already watch the agent's tabs in Aside; this skill is how you watch it when the browser is gstack's own.

Without Aside, /browse runs headless by default. You don't see what the agent sees. /open-gstack-browser changes that. It launches GStack Browser (rebranded Chromium with anti-bot stealth) controlled by Playwright, with the sidebar extension auto-loaded. You watch every action in real time.

The sidebar chat is a Claude instance that controls the browser. It auto-routes to the right model: Sonnet for navigation and actions (click, goto, fill, screenshot), Opus for reading and analysis (summarize, find bugs, describe). One-click cookie import from the sidebar footer. The browser stays alive as long as the window is open... no idle timeout in headed mode. The menu bar says "GStack Browser" instead of "Chrome for Testing."

The sidebar agent ships a layered prompt injection defense: a local 22MB ML classifier scans every page and tool output, a Haiku transcript check votes on the full conversation, a canary token catches session-exfil attempts, and a verdict combiner requires two classifiers to agree before blocking. A shield icon in the header shows status (green/amber/red). Details in ARCHITECTURE.md.

You:   /open-gstack-browser

Claude: Launched GStack Browser with sidebar extension.
        Anti-bot stealth active. All $B commands run in headed mode.
        Type in the sidebar to direct the browser agent.
        Sidebar model routing: sonnet for actions, opus for analysis.

/setup-deploy

One-time deploy configuration. Run this before your first /land-and-deploy.

It auto-detects your deploy platform (Fly.io, Render, Vercel, Netlify, Heroku, GitHub Actions, or custom), discovers your production URL, health check endpoints, and deploy status commands. Writes everything to CLAUDE.md so all future deploys are automatic.

You:   /setup-deploy

Claude: Detected: Fly.io (fly.toml found)
        Production URL: https://myapp.fly.dev
        Health check: /health → expects 200
        Deploy command: fly deploy
        Status command: fly status

        Written to CLAUDE.md. Run /land-and-deploy when ready.

/codex

This is my second opinion mode.

/codex brings OpenAI Codex CLI to review the same diff independently. It is available on every harness except Codex itself. External harnesses install it as /gstack-codex. Compare its findings with the native review to distinguish corroborated findings from issues only one reviewer caught.

gstack-owned Codex calls default to gpt-6-astra, including resumed consult sessions. Set GSTACK_CODEX_MODEL=<model> to change the default, or name a model in your request to override it for that invocation. Generated commands pass the selection through -c model=..., overriding the CLI's configured model. Native review also sets -c review_model=... to that selection, overriding any separate review-model pin.

On Codex hosts, the Claude outside-voice skill is gstack-claude-code. Its review, challenge, and consult calls preserve Claude's configured model. GSTACK_CLAUDE_MODEL=<model> supplies an explicit override, including resumed sessions; a model named in your request takes precedence. Harness routing is independent of model selection.

Three modes

Review — run codex review against the current diff. Codex reads every changed file, classifies findings by severity (P1 critical, P2 high, P3 medium), and returns a PASS/FAIL verdict. Any P1 finding = FAIL. The review is fully independent — Codex doesn't see Claude's review.

A severity-gate PASS is separate from review freshness: unresolved recorded findings (findings > findings_fixed, with missing findings_fixed treated as zero) prevent CURRENT even when the gate passes. This does not change the severity gate. Fixes still require a new completed, unchanged review pass before the fixed tree can grade CURRENT.

Challenge — adversarial mode. Codex actively tries to break your code. It looks for edge cases, race conditions, security holes, and assumptions that would fail under load. Uses maximum reasoning effort (xhigh). Think of it as a penetration test for your logic.

Consult — open conversation with session continuity. Ask Codex anything about the codebase. Follow-up questions reuse the same session, so context carries over. Great for "am I thinking about this correctly?" moments.

Cross-model analysis

When both /review (Claude) and /codex (OpenAI) have reviewed the same branch, you get a cross-model comparison: which findings overlap (high confidence), which are unique to Codex (different perspective), and which are unique to Claude. This is the "two doctors, same patient" approach to code review.

You:   /codex review

Claude: Running independent Codex review...

        CODEX REVIEW: PASS (3 findings)
        [P2] Race condition in payment handler — concurrent charges
             can double-debit without advisory lock
        [P3] Missing null check on user.email before downcase
        [P3] Token comparison not using constant-time compare

        Cross-model analysis (vs /review):
        OVERLAP: Race condition in payment handler (both caught it)
        UNIQUE TO CODEX: Token comparison timing attack
        UNIQUE TO CLAUDE: N+1 query in listing photos

/claude-code

Claude Code provides the outside reviewer when gstack runs in Codex. Other non-Claude harnesses also expose this skill for explicit requests; Claude Code itself omits it. External harnesses install it as /gstack-claude-code.

Review supplies the branch diff for a read-only pass/fail review. Challenge asks Claude Code to find concrete failure cases in the same diff. Consult supports read-only repository exploration and resumes the session saved in .context/claude-session-id. Review and challenge receive context from the parent workflow and run without tools; consultation can read and search files.

The Claude Code CLI must be installed and authenticated. Its existing model configuration and GSTACK_CLAUDE_BIN / GSTACK_CLAUDE_BIN_ARGS executable overrides are honored. Errors, timeouts, and invalid responses report missing outside coverage instead of a clean review. Automatic reviews start fresh; consult session continuity is explicit.

Outside-review routing follows the harness, independently of the configured model. Generic second-opinion requests choose /claude-code on Codex and /codex elsewhere; explicit provider requests keep that provider. The existing codex_reviews setting controls the selected automatic reviewer in workflows that already use that setting. Existing opt-in and skip controls still apply in office hours, design, and spec workflows.

/claude was renamed to /claude-code without an alias. Run ./setup --host <name> to migrate managed installations, including installations sharing that checkout. Setup retains a working old installation when replacement generation or installation fails.

Safety & Guardrails

Four skills that add safety rails to any Claude Code session. They work via Claude Code's PreToolUse hooks — transparent, session-scoped, no configuration required.

/careful

Say "be careful" or run /careful when you're working near production, running destructive commands, or just want a safety net. Every Bash command gets checked against known-dangerous patterns:

  • rm -rf / rm -r — recursive delete
  • DROP TABLE / DROP DATABASE / TRUNCATE — data loss
  • git push --force / git push -f — history rewrite
  • git reset --hard — discard commits
  • git checkout . / git restore . — discard uncommitted work
  • kubectl delete — production resource deletion
  • docker rm -f / docker system prune — container/image loss

Common build artifact cleanups (rm -rf node_modules, dist, .next, __pycache__, build, coverage) are whitelisted — no false alarms on routine operations.

You can override any MEDIUM warning. Two catastrophic shapes are hard-denied instead of asked: recursive deletes of the filesystem root or your home directory (including the /*, ~/, and $HOME/ forms), and force-pushes to the repo's default branch (--force-with-lease never triggers the deny; the escape hatch is ending the session-scoped /careful session). You can also add your own warn rules — one POSIX ERE per line — in ~/.gstack/careful-patterns.txt (global) or ~/.gstack/projects/<slug>/careful-patterns.txt (per-project); custom patterns only ever add warnings, never suppress the built-ins. The guardrails are accident prevention, not access control.

/freeze

Restrict all file edits to a single directory. When you're debugging a billing bug, you don't want Claude accidentally "fixing" unrelated code in src/auth/. /freeze src/billing blocks all Edit and Write operations outside that path.

/investigate activates this automatically — it detects the module being debugged and freezes edits to that directory.

You:   /freeze src/billing

Claude: Edits restricted to src/billing/. Run /unfreeze to remove.

        [Later, Claude tries to edit src/auth/middleware.ts]

Claude: BLOCKED — Edit outside freeze boundary (src/billing/).
        Skipping this change.

Note: this blocks Edit and Write tools only. Bash commands like sed can still modify files outside the boundary — it's accident prevention, not a security sandbox.

/guard

Full safety mode — combines /careful + /freeze in one command. Destructive command warnings plus directory-scoped edits. Use when touching prod or debugging live systems.

/unfreeze

Remove the /freeze boundary, allowing edits everywhere again. The hooks stay registered for the session — they just allow everything. Run /freeze again to set a new boundary.


/gstack-upgrade

Keep gstack current with one command. It detects your install type (global at ~/.claude/skills/gstack vs vendored in your project at .claude/skills/gstack), runs the upgrade, syncs both copies if you have dual installs, and shows you what changed.

You:   /gstack-upgrade

Claude: Current version: 0.7.4
        Latest version: 0.8.2

        What's new:
        - Browser skills now drive your Aside browser
        - /codex multi-AI second opinion
        - /qa always uses browser now
        - Safety skills: /careful, /freeze, /guard
        - Proactive skill suggestions

        Upgraded to 0.8.2. Both global and project installs synced.

Set auto_upgrade: true in ~/.gstack/config.yaml to skip the prompt entirely — gstack upgrades silently at the start of each session when a new version is available.


Greptile integration

Greptile is a YC company that reviews your PRs automatically. It catches real bugs — race conditions, security issues, things that pass CI and blow up in production. It has genuinely saved my ass more than once. I love these guys.

Setup

Install Greptile on your GitHub repo at greptile.com — it takes about 30 seconds. Once it's reviewing your PRs, gstack picks up its comments automatically. No additional configuration.

How it works

The problem with any automated reviewer is triage. Greptile is good, but not every comment is a real issue. Some are false positives. Some flag things you already fixed three commits ago. Without a triage layer, the comments pile up and you start ignoring them — which defeats the purpose.

gstack solves this. /review and /ship are now Greptile-aware. They read Greptile's comments, classify each one, and take action:

  • Valid issues get added to the critical findings and fixed before shipping
  • Already-fixed issues get an auto-reply acknowledging the catch
  • False positives get pushed back — you confirm, and a reply goes out explaining why it's wrong

The result is a two-layer review: Greptile catches things asynchronously on the PR, then /review and /ship triage those findings as part of the normal workflow. Nothing falls through the cracks.

Learning from history

Every false positive you confirm gets saved to ~/.gstack/greptile-history.md. Future runs auto-skip known FP patterns for your codebase. And /retro tracks Greptile's batting average over time — so you can see whether the signal-to-noise ratio is improving.

Example

You:   /ship

Claude: [syncs main, runs tests, pre-landing review...]

        Greptile found 3 comments on this PR:

        [VALID] app/services/payment_service.rb:47 — Race condition:
        concurrent charges can double-debit. Recommend DB-level advisory
        lock around the charge block.

        [ALREADY FIXED] app/models/user.rb:12 — Missing null check
        on email before downcase.
        → Already fixed in commit abc1234. Auto-replying.

        [FALSE POSITIVE] lib/auth.rb:88 — "Token comparison should
        use constant-time comparison." We already use
        ActiveSupport::SecurityUtils.secure_compare here.

        Fixing the race condition in payment_service.rb...

        The auth token comment is a false positive.
        Options: A) Reply to Greptile explaining  B) Fix anyway  C) Ignore

You:    A

Claude: Replied to Greptile. All tests pass.
        PR: github.com/you/app/pull/42

Three Greptile comments. One real fix. One auto-acknowledged. One false positive pushed back with a reply. Total extra time: about 30 seconds.


/ios-qa

Live-device iOS QA. The fork's load-bearing insight was: don't simulate, don't run XCTest, don't bring up WebDriverAgent. Embed an HTTP server in the app under test, drive it from a Mac-side daemon over the USB CoreDevice IPv6 tunnel.

The agent reads your Swift source, finds @Observable classes with @Snapshotable-marked fields, codegens typed accessors, deploys a debug bridge, then runs a closed find→fix→verify loop.

Architecture in one diagram

       ┌──────────────────────┐   USB CoreDevice (IPv6)   ┌──────────────────┐
       │ gstack-ios-qa daemon │ ────────────────────────▶ │ iOS app          │
       │ (Mac, bun/TS)        │   bearer + X-Session-Id   │ StateServer      │
       │ - rotates boot token │                           │ (loopback only)  │
       │ - mints session toks │                           └──────────────────┘
       │ - capability tiers   │
       │ - audit + redact     │
       └──────────────────────┘
                ▲
                │ Tailscale (optional, --tailnet)
                │
       ┌──────────────────────┐
       │ Remote agent         │
       │ (OpenClaw, etc.)     │
       └──────────────────────┘

The iOS app's StateServer binds loopback only (::1 + 127.0.0.1). The Mac daemon owns tailnet identity validation, capability tiers, and the audit trail. Remote agents NEVER see the boot token — only short-lived session tokens (1h default, 24h hard cap) minted via Tailscale identity gating.

The unlock: USB-tethered + Tailscale = remote iOS QA from any agent

A Mac plus an iPhone you already own plus the Tailscale free tier replaces what most teams pay BrowserStack/Sauce Labs for. Any HTTP-capable agent on your tailnet can drive the iOS app once you've minted them a session token. Tailscale ACLs scope which identities can reach the Mac at which capability tier.

See ios-qa/docs/tailscale-acl-example.md for the runnable setup.

Capability tiers

Tier Endpoints
observe /screenshot, /elements, GET /state/*, /state/snapshot, /healthz
interact observe + /tap, /swipe, /type, /session/*
mutate interact + POST /state/<key>
restore mutate + POST /state/restore

Default minted tokens get interact. Higher tiers require explicit owner mint.


/ios-fix

Iron Law: no fix without a reproducing snapshot. The agent captures pre-bug state via GET /state/snapshot, writes the fix, rebuilds, redeploys, restores the snapshot, and verifies the bug is gone. The snapshot becomes a regression test fixture so the bug can't recur silently.

Mirrors /qa's find-bug → fix → re-verify loop for iOS.


/ios-design-review

Designer's-eye QA on a real iPhone. Connects to the same /ios-qa daemon in observe-tier mode and screenshots every screen. Scores 10 dimensions 0-10: typography hierarchy, spacing rhythm, color hierarchy, touch targets, loading/empty/error states, accessibility, animation discipline, iOS idiom alignment, information density, AI-slop check.

For each score < 7, uses AskUserQuestion to present the issue with recommended fix.


/ios-clean

Convenience wrapper. The structural Release-build guard against shipping DebugBridge is in Package.swift (.when(configuration: .debug)) plus a CI invariant test. /ios-clean is for developers who want a guided removal flow or who manually added the SPM dependency without going through /ios-qa.


/ios-sync

Run after upgrading gstack or adding new @Observable classes. Detects what's installed, runs gen-accessors against the latest upstream templates, refreshes any changed Swift files, verifies the app rebuilds. Cache-key invalidation handles Swift version changes, generator git rev changes, and source changes.