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Garry TanandClaude Fable 5.1 c8f0c4e368 v1.84.0.0 feat: impeccable interop: detector pre-pass in four design skills, DOM-mode scans, open DESIGN.md format, one typed slop catalog (#2832) 
* chore(design): pin impeccable rule ids and detector JSON shape as fixtures

Real captures from a human-initiated `npx impeccable install` in a scratch
directory (engine 0.1.3, linux-x64), never a runtime download:

- test/fixtures/impeccable-antipatterns.json: upstream
  crates/live/assets/antipatterns.json at 87d8f6d6 (the state engine-v0.1.3
  shipped), 61 rules, source commit recorded in `_source`.
- test/fixtures/impeccable-detect-sample.json: `detect --json` over gstack's
  planted-slop fixture (source mode), paths normalized.
- test/fixtures/review-eval-design-slop.dom.html + impeccable-detect-dom-sample.json:
  the same page served locally, dumped through the browse engine with the
  shared DOM-dump script, then scanned. Pins the load-bearing assumption
  that the static engine reads inline <style> in a .html file: the DOM scan
  yields the same id set as the source scan.
- lib/dom-dump-script.ts: the one dump script both browser engines evaluate
  (IIFE, no single quotes). Folds CSSOM rgb() back to author hex so palette
  rules still fire, and removes inlined <link> nodes so the engine does not
  warn about an unresolvable stylesheet. Both verified against the engine.
- test/fixtures/impeccable-detect-help.txt + impeccable-captures.meta.json:
  the flags, exit codes, finding fields, and re-capture protocol.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* refactor(design): typed slop catalog in lib/; AI_SLOP_BLACKLIST derived

lib/design-catalog.ts is the single source of truth for gstack's design
anti-pattern vocabulary: the 11 legacy blacklist lines (verbatim, flagged
`legacyBlacklist`), every one of impeccable's 61 registry ids with gstack
prose, tier, impact, confidence, grep heuristic, and /impeccable handoff,
plus the gstack-only tells the LLM pass judges (hero metrics, identical
cards, glassmorphism, missing states, unthemed browser surfaces, ...).

`impeccableId` is set only when the id exists in the registry fixture, and
`renderCatalog({style:'ids'})` brackets an id only then, so rendered prose
never shows an id the detector cannot emit. Role-scoped font lists
(OVERUSED_FONTS_DISPLAY, BANNED_FONTS, FONTS_BODY_UI_OK, FONTS_MONO_OK,
FONTS_VERIFIED_FREE) live beside the entries.

scripts/resolvers/constants.ts now derives AI_SLOP_BLACKLIST from the
catalog. Generated output is byte-identical (bun run gen:skill-docs is a
zero diff). Pure module: no I/O, no scripts/ imports, loading prints
nothing, so bin/ can import it at runtime on every host.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(review): generate review/design-checklist.md from the catalog

review/design-checklist.md was hand-written and its own header admitted it
drifted from DESIGN_METHODOLOGY category 9. It is now rendered by
scripts/resolvers/design-checklist.ts from lib/design-catalog.ts: category 1
lists every grep-detectable slop entry plus the legacy blacklist lines,
sorted HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW, each with its heuristic and, where the detector knows
the rule, its bracketed id (27 items, up from 6). The font blacklist renders
from BANNED_FONTS. Categories 2-5, Instructions, Classification, Output
Format, and Suppressions keep their prose. Title and slop heading are
unchanged (test/skill-e2e-review.test.ts and hosts/opencode.ts key on them).

gen-skill-docs writes the file for the Claude host only (a Claude-side
runtime asset; other hosts copy or inline the render), honors --out-dir, and
reports STALE/FRESH under --dry-run like sections do.
test/design-checklist-sync.test.ts pins committed == generated, the
host/out-dir scoping, and the dry-run freshness line.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(design): modes, craft-floor reflexes, calibration, catalog in doctrine

DESIGN_HARD_RULES: the classifier names four visitor modes (Persuade,
Operate, Read, Experience, plus Hybrid per section) and keeps the
MARKETING/LANDING PAGE and APP UI aliases; Read and Experience get three
rules each; a "Reflexes no detector catches" block (browser surfaces, one
authored motion moment, depth has an offset, tinted secondary text, space
above headings, light-or-dark from the use scene) and the three-looks
calibration follow the universal rules. The slop section renders the 11
legacy lines plus the detector rule ids and judgment tells from the catalog;
in design-review, which also renders DESIGN_METHODOLOGY, it becomes a
one-line pointer so the catalog is paid for once. Header counts are
computed, not hardcoded.

DESIGN_METHODOLOGY: category 9 renders the catalog in three registers
(legacy lines verbatim, detector rules that need judgment with bracketed
ids, gstack-only judgment tells as prose, polish-level ids on one line);
categories 5 and 7 carry the browser-surface and one-motion-moment reflexes;
the typography overused-face item points at [overused-font] with the
role-scoped exception. The consultation Codex prompt's anti-slop line reads
from the catalog.

Budget: design-review eager 25.6K -> 27.0K (ceiling 27,984), plan-design-review
unchanged at 17.4K; no carve-guard or context-budget re-baseline needed; ship
goldens unchanged (ship never renders the hard rules).

Derived from pbakaus/impeccable reference/craft-floor.md + new-work.md
(Apache-2.0), rewritten. See NOTICE.md (commit 12).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(design-consultation): font procedure, role-scoped overused list, color strategies

The proposal section stops handing out a font menu. "Choosing faces: a
procedure, not a menu" names the subject's world, shortlists per role,
strikes the overused list for that role, verifies availability in-session,
and states the loading strategy. {{OVERUSED_FONTS}} renders the role-scoped
lists from lib/design-catalog.ts: overused as display (the detector's
overused-font set plus the training-data defaults), fine as body/UI on an
Operate or Read surface, mono for data and code, banned in any role, and a
short verified-free list with its verification date. Color approaches become
Restrained / Committed / Full palette / Drenched. The anti-convergence
directive drops light-vs-dark as a dial (it comes from the use scene) and the
three-looks calibration sits under Your Design Knowledge. The slop list is
{{DESIGN_SLOP_BULLETS}}: prose from the catalog, no rule ids, polish-level
tells omitted.

design-html's "Never include (AI slop blacklist)" list keeps its literal
(carve guard) and each line now carries a trailing <!-- id --> naming a
catalog entry, pinned by test/design-catalog.test.ts so the last surviving
duplicate is derived-by-test. Both resolvers are registered and listed in
ARCHITECTURE.md. No carve-guard or budget re-baseline needed.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(bin): gstack-design-detect wrapper + design_detector config key

bin/gstack-design-detect.ts finds and runs an impeccable engine the user
installed; it never installs, downloads, or executes anything that could
download. `probe` reads only: config (design_detector off → DISABLED),
IMPECCABLE_BIN (absolute, realpath outside the repo and cwd), a PATH walk
(absolute entries outside the repo; a #! shim counts as launcher-present,
never READY), the ~/.impeccable/bin/<newest semver>/ cache, and the engine
installed beside a skill launcher (scripts/bin/<os>-<arch>/impeccable, the
layout a real install produced). It reports IMPECCABLE_SKILL, host-aware
IMPECCABLE_HOOK (+ HOOK_OTHER), the ignore lists from .impeccable/config*.json,
IMPECCABLE_ENGINE_UNTESTED for versions outside the fixture set, and a hint
only when a launcher exists without its engine. `scan` re-probes, refuses
URLs and anything outside the repo root or the design-report allow-list
(realpath, so symlinks cannot escape), derives `--changed <base>` targets
NUL-safely through git and lib/frontend-scope.ts, batches 100 absolute paths
per engine call with stdin ignored, a SIGKILL timeout, a 50 MB stdout cap, and
sanitized length-capped fields, then prints one normalized JSON document
(--format gstack) or the engine's bytes (--format raw); DETECT_TOP (fenced as
untrusted content), DETECT_SUMMARY, and DETECT_EXIT go to stderr; exit code
passes through with 1 over 2 over 0; exit 3 is a gstack bug. `rules` prints
the mapped set. Every run appends a content-free line to the local analytics
file.

lib/design-detect-contract.ts owns every sentinel string, the limits, and the
normalized-finding shape (pure module); test/design-detect-contract.test.ts
asserts every sentinel-shaped token the agent can read exists there.
lib/frontend-scope.ts mirrors gstack-diff-scope's frontend arm, pinned by a
parity test that runs the bash script. bin/gstack-config gains
design_detector (auto | off, default auto, invalid values rejected with the
file unchanged). test/fixtures/fake-impeccable.ts is the env-driven engine
stand-in; test/gstack-design-detect.test.ts covers READY/NOT_CACHED/
NOT_AVAILABLE/DISABLED, env trust (.env never loaded, in-repo IMPECCABLE_BIN
ignored), newest-semver cache, hook and ignore detection, refusals, exit
passthrough, raw byte-identity, normalization, the display cap, timeout,
parse errors, diagnostics, --changed, and analytics. The egress scanner test
records the wrapper as a documented non-sink.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(design): {{DESIGN_DETECTOR}} wired into design-review, ship review-lite, review army, design-html

The user-installed impeccable engine becomes a deterministic pre-pass in four
skills, through one resolver with three renders: {{DESIGN_DETECTOR}} (the probe
block and how to read every sentinel), {{DESIGN_DETECTOR:phase0}} (design-
review's mechanical scan), {{DESIGN_DETECTOR:gate}} (design-html's bounded slop
gate). Every rendered invocation is `bun --no-env-file run <bin>/gstack-design-
detect.ts ... --host <host>` and every scan ends with the DETECT_EXIT_CODE echo
so exit 2 (findings) never aborts a block.

design-review: probe in Setup; Phase 0 picks DOM mode (URL target) or source
mode (diff-aware, no URL) once; source mode scans the changed frontend files in
Setup, DOM mode never reads source (Rule 4). Phase 3 gains a DOM-dump step per
page: both browser engines load the shared script from lib/dom-dump.js (Aside
splices it into a double-quoted repl script; the fallback engine copies it into
a temp dir for `$B eval --out --raw`), the dump is size-capped, run through
gstack-redact (a HIGH finding skips the page), and persisted under
$REPORT_DIR/dom/$RUN_ID/; one scan runs after the last page, labeled "static
scan of the rendered DOM; cross-origin CSS not resolved". REPORT_DIR honors
GSTACK_HOME so the wrapper's allow-list and the report dir agree; RUN_ID is set
once in Setup. design-baseline.json is schemaVersion 2 with runId, targetSet,
base, and a detector block (mode, engine, byRule, byPage), written temp+rename
with a per-run copy; Regression Output diffs ids only when mode and target set
match, caveats an engine change, and calls live-page count deltas advisory.
Phase 7 hands deferred detector findings to the `handoff=` command the scan
printed; Phase 9 recomputes the same way and deletes the dumps unless
--keep-dom; Phase 10 reports `Detector: N → M`.

ship review-lite gains step 0 (probe, `scan --changed <base>`, tier buckets,
detector + checklist dedupe, advisory and ignored never count) and a
`detector` count in its log payload; the PR body gets a Detector line (rule
ids and counts only). The Review Army Design specialist runs the mechanical
pass at the top of review/design-checklist.md, which now carries it. design-
html probes after DESIGN_SETUP and runs the one-pass gate before screenshots.

lib/dom-dump.js is generated by gen-skill-docs from lib/dom-dump-script.ts
(Claude host, --out-dir aware, dry-run freshness) and pinned byte-equal, so the
prose never carries the script. The contract gains DETECT_JSON, DOM_DUMP_OK,
and the self-describing set; its test now checks both directions.

Budget: design-review eager 25.6K → 28.5K. The plan's target was +2.5K; after
the levers it named (ids-only detector rules, no inline script, trimmed prose)
it lands at +2.87K, and the remainder is doctrine and detector wiring, so the
ceiling moves to the captured 31,319 for design-review only (the full capture
would also have loosened 21 ceilings this branch never touched; those stay).
design-html skeleton re-baselined to 54,000 (measured 53,592). Codex and
Factory ship goldens refreshed (review-lite step 0 and the PR-body line render
inline there).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(design): catalog never-lines in the mockup prompt

Ten catalog ids carry `mockupNever` (kicker-above-heading, icon-tile-stack,
gradient-text, ai-color-palette, cream-palette, nested-cards, dark-glow,
pulsing-dot, identical-cards, hero-metrics) and lib/design-catalog.ts exports
their deduped plain-English names as MOCKUP_NEVER_NAMES. briefToPrompt() in
the design binary appends "Never: <names>." before its fixed tail, so `$D
generate | variants | evolve` stop reaching for purple gradients, icon tiles,
and cream defaults before the comparison board opens. The binary still
bundles (`bun build --compile design/src/cli.ts`); ./setup rebuilds it.

design-html's Never-include list now covers every mockupNever id (kicker /
icon tile, hero metric rows, gradient text, cream palette, nested and
identical cards, glow and pulsing dots), each line tagged with its catalog
ids; test/design-catalog.test.ts pins the exact ten flags, the deduped names,
and that the template list is a superset. New design/test/brief.test.ts pins
the prompt shape.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(lib): open DESIGN.md reader/writer + gstack-design-md bin

lib/design-md.ts implements the open DESIGN.md format (google-labs-code/
design.md, Apache-2.0): YAML front matter with the five token groups (colors,
typography, rounded, spacing, components) and eight canonical `##` sections
in spec order (Overview, Colors, Typography, Layout, Elevation & Depth,
Shapes, Components, Do's and Don'ts), aliases mapped, extras preserved after
them in their original order. parseDesignMd never throws (unparsable front
matter → `unknown` with a reason); renderDesignMd re-emits the preserved front
matter bytes and only `convert` writes fresh YAML through a small block-style
emitter (Bun.YAML.stringify is flow style); upsertSection splices the body
only; tokensFlat resolves `{path}` references to primitives and reports group,
self, dangling, and cyclic refs as DESIGN_MD_TOKEN_REF_INVALID. convertLegacy
turns gstack's pre-spec DESIGN.md into the open format: Product Context and
Aesthetic Direction fold into Overview, Typography roles become
display/body/label/mono tokens (mono carries fontFeature: tnum), Color hexes
become colors (mode-qualified labels keep their qualifier; strategy lines are
not colors), the Spacing scale and Layout radii become spacing and rounded,
Motion / Grain Texture / Decisions Log survive as extras. The format marker
lives inside the file: a YAML comment on line 2 of a spec file, an HTML
comment on line 1 of a legacy file.

bin/gstack-design-md.ts: `check` (DESIGN_MD_FORMAT + marker), `convert
[--write]` (backup to DESIGN.md.legacy.bak, temp+rename, refuses ambiguous
input with DESIGN_MD_CONVERT_REFUSED), `tokens` (flat JSON), `mark
<spec|legacy-keep>`. Exit 3 + DESIGN_MD_INTERNAL_ERROR is a gstack bug.

design/src/memory.ts: updateDesignMd upserts "Extracted Design Language"
through the lib (front matter bytes untouched, canonical order kept, section
replaced on rerun) and creates a spec skeleton with tokens from the extraction
when no file exists; readDesignConstraints leads with the flat tokens and the
Overview for spec files. The design binary still bundles.

test/design-md.test.ts pins all of it against gstack's own DESIGN.md.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(design): write/read DESIGN.md in the open spec; persisted format choice

gstack's design skills now write DESIGN.md in the open DESIGN.md format and
read tokens from it. {{DESIGN_MD_CHECK}} renders the format check through
bin/gstack-design-md.ts: design-consultation's Phase 0 settles the format once
(spec → update tokens in the front matter; legacy without a marker → one
AskUserQuestion: convert with a .legacy.bak, keep the legacy file, or start
fresh; the answer is written into the file as the format marker so no skill
asks again; a marker already present is obeyed silently; unknown → prose;
missing → Phase 6 writes one). Phase 6's template is the spec form: YAML front
matter with name, description, and exactly the five token groups (colors,
typography.display/body/label/mono with fontFeature: tnum on mono, rounded,
spacing, components with {path} references), then Overview (Creative North
Star, product context, mode per surface, references, key characteristics),
Colors (opening with the Restrained / Committed / Full palette / Drenched
strategy), Typography, Layout, Elevation & Depth, Shapes, Components, Do's and
Don'ts, plus gstack's Motion and Decisions Log as extras; the template ends
with a check that the file parses as `spec`.

design-review runs the `:calibrate` form in Setup: a spec file's flat tokens
are the calibration source (a value present in the tokens is never a finding),
the marker is respected, and conversion is never offered there; its DESIGN.md
export writes the spec form. design-html's token extraction writes the spec
form and respects an existing choice. review/design-checklist.md category 5 and
ship's review-lite step 1 name `gstack-design-md tokens` as the calibration
source; plan-design-review Pass 5 cites tokens by path when front matter
exists.

The contract owns the bin's DESIGN_MD_MARKER / REASON / WRITTEN / BACKUP
lines; the contract test's pending list closes. Carve guard: design-
consultation skeleton 66,500 → 67,500 (measured 67,014; +1,508 B against the
1.5 KB cap). Codex and Factory ship goldens refreshed (review-lite step 1).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(design): PRODUCT.md prefill + /impeccable handoffs

design-consultation's context gathering and design-shotgun's auto-gather read
PRODUCT.md (impeccable's product-context file) when it exists: it counts as
the user's prior answers, gets confirmed in one line, and is never re-asked.
Neither skill opens `.claude/skills/impeccable/**`; PRODUCT.md and DESIGN.md
are the shared surface, and impeccable's prose never loads inside a gstack
skill.

Handoffs: ship's review-lite ends each NEEDS INPUT detector row with the
`handoff=` command the scan printed (`/impeccable <cmd>`) when the probe
reported IMPECCABLE_SKILL: present, recommending the command and never
opening its files; design-review's Phase 7 does the same for deferred
findings, and `design_detector: off` silences handoff lines with the rest.
Codex and Factory ship goldens refreshed.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* chore(design): convert gstack's own DESIGN.md to the open spec

`gstack-design-md convert --write` on the repo's DESIGN.md: tokens in YAML
front matter (typography.display/body/label/mono, colors with their light/dark
qualifiers, spacing scale, rounded scale), Overview from Product Context and
Aesthetic Direction, Colors / Typography / Layout as canonical sections, Motion,
Grain Texture, and Decisions Log preserved as extras, format marker on line 2.
Hand-checked; `check` reports spec with no token-reference errors. A Decisions
Log row records the conversion and that DM Sans stays the body face: it is on
the overused-as-display list, and body/UI use on an Operate surface is the
allowed exception under the role-scoped rule.

The pre-conversion file lives on as test/fixtures/design-md-legacy.md, which
test/design-md.test.ts now uses for its legacy cases; the converted root file
is asserted to be spec.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* docs: NOTICE, Apache license text, README interop, project structure

NOTICE.md names what gstack derived from impeccable (rule ids and names in
the catalog and the registry fixture; the visitor modes, craft-floor
reflexes, and calibration in the design resolvers; the font procedure in the
consultation template) and from Google's DESIGN.md specification (the format
lib/design-md.ts implements), states that gstack does not distribute or audit
the impeccable engine, and points at licenses/Apache-2.0.txt (verbatim).

README: the design-consultation, design-review, and design-html rows say what
changes when impeccable or the open DESIGN.md format is in play, and a "Works
with impeccable" paragraph explains the pre-pass, the shared ids, PRODUCT.md
and DESIGN.md as the shared surface, the handoffs, the no-nag posture without
impeccable, and the off switch. docs/skills.md gets the detector paragraph
under /design-review. docs/PROJECT_STRUCTURE.md lists the new lib and bin
files, NOTICE.md, and licenses/. docs/designs/IMPECCABLE_INTEROP.md promotes
the CEO plan (its ~/.gstack copy is flipped to PROMOTED) with a "what
shipped" summary. TODOS.md files the seven deferrals from the reviews: the
design-review Phases 7-11 carve (the budget lever, with the +2.87K vs 2.5K
landing recorded), the Bun .env audit across bin/*.ts, the Kiro bin/lib gap,
the $D check slop rubric, taste-profile interplay, the CEO Section 11
bullets, and the scan cache.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* test: touchfiles, tiers, shim E2E, real-engine fixture

Touchfiles: the catalog, contract, detector bin, checklist resolver, review-
army resolver, and DESIGN.md lib join the dep lists of review-design-lite,
design-review-fix, the design-consultation cases, and plan-design-review-no-
ui-scope, so editing any of them re-selects the tests that read their output.
Three new E2E keys: design-review-detector-shim (gate; source mode on a
feature-branch diff), design-review-detector-shim-dom (gate; DOM mode: the
slop fixture served on loopback, dumped through the browse binary with
lib/dom-dump.js, persisted under a GSTACK_HOME-scoped REPORT_DIR, scanned once;
self-skips when browse/dist/browse is absent), and design-html-slop-gate
(periodic; one fix pass, at most two scans, remaining findings accepted with
reason). Every case reaches the engine through test/fixtures/fake-impeccable.ts
via IMPECCABLE_BIN from outside the temp repo, reads extracted skill sections
(never a whole SKILL.md) with the installed bin path rewritten to this
checkout, and asserts the probe ran, the right scan verb ran, `npx impeccable`
never did, and the output carries FINDING rows tagged [ai-color-palette] and
[low-contrast]. review-design-lite gets the fake engine and an eighth tally
signal for a detector row; its 4-hit threshold is unchanged.

test/gstack-design-detect.test.ts evaluates design-review's REPORT_DIR
expression with GSTACK_HOME set and proves a dump under it is accepted by the
wrapper's allow-list. The sample fixtures were real captures from commit 1
(engine 0.1.3), so there is nothing hand-written left to swap.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design-detect): never execute a repository-controlled engine; allow-list --changed targets; sanitize engine text

Pre-landing review findings (security + checklist), all reproduced before the fix:

- A checked-out branch could commit `.claude/skills/impeccable/scripts/bin/<os>-<arch>/impeccable`
  and the probe would report READY and `scan` would run it, with the agent's full
  environment. Launchers and sibling engines under the repo or cwd now count as
  "skill present" only (IMPECCABLE_NOT_CACHED: repository-local install, and the
  hint never names a repository-local launcher to run); only HOME-rooted installs,
  IMPECCABLE_BIN, the cache, and PATH entries outside the repo qualify, all by
  realpath. The engine now sees a minimal environment (PATH, HOME, TMPDIR, locale,
  IMPECCABLE_*), never the agent's tokens.
- `scan --changed <base>` pushed git-derived paths without the allow-list, so a
  committed symlink with a frontend extension handed a file outside the repo to
  the engine. Derived targets now go through the same allow-list as explicit ones
  and symlinks named by git are refused outright.
- A repo-controlled `scripts/VERSION` with embedded newlines forged probe lines;
  the version is trusted only when it is semver, and every printed version is
  sanitized. Engine text containing the untrusted-content fence or a
  `SENTINEL:` prefix is neutralized with a zero-width space
  (neutralizeSentinels in the contract), so page text cannot close the envelope
  or forge a probe line.
- A failing `git diff <base>...HEAD` (unknown or unfetched base) was swallowed
  and read as "no frontend changes"; it is now DETECT_REFUSED with exit 1.
- The scan allow-list root follows `${GSTACK_HOME:-$HOME/.gstack}` like the
  templates and gstack-slug (config.yaml keeps gstack-config's STATE_ROOT
  precedence); a quoted or commented design_detector value reads correctly.

Smaller: raw engine chunks are kept only in --format raw; diagnostics are
capped (200 kept, 20 echoed); the engine identity hash reads size + 4 MB, not
the whole binary; PROBE_STEP and ENGINE_STDERR are contract sentinels; the
--verbose gate covers every probe step; analytics use one sentinel vocabulary;
bare limits live in DETECT_LIMITS. The fake engine's knobs are IMPECCABLE_FAKE_*
(so they pass the minimal env) and a shared test helper installs it. New tests
cover each item above plus clean runs, `{}` parse errors, missing paths, and the
50 MB stdout cap.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design-md): mark and updateDesignMd never rewrite the user's file; refuse a contradictory mark

renderDesignMd re-sorted canonical section names into spec order on every
render, so `gstack-design-md mark legacy-keep` (the "leave it alone" answer)
and the design binary's mockup extraction reordered a legacy DESIGN.md
(Typography and Layout jumped to the top) and normalized its whitespace, while
the bin promised "body bytes untouched". `mark` now splices only the marker
line (insertMarker) and `updateDesignMd` splices only its own section
(spliceSection); every other byte of an existing file is preserved, and spec
order applies only to files that open with front matter. `mark` refuses a
choice that contradicts the file's format (spec on a non-spec file,
legacy-keep on a spec file) with DESIGN_MD_CONVERT_REFUSED, exit 2, file
unchanged. convertLegacy keeps intro prose under the title instead of
rebuilding the preamble from the title alone. detectFormat returns a
machine-readable `code` beside the prose reason (the bin no longer branches on
reason text); the marker regexes derive from FORMAT_MARKER_PREFIX and
FORMAT_CHOICES; the hop limit and legacy identity headings are named
constants; slug is exported and reused; both writers use lib/fs-atomic.ts.
Tests pin byte identity for mark and updateDesignMd on the legacy fixture,
the refusal paths, and the preserved preamble.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design): run the DOM dump in the page on both engines; align doctrine with the catalog

The DOM-dump script is an arrow function, not a self-calling IIFE: Aside's
`pg.evaluate($_DUMP)` receives the function and runs it in the page (the IIFE
form executed in the repl sandbox, where `document` does not exist), and the
fallback engine calls it with `$B js "($_DUMP)()" --out --raw`. Hygiene widens
to every URL-bearing attribute (src, srcset per candidate, poster, action,
formaction, data, ping, cite lose their query strings and fragments) and to
data: URLs inside existing <style> nodes. The persist and scan blocks restate
REPORT_DIR and RUN_ID literally instead of relying on a shell variable from an
earlier block; the baseline's targetSet is defined per mode (repo-relative
paths in source mode, page slugs in DOM mode) so DOM-mode deltas can match; the
PR-body Detector line lists the states the probe can actually print. The DOM
fixture is re-captured with the new script from outside the repo (the engine
walks up from cwd for DESIGN.md, which the metadata now records).

Doctrine contradictions the design specialist found: the landing-page motion
rule matches the one-authored-moment reflex; the background rule names the
catalog's halo/spotlight/stripe/grid slop instead of asking for gradients; the
universal font rule is scoped to the display voice with the body/UI exceptions;
"two typefaces max" allows the mono; the methodology's banned-font line renders
BANNED_FONTS; Courier New is banned outright; the Brutalist, Retro-Futuristic,
and Playful menu entries stop recommending system stacks, glow, and bounce; the
coherence nudge uses the decoration vocabulary; Path A's gate names the display
voice; font-loading prose points at the source the procedure verified;
centered-everything is MEDIUM (an aggregate heuristic); the mockup guard reads
"Never by default (unless the brief above asks for it)". The checklist's
AUTO-FIX list renders the catalog's auto-fix rules; category 9 and the Hard
Rules pointer count from the same partition helpers (detectorSlopEntries,
judgmentTellEntries); the handoff list renders from HANDOFF_COMMANDS; a missing
catalog id fails gen-skill-docs by name. gstack's own DESIGN.md gains border
tokens and Decisions Log rows for its live-feed pulse and 11px mono labels.
frontend-scope is case-sensitive like the bash arm. gen-skill-docs shares one
emitGenerated helper for sections and lib-derived assets; renderCatalog keeps
the one style with a caller. Tests: shared sliceBetween that fails on a missing
end marker, the slop-gate fixture's real end marker, an isolated browse daemon
for the DOM-mode E2E, the DOM hygiene test gated to CI or opt-in, docs notes
for the two superseded plan sentences.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design-detect): an engine is a file named impeccable outside the project; DOM dumps scan without inline ignores

Second review cycle, security + checklist:

- IMPECCABLE_BIN=/bin/sh (or node) was READY, and `detect` with cwd=repoRoot
  made the interpreter run the repository's own `detect` file. Every engine
  candidate (env override, PATH entry, cache, sibling) is now judged by the
  realpath of the FILE and must be named impeccable[.exe]; PATH and cache
  candidates that resolve into the repository are skipped like the others.
  "Inside the project" means the repository, or cwd when cwd is a project
  directory: HOME and its ancestors are exempt, so a URL-mode review launched
  from HOME still finds the HOME-rooted installs.
- A base for --changed that starts with `-` was spliced into git argv
  (`--output=<file>` made git write a file and report no changes); an option-
  like or missing base is DETECT_REFUSED (not a ref name), exit 1, and the
  parser no longer defaults a missing value to main.
- DOM dumps are the audited page's bytes, so an in-file `impeccable-disable`
  comment there is page-controlled: batches under the designs root run with
  --no-inline-ignores, repository batches keep the project's own ignores.
- neutralizeSentinels covers the shapes it missed (bare sentinels such as
  DETECT_TOP total= and IMPECCABLE_DISABLED, the DETECT_EXIT_CODE= echo, the
  `[rule-id] impact=` group header) in one precompiled alternation instead of
  37 replaceAll passes per field; only kept findings are normalized, and the
  summary's total stays the engine's count.
- The minimal engine environment compares keys case-insensitively on Windows
  (process.env enumerates Path, SystemRoot there) and passes PATHEXT, COMSPEC,
  HOMEDRIVE, HOMEPATH, PROGRAMDATA.
- Bare 64s move into DETECT_LIMITS; the unused SentinelName type is gone; the
  header states the directory-target contract (the engine's own walk).

Tests: an interpreter as IMPECCABLE_BIN never runs the repo's detect file; a
PATH symlink into the repository is never READY; option-like and empty bases
are refused with no file written; the designs-root batch carries
--no-inline-ignores and the repo batch does not; the identity label is
deterministic per binary; the bare-sentinel and header shapes are neutralized;
the installed fake engine works without IMPECCABLE_FAKE_OUTPUT (the helper
copies the sample beside it); two tests clean up in finally.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design-md): text-level edits keep CRLF, one section-boundary rule, control characters quoted

- insertMarker and spliceSection normalized every line ending to LF, so a CRLF
  DESIGN.md came back rewritten beyond the one line they promised to touch.
  Both detect the file's dominant line ending and restore it.
- parseDesignMd and spliceSection each walked headings with their own fence
  tracking; they now share headingLines (and upsertSection shares
  headingMatches). An unclosed ``` is treated as prose for that file: it used
  to swallow every later section on a splice.
- A token value carrying a control character (an LLM-extracted font family
  with an embedded newline) was emitted as a bare multi-line scalar that
  Bun.YAML rejects, turning a freshly written DESIGN.md into
  frontmatter-unparsable; needsQuotes routes it through the quoted form.
- The marker-line regex variants are built once beside YAML_MARKER_RE; the
  dead setMarker export and a no-op ternary are gone; LEGACY_HEADINGS derives
  from the identity list; the header diagram names the text-level editors as
  the write path for user-owned files; the bin validates and prints the mark
  choices from FORMAT_CHOICES.

Tests: CRLF round-trips for both editors, a fenced ## inside a section and an
unclosed fence, and a newline-bearing scalar parsing back.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design): Aside dump script stays single-quoted; redaction gate sized to the dump cap; doctrine made consistent

- The DOM-dump Aside block was the only double-quoted `aside repl` script in
  the tree (to splice the function text), which put the agent-filled <url>
  inside a double-quoted bash string: a same-origin href carrying $(...) would
  run in the reviewer's shell when Phase 3 opened that page. The script is
  single-quoted like every other Aside script and the function text enters
  through a closed-quote segment ('"$_DUMP"'); the fallback line is
  `$B js '('"$_DUMP"')()'`. A free test pins that no rendered Aside script
  opens with a double quote.
- The persist block capped dumps at 10 MiB but ran gstack-redact with its
  1 MiB default, so every real page between the two was deleted as
  DOM_DUMP_REDACTION_BLOCKED; the gate passes --max-bytes at the dump cap and
  blocks on any exit other than clean (0) or MEDIUM (2), so a redaction tool
  that fails to run can no longer fall through to "persist".
- Dump hygiene removes <template> and <noscript> subtrees (invisible to the
  attribute walk), inline on* handlers, and the cross-origin <link> nodes
  already named in the note, so the file handed to the engine references no
  remote stylesheet.
- Doctrine: the Codex design-voice prompts said "2-3 intentional motions"
  against the one-authored-moment rule; the overused-display heading scoped
  its ban to Persuade/Experience while the catalog and hard rules ban it
  everywhere; design-consultation's Important Rule 4 still said "as primary";
  design-html's blacklist header is now "Never include by default" with the
  mockup/DESIGN.md/user-ask override the catalog grants; the slop gate honors
  Decisions Log and Do's and Don'ts blessings like /review does; the landing
  "poster" line says poster in stance, not type size; the design binary's
  variant dials no longer flip light/dark for variety; gstack's DESIGN.md
  rows name data labels (UI labels stay the DM Sans token) and call the
  skill-bar fill and hovers functional transitions.
- design-review names how the base branch is found (gh pr view, then the
  repo default; never main) for the source-mode scan and the diff-aware mode.
- frontend-scope matches the config globs at the repo root only, like the
  bash arm; the parity test carries nested samples.
- Cleanups: renderCatalog's stale style option, an unused import, the
  identity-map bannedFontNames, the checklist header's "same entries" claim,
  the catalog header's consumer list, the orphaned main() docstring, the
  plan doc's IIFE bullet. design-html's skeleton ceiling is re-measured
  (54,184) for the two doctrine sentences.

Tests: AUTO-FIX rendering from the catalog, the E2E slice markers checked in
the free suite, the hygiene cases for templates/noscript/handlers/remote
links, and the review E2E counting detector rows separately from the seven
checklist plants.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design-detect): project means below HOME; only page dumps drop inline ignores; a whole-scan budget; prototype-safe rule counts

Third review cycle + Red Team, all reproduced before the fix:

- With no repository, the wrapper adopted cwd as the repo root, so a review
  launched from HOME (URL mode can run from anywhere) rejected every
  HOME-rooted install as "repository-local", reported the user's own skill
  install with the wrong hint, and, for targets, accepted all of HOME
  (~/.ssh/id_rsa scanned). A project directory is now one strictly below
  HOME: `git init ~` never turns the user's installs into repository files,
  and from HOME only the designs allow-list qualifies as a target.
- --no-inline-ignores keyed on "not inside the repo", which misclassified
  dumps when GSTACK_HOME sits under the repo and stripped the design-html
  gate's own `<!-- impeccable-disable -->` from finalized.html. Targets are
  classified as project / dom-dump (designs/<audit>/dom/**, the page's bytes)
  / artifact (other designs/ files, gstack-authored); only dumps drop inline
  ignores.
- A repository's .impeccable/config.json can hide rules from the review;
  detector.ignoreValues was never surfaced. The probe prints
  IMPECCABLE_IGNORED_VALUES beside the rules, and the prose stops calling
  repo-config ignores "a decision the user made".
- An engine id named `constructor` corrupted byRule through
  Object.prototype and `__proto__` counts vanished; byRule is a null-
  prototype object and an id that fails the shape check is `unmapped` as a
  key too.
- Batches ran with no total budget (10,000 un-ignored files: hours). The
  scan stops at 5x the per-batch timeout with DETECT_TIMEOUT and exit 1.
- The scan JSON carries an `untrusted` list of the engine- and page-derived
  fields, so the agent reading past the fenced DETECT_TOP block is told what
  is evidence.
- The PATH walk keeps launcher-present for a .cmd wrapper or a differently
  named real file (the name gate applies to READY only).

Tests: probe and scan from a fake HOME (cache READY, HOME file refused, dump
scanned without inline ignores), artifact vs dump batches, prototype-member
ids, the whole-scan budget over 11 batches, ignoreValues surfaced, the
`untrusted` field.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design-md): edits follow a symlinked DESIGN.md, keep the BOM and the majority line ending, refuse an unclosed fence

- `mark`, `convert --write`, and the design binary's extraction replaced a
  symlinked DESIGN.md (a docs-site layout) with a regular file and left the
  real target untouched; both writers resolve the link first.
- A single stray CRLF flipped a whole LF file to CRLF: the editors now keep
  the majority ending. A UTF-8 BOM broke format detection and ended up
  mid-file after `mark`; it is recognized and kept at byte 0.
- Re-running `mark` on a marked file deleted the blank line after the marker
  (`\s*$` matched across the newline); the marker regexes use `[ \t]*`.
- Fences: readers follow markdown (an unclosed fence runs to EOF); the
  text-level editors refuse such a file with DesignMdEditRefused
  (DESIGN_MD_EDIT_REFUSED) instead of splicing the wrong section, and the
  design binary reports that and leaves the file alone.
- needsQuotes also quotes a scalar containing ` #` (an inline-comment
  shape parsed back as a truncated value).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design): dump hygiene covers CSS URLs, srcdoc, and handlers; dumps persist owner-only; ignore prose treats repo config as evidence

- The dump script cuts query strings from CSS url() in style attributes,
  <style> nodes, and the inlined stylesheets (signed asset URLs), empties
  srcdoc, and covers background and xlink:href.
- Persisted dumps are chmod 600; MEDIUM redaction findings persist (an
  authenticated page shows emails) and the prose says so; earlier runs'
  dumps are swept before the first dump of a run unless --keep-dom.
- The Aside dump prose asks for `'` in a pasted URL to be percent-encoded
  (a bare single quote would end the script) and never to paste an unread
  URL.
- Repo-config ignores are evidence, not settled decisions, in /review,
  /ship, and design-review's probe prose; the scan JSON's text fields are
  named as untrusted.
- design-html's skeleton ceiling is re-measured (54,545); ship goldens
  refreshed for the checklist prose.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design-detect): audit directories scan as dumps; scans print probe lines on stderr; refused base always exits 1; PATH loses project entries

Adversarial review (Claude subagent):

- A DIRECTORY target under designs/ (the audit dir, which the prose hands the
  agent as REPORT_DIR) classified as an artifact, so the engine walked its
  dom/ subtree WITH inline ignores honored. Any directory under designs/ is
  now scanned as dumps.
- A scan whose probe no longer finds an engine wrote its sentinel lines to
  stdout and exited 0, so `scan > "$_DJ"` captured "IMPECCABLE_NOT_AVAILABLE"
  as the scan result and the rendered bash read a clean scan. Probe lines go
  to stderr on every path; stdout is the JSON document or nothing.
- A refused --changed base exited 0/2 when explicit targets were also given;
  it folds into the exit code (1 over 2 over 0). A trailing --changed no
  longer defaults to main.
- A hand-edited `design_detector: Off` re-enabled the detector; the value is
  compared case-insensitively.
- The engine inherited PATH entries inside the project (a direnv .envrc
  adding node_modules/.bin); those are filtered like every other project path.
- DOM_DUMP_MISSING names the case where the dump script wrote nothing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design-md): markdown edge cases: rule-opened legacy files, spaced fences, ~~~ blocks, duplicate headings, YAML 1.2 numerics

- insertMarker keyed on "starts with ---", so a legacy file opening with a
  horizontal rule got a `# gstack:` line rendered as a heading that the
  parser then never read back (the conversion question re-asked every run).
  It keys on parsed front matter.
- A closing front-matter fence with trailing spaces (`---  `) made a valid
  spec file `unknown`; the closer is any whole `---` line.
- `~~~` fences hid nothing, so a `## ` inside one was a section boundary and
  a splice corrupted the fence; both fence kinds are tracked and only the
  same kind closes an opener.
- convertLegacy silently kept the first of two `## Layout` bodies (and one
  of `## Color` / `## Colors`); it refuses with DESIGN_MD_CONVERT_REFUSED and
  the bin leaves the file and writes no backup.
- needsQuotes covers 0x / 0o / .inf / .nan (YAML 1.2 numerics that changed
  type on round-trip); emitYamlBlock throws on an object inside an array
  instead of writing "[object Object]".
- The design binary coerces the model's extraction JSON at the parse
  boundary (null names, missing arrays) so the paid call's result survives.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design): print and alternate stylesheets are not scanned as page CSS; no cross-run dump sweep; probe-state and design-system caveats in prose

- The dump inlined every linked sheet's rules as active CSS, so a print
  sheet's 12pt black text or an alternate theme produced tiny-text and
  palette findings the user never sees; disabled and alternate sheets are
  skipped and a media-scoped sheet is wrapped in its @media block.
- The cross-run dump sweep is gone: two same-day reviews shared REPORT_DIR
  and one run's sweep deleted the other's dumps mid-audit. Dumps stay per
  run, owner-only, deleted after Phase 9 unless --keep-dom (now defined in
  the prose), and an interrupted run's dumps wait for the user.
- Prose: design-system-* rows in DOM mode compare the page to THIS repo's
  DESIGN.md and apply only to the repo's own app; an empty scan JSON with
  exit 0 means the probe state changed since Setup (read stderr); the
  persist block names a missing dump instead of mislabeling it as a
  redaction block.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* v1.82.0.0: impeccable interop, detector pre-pass, open DESIGN.md format

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* docs: update project documentation for v1.82.0.0

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* changelog: name the measure behind the test-count row

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(test): drive the DOM hygiene test through Playwright Chromium directly

Under the six-shard CI free suite the test's private browse daemon never
answered its health probe (two minutes of retries), failed the shard, and
starved two unrelated test files into failing before the runner's timeout.
The test now launches the same Chromium through playwright-core and calls the
dump function with page.evaluate, the way Aside's pg.evaluate does: no state
file, no daemon, no health window. It self-skips when the Playwright Chromium
bundle is absent. Two more hygiene rules are pinned along the way (print
sheets keep their @media, alternate sheets are dropped).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(test): compare gen-skill-docs paths with forward slashes on Windows

gen-skill-docs prints repo-relative paths with the OS separator, so the
checklist render pins (`GENERATED: review/design-checklist.md`) failed on the
Windows lane against `review\design-checklist.md`.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(test): assemble the planted PEM block at runtime

The quality gate scans every added line of the PR diff through gstack-redact;
the redaction test's literal PEM header was a HIGH finding on our own test
file. The block is now built from fragments, so the scanned file never carries
a key-shaped line while the test still plants a HIGH finding.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(design-detect): consent-gated engine install, checksum-pinned and receipted

`gstack-design-detect.ts install` is the one download gstack makes, and only
after a design skill's one-time question got a yes. It fetches the engine
version gstack has tested (0.1.3) for this platform from impeccable's own
GitHub release, verifies it against the checksum pinned in
lib/design-detect-contract.ts (all five platforms, captured from the
release's .sha256 sidecars; linux-x64 equals the fixture engine), writes an
egress receipt before the fetch and refuses to download when the receipt
cannot be written (fail-closed; the sink is registered in the wiring test's
polarity table), caps the download at 32 MB, streams with the cap enforced,
writes the file only after the hash matches, and places it under
~/.impeccable/bin/<version>/ (a trusted IMPECCABLE_HOME is honored; never
inside a project). No skill, no hook, no launcher, no npx. --sha256 accepts a
sidecar checksum for a version gstack has not pinned; --base allows a mirror
(https, or http on loopback for tests). After a successful install the probe
runs and its lines follow, so the skill sees READY at once.

The probe ends with DESIGN_DETECTOR_INSTALL_OFFER (version, platform, bytes,
destination) whenever it found no engine and the user has not answered the
question; once design_detector_install_prompted is true it prints neither the
offer nor the NOT_CACHED hint, which used to repeat on every run. The hint's
npx wording is corrected: `npx impeccable detect --help` caches the engine
for npx only, not where the probe looks.

gstack-config gains design_detector_install_prompted (true|false, typo
rejected, enumerated in list and defaults). Tests: a loopback mirror (async
spawn, so the in-process server can answer) covers install, re-install as a
verified no-op, checksum mismatch, 404, unpinned version, non-https base,
design_detector off, and IMPECCABLE_HOME inside the repo; the offer and the
silenced hint; pin completeness per platform.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(design): ask once before downloading impeccable's engine

When the probe prints DESIGN_DETECTOR_INSTALL_OFFER the design skills ask the
user one AskUserQuestion, in interactive sessions only (spawned or headless
runs never install and never ask; Conductor gets the prose brief), before
any other step: install the engine now, not now, never ask again
(design_detector_install_prompted), or turn the detector off. A yes runs the
receipted, checksum-pinned install and the skill continues with a READY probe.
The brief says what impeccable is, what the one file is, where it goes, how
it is verified and logged, and that no skill or hook comes with it; users who
want the /impeccable skill run npx impeccable install themselves.

design-review carries the brief inline (it is not carved). design-html keeps
its skeleton small: the probe block points at a new read-on-demand section,
sections/detector-install-offer.md, registered in its manifest and carve
guard; its skeleton ceiling is re-measured (55,262) and its eager ceiling
set to the measured 13,767. The review and ship passes state that they never
offer an install. NOTICE.md, README, docs/skills.md, the interop design doc,
and the CHANGELOG describe the new posture: gstack still never runs
impeccable's installer or launcher; the one download is consented, pinned,
and receipted. Ship goldens refreshed for the review-pass wording.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-09-08 22:40:22 -07:00

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# Contributing to gstack
Thanks for wanting to make gstack better. Whether you're fixing a typo in a skill prompt or building an entirely new workflow, this guide will get you up and running fast.
## Quick start
gstack skills are Markdown files that Claude Code discovers from a `skills/` directory. Normally they live at `~/.claude/skills/gstack/` (your global install). But when you're developing gstack itself, you want Claude Code to use the skills *in your working tree* — so edits take effect instantly without copying or deploying anything.
That's what dev mode does. It symlinks your repo into the local `.claude/skills/` directory so Claude Code reads skills straight from your checkout.
```bash
git clone https://github.com/garrytan/gstack.git && cd gstack
bun install # install dependencies
bin/dev-setup # activate dev mode
```
> **Full clone vs shallow.** The README's user-facing install uses `--depth 1` for speed. As a contributor, use a full clone (no `--depth` flag) — you'll need history for `git log`, `git blame`, `git bisect`, and reviewing PRs against earlier versions. If you already have a `--depth 1` clone from following the README, promote it to a full clone with `git fetch --unshallow`.
Now edit any `SKILL.md`, invoke it in Claude Code (e.g. `/review`), and see your changes live. When you're done developing:
```bash
bin/dev-teardown # deactivate — back to your global install
```
## Operational self-improvement
gstack automatically learns from failures. At the end of every skill session, the agent
reflects on what went wrong (CLI errors, wrong approaches, project quirks) and logs
operational learnings to `~/.gstack/projects/{slug}/learnings.jsonl`. Future sessions
surface these learnings automatically, so gstack gets smarter on your codebase over time.
No setup needed. Learnings are logged automatically. View them with `/learn`.
### The contributor workflow
1. **Use gstack normally** — operational learnings are captured automatically
2. **Check your learnings:** `/learn` or `ls ~/.gstack/projects/*/learnings.jsonl`
3. **Fork and clone gstack** (if you haven't already)
4. **Symlink your fork into the project where you hit the bug:**
```bash
# In your core project (the one where gstack annoyed you)
ln -sfn /path/to/your/gstack-fork .claude/skills/gstack
cd .claude/skills/gstack && bun install && bun run build && ./setup
```
Setup creates per-skill directories with SKILL.md symlinks inside (`qa/SKILL.md -> gstack/qa/SKILL.md`),
links each skill's runtime assets alongside (sections/, templates, checklists — everything except
SKILL.md, tests, build output, and `.tmpl` sources), and asks your prefix preference.
Pass `--no-prefix` to skip the prompt and use short names.
5. **Fix the issue** — your changes are live immediately in this project
6. **Test by actually using gstack** — do the thing that annoyed you, verify it's fixed
7. **Open a PR from your fork**
This is the best way to contribute: fix gstack while doing your real work, in the
project where you actually felt the pain.
### Session awareness
When you have 3+ gstack sessions open simultaneously, every question tells you which project, which branch, and what's happening. No more staring at a question thinking "wait, which window is this?" The format is consistent across all skills.
## Working on gstack inside the gstack repo
When you're editing gstack skills and want to test them by actually using gstack
in the same repo, `bin/dev-setup` wires this up. It creates `.claude/skills/`
symlinks (gitignored) pointing back to your working tree, so Claude Code uses
your local edits instead of the global install.
```
gstack/ <- your working tree
├── .claude/skills/ <- created by dev-setup (gitignored)
│ ├── gstack -> ../../ <- symlink back to repo root
│ ├── review/ <- real directory (short name, default)
│ │ └── SKILL.md -> gstack/review/SKILL.md
│ ├── ship/ <- or gstack-review/, gstack-ship/ if --prefix
│ │ └── SKILL.md -> gstack/ship/SKILL.md
│ └── ... <- one directory per skill
├── review/
│ └── SKILL.md <- edit this, test with /review
├── ship/
│ └── SKILL.md
├── browse/ <- /browse skill + gstack's own browser engine (the fallback)
│ ├── src/ <- TypeScript source
│ └── dist/ <- compiled binary (gitignored)
├── lib/
│ ├── aside-render.ts <- local-HTML rendering: Aside first, browse engine fallback
│ └── design-catalog.ts <- typed design anti-pattern catalog; review/design-checklist.md is generated from it
├── bin/
│ └── gstack-render.ts <- the CLI skills call to render a local HTML file
└── ...
```
Setup creates real directories (not symlinks) at the top level with a SKILL.md
symlink inside, plus links to each skill's runtime assets (sections/, templates,
checklists). Alias skills (`_gstack-command`, `connect-chrome`) install as
rewritten copies, never symlinks — editing a symlinked alias would corrupt the
generated source. This ensures Claude discovers them as top-level skills, not nested
under `gstack/`. Names depend on your prefix setting (`~/.gstack/config.yaml`).
Short names (`/review`, `/ship`) are the default. Run `./setup --prefix` if you
prefer namespaced names (`/gstack-review`, `/gstack-ship`).
## Day-to-day workflow
```bash
# 1. Enter dev mode
bin/dev-setup
# 2. Edit a skill template (SKILL.md files are generated — edit the .tmpl)
vim review/SKILL.md.tmpl
bun run gen:skill-docs # or: bun run dev:skill (watch mode, auto-regen on change)
# 3. Test it in Claude Code — changes are live
# > /review
# 4. Editing browse source? Rebuild the binary
bun run build
# 5. Done for the day? Tear down
bin/dev-teardown
```
### Brain-aware blocks in a dev workspace (gbrain installed)
If gbrain is installed and usable (`bin/gstack-gbrain-detect --is-ok` exits 0),
`bin/dev-setup` keeps your tracked `SKILL.md` files canonical and renders the
brain-aware variant (the `GBRAIN_CONTEXT_LOAD` / `GBRAIN_SAVE_RESULTS` blocks)
into `.claude/gstack-rendered/` (gitignored, per-workspace). It then repoints the
workspace's `SKILL.md` symlinks at that render, so your Claude sessions get the
full gbrain experience while `git status` stays clean. Under the hood, dev-setup
passes `GSTACK_SKIP_GBRAIN_REGEN=1` inline to the nested `./setup` (so it never
dirties tracked source) and runs `gen:skill-docs:user --out-dir .claude/gstack-rendered`,
which rewrites only the section-base paths to point at the render. `bin/dev-teardown`
removes the render. To make the blocks live across your *other* projects' Claude
sessions, run `gstack-config gbrain-refresh`, which renders them to a user render
dir (`${GSTACK_USER_RENDER_DIR:-~/.gstack/render/claude}`, swapped in only on a
successful render) and repoints the installed skills at it via `gstack-relink` —
the global install checkout stays git-clean, and the refresh is guarded so it
never touches a symlinked or non-gstack directory.
## Testing & evals
### Setup
```bash
# 1. Copy .env.example and add your API key
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env → set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
# 2. Install deps (if you haven't already)
bun install
```
Bun auto-loads `.env` — no extra config. Conductor workspaces inherit `.env` from the main worktree automatically (see "Conductor workspaces" below).
### Test tiers
| Tier | Command | Cost | What it tests |
|------|---------|------|---------------|
| 1 — Static | `bun run test` | Free | Command validation, snapshot flags, Aside contract pins, render-wrapper option mapping, SKILL.md correctness, TODOS-format.md refs, observability unit tests |
| 2 — E2E | `bun run test:e2e` | ~$4.20 | Full skill execution via `claude -p` subprocess |
| 3 — LLM eval | `EVALS=1 bun test test/skill-llm-eval.test.ts` | ~$0.15 standalone | LLM-as-judge scoring of generated SKILL.md docs |
| 2+3 | `bun run test:evals` | ~$4 combined | E2E + LLM-as-judge (runs both) |
```bash
bun run test # Tier 1 only (run before every commit, ~90-100s for the full ~8,700-test suite)
bun run test:e2e # Tier 2: E2E only (needs EVALS=1, can't run inside Claude Code)
bun run test:evals # Tier 2 + 3 combined (~$4.35/run)
```
### Tier 1: Static validation (free)
Runs with `bun run test`, which routes through `scripts/test-free-shards.ts`: N
concurrent shard processes under a strict output contract — a shard that exits
without bun's own terminal summary line, or a crashed worker, fails the run, so
silent truncation can never report green. Pass `--verbose` to forward the full
child stream; `--wall-timeout <secs>` overrides the per-shard kill deadline.
`GSTACK_FREE_JOBS=<n>` overrides the shard count (digits only, loud on garbage),
and `GSTACK_FREE_RETRY_FLAKY=1` opts into one serial retry pass for
syscall-supervised sandboxes (off by default locally — dev boxes should see
flakes; the required CI free lane turns it on and uploads every flaky pass
in a JSONL ledger artifact that `bun run eval:flake-rank` folds in).
Working in a cloud sandbox? Run `scripts/sandbox-doctor.sh` once per boot to
make the suite run green (details in
[docs/TESTING_INTERNALS.md](docs/TESTING_INTERNALS.md)).
Don't type bare `bun test` for the suite: it walks the whole repo, loads paid
eval files, and misses the strict classifier. No API keys needed.
- **Skill parser tests** (`test/skill-parser.test.ts`) — Extracts every `$B` command from SKILL.md bash code blocks and validates against the command registry in `browse/src/commands.ts`. Catches typos, removed commands, and invalid snapshot flags.
- **Skill validation tests** (`test/skill-validation.test.ts`) — Validates that SKILL.md files reference only real commands and flags, and that command descriptions meet quality thresholds. Also cross-checks the skill inventory in AGENTS.md and docs/skills.md.
- **Aside driver contract** (`test/aside-driver.test.ts`) — Browser behaviour in skills is written against `scripts/resolvers/aside.ts` (`{{ASIDE_SETUP}}`) and verified live against the Aside CLI on a Mac. CI cannot run Aside, so the Aside E2E tests self-skip where `aside` is not installed; the static pins (detection, fallback hand-off, consent, credential, one-flow-per-script, sentinel) are what CI proves.
- **Aside render wrapper** (`test/aside-render.test.ts`) — Pins the option mapping and generated script of `lib/aside-render.ts` everywhere, and drives both engines hermetically with fake `aside` / `browse` executables (probe classification, the stdout contract, loopback-server policy, failure paths, the timeout kill, engine choice and the mid-run fallback); the live render (PDF + screenshot through a real Aside) runs only where Aside is open and self-skips elsewhere. make-pdf's render gates (`make-pdf/test/e2e/*-gate.test.ts`) and `test/skill-e2e-diagram.test.ts` are engine-agnostic: they run through whichever engine resolves (`browserAvailable()` — Aside, or the browse binary `bun run build:gates` compiles, which is what Linux CI does) and skip only when neither exists.
- **Render CLI** (`test/gstack-render-cli.test.ts`) — Pins `bin/gstack-render.ts` against a fake daemon (`GSTACK_SKIP_ASIDE=1` + `GSTACK_BROWSE_BIN`): argv guards exit 1 with the usage line, `--help` exits 0, `ENGINE=` first then `OK <path>` then fenced `EVAL` / `PAGE_ERRORS`, `--serve-root` containment, the no-browser first line, and prompt exit after a successful render. `make-pdf/test/cli-exit-codes.test.ts` and `make-pdf/test/setup-smoke.test.ts` pin the `pdf` binary's error-to-exit-code map and `$P setup`'s engine report.
- **Generator tests** (`test/gen-skill-docs.test.ts`) — Tests the template system: verifies placeholders resolve correctly, output includes value hints for flags (e.g. `-d <N>` not just `-d`), enriched descriptions for key commands (e.g. `is` lists valid states, `press` lists key examples).
- **Design detector, catalog, and DESIGN.md** (`test/gstack-design-detect.test.ts`, `test/design-detect-contract.test.ts`, `test/design-catalog.test.ts`, `test/design-checklist-sync.test.ts`, `test/design-md.test.ts`, `test/frontend-scope.test.ts`, `test/impeccable-fixtures.test.ts`) — Drive `bin/gstack-design-detect.ts` through the fake engine in `test/fixtures/fake-impeccable.ts` (probe order, the never-execute-a-repository-file rule, the `--changed` target allow-list, `design_detector: off`, analytics lines, output sanitizing), pin the catalog invariants and the generated `review/design-checklist.md`, round-trip the open DESIGN.md reader/writer, and check the real engine captures (`test/fixtures/impeccable-*.json`, engine 0.1.3) against the contract. `test/dom-dump-hygiene.test.ts` runs `lib/dom-dump.js` in a real Chromium page through the built browse binary; it self-skips without the binary and is opt-in outside CI (`GSTACK_DOM_DUMP_HYGIENE=1`).
- **Tier-alignment invariant** (`test/e2e-tier-alignment.test.ts`) — For every self-gated `test/skill-e2e-*.test.ts` named in a touchfiles dep list, the file's `EVALS_TIER` self-gate must match its declared tier in `E2E_TIERS`. Kills the "inert demotion" class where a test is re-tiered in `touchfiles.ts` but the file still gates on the old tier and keeps running in the wrong lane. Unmapped or mixed-tier files are reported, never silently skipped.
- **Catalog budget** (`test/catalog-budget.test.ts`) — Caps the aggregate discovery surface: the sum of every skill's frontmatter `name` + `description` (what every host loads at discovery, every session) must stay under 1,150 token-equivalents, with a 260-byte per-skill cap. Counting goes through the shared census in `test/helpers/skill-census.ts` (physical files vs authored skills vs registry entries — three deliberately different counts). Adding a skill? The failure message carries the re-measure + ratchet protocol.
- **Context-budget ratchet** (`test/context-budget-ratchet.test.ts`) — CI ceilings on the two token ledgers the catalog budget doesn't cover: the always-on full-frontmatter aggregate and each skill's per-invocation eager tokens (SKILL.md + forced-read references), graded against `test/fixtures/context-budget.json` via `lib/context-bill.ts`. New skills fail until they have a ceiling; ceilings for removed skills must be pruned. Legitimate growth or a landed reduction: re-run `bun test/helpers/capture-context-budget.ts` and commit the refreshed fixture in the same commit, so the change is a visible decision in the diff.
### Tier 2: E2E via `claude -p` (~$4.20/run)
Spawns `claude -p` as a subprocess with `--output-format stream-json --verbose`, streams NDJSON for real-time progress, and scans for browse errors. This is the closest thing to "does this skill actually work end-to-end?"
```bash
# Must run from a plain terminal — can't nest inside Claude Code or Conductor
EVALS=1 bun test test/skill-e2e-*.test.ts
```
- Gated by `EVALS=1` env var (prevents accidental expensive runs)
- Auto-skips if running inside Claude Code (`claude -p` can't nest)
- API connectivity pre-check — fails fast on ConnectionRefused before burning budget
- Real-time progress to stderr: `[Ns] turn T tool #C: Name(...)`
- Saves full NDJSON transcripts and failure JSON for debugging
- Tests live in `test/skill-e2e-*.test.ts` (split by category), runner logic in `test/helpers/session-runner.ts`
**Hermetic by default.** Every E2E runner (claude -p, the real-PTY plan-mode
runner, the Agent SDK runner, plus the codex and gemini runners) spawns its child
through `test/helpers/hermetic-env.ts`: an allowlist-scrubbed environment, a fresh
seeded `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR`, a temp `GSTACK_HOME`, and `--strict-mcp-config`. Your
operator `~/.claude` config, MCP servers (gbrain, Conductor), skills, `~/.gstack`
decision logs, and `CONDUCTOR_*` env never leak into the child, so local eval
signal matches CI instead of disagreeing for reasons unrelated to the code under
test. The hermetic `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR` seeds no skills by default; a PTY test
that types a `/skill` slash command passes `seedSkills: true` to the PTY runner,
which swaps in `hermeticSkillsConfigDir()` — a seeded skill registry that
symlinks the LIVE working tree's SKILL.md files (by design: the skills are the
subject under test, so a snapshot would measure stale copies). Set
`EVALS_HERMETIC=0` to debug against your real operator state (this also
drops `--strict-mcp-config`). The wiring is pinned by `test/hermetic-wiring.test.ts`
(a free static tripwire), two gate-tier isolation canaries in
`test/skill-e2e-hermetic-canary.test.ts`, and the skill-seeding tripwires in
`test/hermetic-skills-seeding.test.ts` / `test/pty-skill-seeding-wiring.test.ts`.
### E2E observability
When E2E tests run, they produce machine-readable artifacts in `~/.gstack-dev/`:
| Artifact | Path | Purpose |
|----------|------|---------|
| Heartbeat | `e2e-live.json` | Current test status (updated per tool call) |
| Partial results | `evals/_partial-e2e.json` | Completed tests (survives kills) |
| Progress log | `e2e-runs/{runId}/progress.log` | Append-only text log |
| NDJSON transcripts | `e2e-runs/{runId}/{test}.ndjson` | Raw `claude -p` output per test |
| Failure JSON | `e2e-runs/{runId}/{test}-failure.json` | Diagnostic data on failure |
**Live dashboard:** Run `bun run eval:watch` in a second terminal to see a live dashboard showing completed tests, the currently running test, and cost. Use `--tail` to also show the last 10 lines of progress.log.
**Eval history tools:**
```bash
bun run eval:list # list all eval runs (turns, duration, cost per run)
bun run eval:compare # compare two runs — shows per-test deltas + Takeaway commentary
bun run eval:summary # aggregate stats + per-test efficiency averages across runs
bun run eval:flake-rank # rank tests by flake signal: retried passes first, then failure rate (--json, --dir, --since-days)
```
**Detached runs for agents and long suites.** When an agent (or you, for a run
you don't want to babysit) launches a long eval, use the `eval:bg*` scripts. They
wrap the eval command in `bin/gstack-detach`: a fresh session that escapes a
turn-boundary SIGTERM, a `caffeinate` wrapper that blocks idle-sleep, a machine-wide
`gstack-evals` lock so concurrent worktrees serialize instead of saturating the
model API, a run-scoped log under `~/.gstack-dev/eval-runs/`, a per-tier watchdog,
and a guaranteed `### gstack-detach EXIT=<code> ###` sentinel so a poller never
mistakes silence for success.
```bash
bun run eval:bg # detached test:evals (diff-based)
bun run eval:bg:all # detached test:evals:all
bun run eval:bg:gate # detached gate-tier suite
bun run eval:bg:periodic # detached periodic-tier suite
```
Each prints its log path. The gate and periodic variants run their tier through
the sharded paid runner (`scripts/test-paid-shards.ts`, also available directly
as `bun run test:gate:sharded` / `bun run test:periodic:sharded`): one Bun
process per test file, an external wall-clock timeout that kills the shard's
whole process group (stray `claude`/`codex` grandchildren included), a per-shard
eval dir (`GSTACK_EVAL_DIR=<evalDir>/shards/<slug>/`), and an aggregate that
distinguishes failed vs timed-out vs never-started shards. The runner also
selects by diff: shards untouched by your branch are reported as
skipped-by-diff, with a selection banner naming the reason (`EVALS_ALL=1`
forces everything). `EVALS_JOBS` sets how many shard processes run at once
(default 8); `EVALS_CONCURRENCY` is bun's concurrency WITHIN a shard
(default 2) — they are deliberately separate knobs. `eval:list`,
`eval:compare`, `eval:summary`, and `eval:flake-rank` are shard-aware. Humans running
`bun run test:evals` foreground in their own terminal don't need this — Ctrl-C
is intended there.
**Eval comparison commentary:** `eval:compare` generates natural-language Takeaway sections interpreting what changed between runs — flagging regressions, noting improvements, calling out efficiency gains (fewer turns, faster, cheaper), and producing an overall summary. This is driven by `generateCommentary()` in `eval-store.ts`.
Artifacts are never cleaned up — they accumulate in `~/.gstack-dev/` for post-mortem debugging and trend analysis.
### Tier 3: LLM-as-judge (~$0.15/run)
Uses Claude Sonnet to score generated SKILL.md docs on three dimensions.
Override the judge model per run with `GSTACK_EVAL_MODEL_JUDGE`:
- **Clarity** — Can an AI agent understand the instructions without ambiguity?
- **Completeness** — Are all commands, flags, and usage patterns documented?
- **Actionability** — Can the agent execute tasks using only the information in the doc?
Each dimension is scored 1-5. Threshold: every dimension must score **≥ 4**. There's also a regression test that compares generated docs against the hand-maintained baseline from `origin/main` — generated must score equal or higher.
```bash
# Needs ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in .env — included in bun run test:evals
```
- Uses `claude-sonnet-4-6` for scoring stability
- Tests live in `test/skill-llm-eval.test.ts`
- Calls the Anthropic API directly (not `claude -p`), so it works from anywhere including inside Claude Code
### CI
A GitHub Action (`.github/workflows/skill-docs.yml`) runs `bun run gen:skill-docs --dry-run` on every push and PR. If the generated SKILL.md files differ from what's committed, CI fails. This catches stale docs before they merge.
Supply-chain gates run alongside it:
- **Quality gate** (`.github/workflows/quality-gate.yml`, every PR and push) — scans the diff's added lines for credentials using gstack's own redact engine (`.github/scripts/gate-secret-scan.mjs`). HIGH findings fail the job; MEDIUM findings surface as an advisory count. Fails closed if the scan can't produce a report. Also gates critical dependency advisories and runs ShellCheck on the setup/build boundaries.
- **Dependency review** (`.github/workflows/dependency-review.yml`) — reviews dependency changes on PRs that touch lockfiles or workflow files.
- **OSV scanner** (`.github/workflows/osv-scanner.yml`) — weekly vulnerability scan against the OSV database. Config lives in `.osv-scanner.toml` and is loaded via an explicit `--config` flag (OSV does not auto-discover that filename); every ignore entry needs a reason and an `ignoreUntil` expiry, enforced by `test/osv-config-wiring.test.ts`.
- **Dependabot** (`.github/dependabot.yml`) — grouped dependency update PRs.
The supply-chain workflows pin their third-party actions to commit SHAs. The PR template (`.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md`) asks for evidence — tests run, eval output — not promises.
Tests run against the browse binary directly — they don't require dev mode. Anything that needs Aside itself (`test/skill-e2e-aside.test.ts`, the Aside qa/design cases, the live render in `test/aside-render.test.ts`) runs only on a Mac with the Aside app open and self-skips elsewhere; make-pdf's render gates and the `/diagram` E2E run on whichever engine resolves, so CI runs them on the browse binary it builds with `bun run build:gates`.
## Editing SKILL.md files
SKILL.md files are **generated** from `.tmpl` templates. Don't edit the `.md` directly — your changes will be overwritten on the next build.
```bash
# 1. Edit the template
vim SKILL.md.tmpl # or browse/SKILL.md.tmpl
# 2. Regenerate for all hosts
bun run gen:skill-docs --host all
# 3. Check health (reports all hosts)
bun run skill:check
# Or use watch mode — auto-regenerates on save
bun run dev:skill
```
For template authoring best practices (natural language over bash-isms, dynamic branch detection, `{{BASE_BRANCH_DETECT}}` usage), see CLAUDE.md's "Writing SKILL templates" section.
Browser steps in skills are `aside repl` scripts that follow the cookbook in `scripts/resolvers/aside.ts`, each paired with its `$B` equivalent for the fallback engine; run the Aside shape against the Aside CLI before committing. To add a browse command, add it to `browse/src/commands.ts`. To add a snapshot flag, add it to `SNAPSHOT_FLAGS` in `browse/src/snapshot.ts`. Then rebuild.
**Render through `lib/aside-render.ts`; don't bundle puppeteer/Chromium in a
skill.** A skill that needs to rasterize or print its own HTML/JSON (diagrams,
cards, og-images, PDFs) calls `bin/gstack-render.ts` from its template
(`--screenshot`, `--pdf`, `--eval JS --out FILE`) or imports `render` from
`lib/aside-render.ts` in TypeScript (`renderWithAside` / `renderWithBrowse` are
the engine-specific halves; `render` picks between them and retries once on the
browse engine if Aside's CLI cannot start or loses its CDP bridge mid-run). The
wrapper prints through Aside when it is open and through the `browse` daemon
when it is not (`newtab --json`, `goto` the loopback URL, `js` readiness
polling, `pdf --from-file`, `viewport` + `screenshot`, `js --out`, `closetab`)
— the one shared Chromium per box, same flags and `OK <path>` lines,
`ENGINE=aside|browse` saying which one actually rendered, `EVAL` /
`PAGE_ERRORS` lines fenced as untrusted web content. The loopback server
serves one per-render secret URL and never follows a symlink out of its
directory. Sized screenshots are 1x on the fallback (2x on Aside); JPEG
quality and `pageRanges`/`scale` are Aside-only; `--landscape` swaps paper
dimensions. Never `npm i puppeteer`, never download a second Chromium that
drifts out of version sync, never point the renderer at a website. If the
wrapper lacks an option you need, add it to `lib/aside-render.ts` (pin it in
`test/aside-render.test.ts`, and in `test/gstack-render-cli.test.ts` when it
is a CLI flag) so every caller gets it on both paths. Exported test seams:
`pickEngine(fresh, deps)` (inject the probe and the binary resolver),
`serveDir(root, nonce)`, `SAFE_TMP_DIR`, and `PAGE_NUMBER_FOOTER` (the one
page-number footer make-pdf, `gstack-render`, and the browse `pdf` command share).
## Jargon list (V1 writing style)
gstack's Writing Style section (injected into every tier-≥2 skill's preamble)
glosses technical terms on first use per skill invocation. The list of terms
that qualify for glossing lives at `scripts/jargon-list.json` — ~50 curated
high-frequency terms (idempotent, race condition, N+1, backpressure, etc.).
Terms not on the list are assumed plain-English enough.
**Adding or removing a term:** open a PR editing `scripts/jargon-list.json`.
Run `bun run gen:skill-docs` after the edit — terms are baked into every
generated SKILL.md at gen time, so changes take effect only after regeneration.
No runtime loading; no user-side override. The repo list is the source of truth.
Good candidates for addition: high-frequency terms that non-technical users
encounter in review output without context (common database/concurrency
terminology, security jargon, frontend framework concepts). Don't add terms
that only appear in one or two niche skills — the cost-to-value trade isn't
worth the review overhead.
## Multi-host development
gstack generates SKILL.md files for 10 hosts from one set of `.tmpl` templates.
Each host is a typed config in `hosts/*.ts`. The generator reads these configs
to produce host-appropriate output (different frontmatter, paths, tool names).
**Supported hosts:** Claude (primary), Codex, Factory, Kiro, OpenCode, Slate, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes, GBrain.
### Generating for all hosts
```bash
# Generate for a specific host
bun run gen:skill-docs # Claude (default)
bun run gen:skill-docs --host codex # Codex
bun run gen:skill-docs --host opencode # OpenCode
bun run gen:skill-docs --host all # All 10 hosts
# Or use build, which does all hosts + compiles binaries
bun run build
```
### What changes between hosts
Each host config (`hosts/*.ts`) controls:
| Aspect | Example (Claude vs Codex) |
|--------|---------------------------|
| Output directory | `{skill}/SKILL.md` vs `.agents/skills/gstack-{skill}/SKILL.md` |
| Frontmatter | Full (name, description, hooks, version) vs minimal (name + description) |
| Paths | `~/.claude/skills/gstack` vs `$GSTACK_ROOT` |
| Tool names | "use the Bash tool" vs same (Factory rewrites to "run this command") |
| Hook skills | `hooks:` frontmatter vs inline safety advisory prose |
| Suppressed sections | None vs Codex self-invocation sections stripped |
| Model overlay | `claude` vs `gpt` (per-host `defaultModel`; `--model` or, at setup time, the Codex `config.toml` model overrides) |
See `scripts/host-config.ts` for the full `HostConfig` interface.
### Testing host output
```bash
# Run all static tests (includes parameterized smoke tests for all hosts)
bun run test
# Check freshness for all hosts
bun run gen:skill-docs --host all --dry-run
# Health dashboard covers all hosts
bun run skill:check
```
### Adding a new host
See [docs/ADDING_A_HOST.md](docs/ADDING_A_HOST.md) for the full guide. Short version:
1. Create `hosts/myhost.ts` (copy from `hosts/opencode.ts`)
2. Add to `hosts/index.ts`
3. Add `.myhost/` to `.gitignore`
4. Run `bun run gen:skill-docs --host myhost`
5. Run `bun run test` (parameterized tests auto-cover it)
Zero generator, setup, or tooling code changes needed.
### Adding a new skill
When you add a new skill template, all hosts get it automatically:
1. Create `{skill}/SKILL.md.tmpl`
2. Run `bun run gen:skill-docs --host all`
3. The dynamic template discovery picks it up, no static list to update
4. Budget it: run `bun test/helpers/capture-context-budget.ts` and commit the refreshed `test/fixtures/context-budget.json` — the context-budget ratchet fails any skill without a ceiling
5. Commit `{skill}/SKILL.md`, external host output is generated at setup time and gitignored
## Conductor workspaces
If you're using [Conductor](https://conductor.build) to run multiple Claude Code sessions in parallel, `conductor.json` wires up workspace lifecycle automatically:
| Hook | Script | What it does |
|------|--------|-------------|
| `setup` | `bin/dev-setup` | Copies `.env` from main worktree, installs deps, symlinks skills, runs `./setup` non-interactively, and (if gbrain is installed) renders brain-aware blocks into `.claude/gstack-rendered/` without dirtying tracked source |
| `archive` | `bin/dev-teardown` | Removes skill symlinks, the `.claude/gstack-rendered/` render, and cleans up `.claude/` directory |
When Conductor creates a new workspace, `bin/dev-setup` runs automatically. It detects the main worktree (via `git worktree list`), copies your `.env` so API keys carry over, and sets up dev mode — no manual steps needed.
`bin/dev-setup` runs `./setup` fully non-interactively (it passes `--plan-tune-hooks=prompt` and closes stdin), so a forwarded Conductor TTY can never hang on a hidden setup prompt. It also never installs the plan-tune Claude Code hooks, which means a throwaway workspace can't rewrite your global `~/.claude/settings.json` to point at an ephemeral worktree path. To install the plan-tune hooks deliberately, run `./setup --plan-tune-hooks` outside dev-setup (or `gstack-config set plan_tune_hooks yes`). The explicit flag counts as an explicit decision: setup's Conductor auto-opt-in for AskUserQuestion hooks fires only on the true silent fall-through (no flag, no `GSTACK_PLAN_TUNE_HOOKS` env var, no `plan_tune_hooks` key literally present in config, checked via `gstack-config has`), so it can never override dev-setup into installing hooks. One stated repair exception: setup's heal-first pass (`gstack-settings-hook prune-stale --repoint`) may prune dead gstack hook entries and re-point existing ones at the stable `~/.claude/skills/gstack` install. That is strictly convergent repair, never a new registration, and registration itself is canonical-only, so an ephemeral tree path can never be baked into settings.json.
**First-time setup:** Put your `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` in `.env` in the main repo (see `.env.example`). Every Conductor workspace inherits it automatically.
**`GSTACK_*` env prefix (Conductor-injected keys).** Conductor explicitly strips `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` and `OPENAI_API_KEY` from every workspace's process env. The `.env` copy path doesn't restore them either — the strip happens after env inheritance. Users who want paid evals, `/sync-gbrain` embeddings, or `claude-agent-sdk` calls to work in a Conductor workspace must set `GSTACK_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` and `GSTACK_OPENAI_API_KEY` in Conductor's workspace env config; Conductor passes those through untouched. On the gstack side, TS entry points import `lib/conductor-env-shim.ts` as a side effect, which promotes `GSTACK_FOO_API_KEY` to `FOO_API_KEY` when the canonical name is empty. If you add a new TS entry point that hits a paid API, add `import "../lib/conductor-env-shim";` to the top of the file. Today the shim is imported from `bin/gstack-gbrain-sync.ts`, `bin/gstack-model-benchmark`, `scripts/preflight-agent-sdk.ts`, and `test/helpers/e2e-helpers.ts`.
## Things to know
- **SKILL.md files are generated.** Edit the `.tmpl` template, not the `.md`. Run `bun run gen:skill-docs` to regenerate. The same run generates `review/design-checklist.md` from `lib/design-catalog.ts` and `lib/dom-dump.js` from `lib/dom-dump-script.ts`: edit those sources, never the generated files (`test/design-checklist-sync.test.ts` fails on drift).
- **TODOS.md is the unified backlog.** Organized by skill/component with P0-P4 priorities. `/ship` auto-detects completed items. All planning/review/retro skills read it for context.
- **Browse, make-pdf, design, and `lib/` source changes need a rebuild.** If you touch `browse/src/*.ts`, `make-pdf/src/*.ts`, `design/src/*.ts`, or anything under `lib/` (the canonical `claude-bin.ts`, `error-handling.ts`, and `aside-render.ts` the binaries embed, plus `design-catalog.ts`, whose `MOCKUP_NEVER_NAMES` the design binary's mockup prompt embeds; `browse/src` re-exports the first three), run `bun run build`. `./setup` makes the same call on its own: it rebuilds when any of the three binaries is missing or when those sources, `package.json`, or `bun.lock` are newer than the browse binary (`test/setup-needs-build.test.ts` pins the decision).
- **Dev mode shadows your global install.** Project-local skills take priority over `~/.claude/skills/gstack`. `bin/dev-teardown` restores the global one.
- **Conductor workspaces are independent.** Each workspace is its own git worktree. `bin/dev-setup` runs automatically via `conductor.json`.
- **`.env` propagates across worktrees.** Set it once in the main repo, all Conductor workspaces get it.
- **`.claude/skills/` is gitignored.** The symlinks never get committed.
- **Never write raw `ln -snf` in `setup`.** Every link site in `setup` MUST route through the `_link_or_copy SRC DST` helper near the `IS_WINDOWS` detection. The helper preserves `ln -snf` on Unix and switches to `cp -R` / `cp -f` on Windows without Developer Mode, where plain `ln -snf` produces frozen file copies that don't refresh on `git pull`. `test/setup-windows-fallback.test.ts` enforces this with a static invariant — a single raw `ln` call outside the helper body fails CI.
- **Synchronous subagent dispatches must state the flag.** Claude Code runs Agent-tool subagents in the background by default (since v2.1.198), so any template step that dispatches a subagent and consumes its output must carry `run_in_background: false`. Use the `{{FOREGROUND_DISPATCH_NOTE}}` placeholder (`scripts/resolvers/constants.ts`) instead of hand-writing the guidance, and add the generated carrier file to `GENERATED_WITH_GUIDANCE` in `test/run-in-background-guidance.test.ts` in the same commit — its structural scanner fails CI on any generated dispatch imperative that lacks the flag.
- **Never delete or link over a skill entry `setup` cannot prove is gstack's.** Every destructive site in `setup` (the linker, the alias installer, both prefix-flip cleanups) and in `bin/gstack-relink` goes through the ownership helpers (`_claude_entry_is_ours` / `_claude_entry_owned_strongly` in `setup`, `_entry_is_ours` / `_entry_owned_strongly` in relink). The retired-skill prune (`_prune_stale_generated`) applies the same strong/weak split through its own gate: a real host directory is a candidate only when its SKILL.md carries the generated banner (`_owned_for_windows_refresh`), a host symlink is removed only when it resolves into gstack (`_gstack_target_is_ours`), a bannered real directory is cleaned through `_cleanup_weak_dir`, and a symlink inside the render tree is never followed. A symlink into gstack or the `.gstack-owned` marker proves the whole directory; a byte-identical or generated-banner SKILL.md proves only that file, and a differing one is moved to `~/.gstack/backups/skills/<ts>/` first. `test/setup-link-ownership.test.ts`, `test/setup-cleanup-orphans.test.ts`, `test/setup-prune-stale-generated.test.ts`, and `test/relink.test.ts` pin it. The rule is duplicated in the two scripts until the shared helper filed in TODOS.md lands: change both.
- **`./setup` never fails on Chromium.** The Playwright bootstrap (section `# 2` of `setup`) is best-effort and bounded: every failure becomes a reason code (`skipped`, `chromium-install`, `chromium-install-timeout`, `chromium-install-locked`, `windows-no-node`, `windows-node-modules`, `post-install-launch`) printed in the final summary alongside the browser-dependent skills, and skill registration always runs. `GSTACK_PLAYWRIGHT_INSTALL_TIMEOUT=<seconds>` (default 600) bounds the download; `GSTACK_SKIP_PLAYWRIGHT=1` skips it, the right knob for a no-browser box or a setup-only test loop. `GSTACK_SKIP_ASIDE=1` makes the browser summary (like the skills' probe and the renderer) treat Aside as absent, so the summary never promises a fallback the bootstrap did not deliver (`test/setup-browser-hint.test.ts`). Anything you add after the bootstrap must stay independent of the browser. `test/setup-playwright-best-effort.test.ts` pins the block.
## Testing your changes in a real project
**This is the recommended way to develop gstack.** Symlink your gstack checkout
into the project where you actually use it, so your changes are live while you
do real work.
### Step 1: Symlink your checkout
```bash
# In your core project (not the gstack repo)
ln -sfn /path/to/your/gstack-checkout .claude/skills/gstack
```
### Step 2: Run setup to create per-skill symlinks
The `gstack` symlink alone isn't enough. Claude Code discovers skills through
individual top-level directories (`qa/SKILL.md`, `ship/SKILL.md`, etc.), not through
the `gstack/` directory itself. Run `./setup` to create them:
```bash
cd .claude/skills/gstack && bun install && bun run build && ./setup
```
Setup will ask whether you want short names (`/qa`) or namespaced (`/gstack-qa`).
Your choice is saved to `~/.gstack/config.yaml` and remembered for future runs.
To skip the prompt, pass `--no-prefix` (short names) or `--prefix` (namespaced).
### Step 3: Develop
Edit a template, run `bun run gen:skill-docs`, and the next `/review` or `/qa`
call picks it up immediately. No restart needed.
### Going back to the stable global install
Remove the project-local symlink. Claude Code falls back to `~/.claude/skills/gstack/`:
```bash
rm .claude/skills/gstack
```
The per-skill directories (`qa/`, `ship/`, etc.) contain SKILL.md symlinks that point
to `gstack/...`, so they'll resolve to the global install automatically.
### Switching prefix mode
If you installed gstack with one prefix setting and want to switch:
```bash
cd .claude/skills/gstack && ./setup --no-prefix # switch to /qa, /ship
cd .claude/skills/gstack && ./setup --prefix # switch to /gstack-qa, /gstack-ship
```
Setup cleans up the old symlinks automatically. No manual cleanup needed. Only
entries gstack created are removed: a skill of your own that shares a name (a
hand-written `qa/`, say) is left in place and named in setup's final summary.
### Alternative: point your global install at a branch
If you don't want per-project symlinks, you can switch the global install:
```bash
cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack
git fetch origin
git checkout origin/<branch>
bun install && bun run build && ./setup
```
This affects all projects. To revert: `git checkout main && git pull && bun run build && ./setup`.
## Community PR triage (wave process)
When community PRs accumulate, batch them into themed waves:
1. **Categorize** — group by theme (security, features, infra, docs)
2. **Deduplicate** — if two PRs fix the same thing, pick the one that
changes fewer lines. Close the other with a note pointing to the winner.
3. **Collector branch** — create `pr-wave-N`, merge clean PRs, resolve
conflicts for dirty ones, verify with `bun run test && bun run build`
4. **Close with context** — every closed PR gets a comment explaining
why and what (if anything) supersedes it. Contributors did real work;
respect that with clear communication.
5. **Ship as one PR** — single PR to main with all attributions preserved
in merge commits. Include a summary table of what merged and what closed.
See [PR #205](../../pull/205) (v0.8.3) for the first wave as an example.
## Upgrade migrations
When a release changes on-disk state (directory structure, config format, stale
files) in ways that `./setup` alone can't fix, add a migration script so existing
users get a clean upgrade.
### When to add a migration
- Changed how skill directories are created (symlinks vs real dirs)
- Renamed or moved config keys in `~/.gstack/config.yaml`
- Need to delete orphaned files from a previous version
- Changed the format of `~/.gstack/` state files
Don't add a migration for: new features (users get them automatically), new
skills (setup discovers them), or code-only changes (no on-disk state).
### How to add one
1. Create `gstack-upgrade/migrations/v{VERSION}.sh` where `{VERSION}` matches
the VERSION file for the release that needs the fix.
2. Make it executable: `chmod +x gstack-upgrade/migrations/v{VERSION}.sh`
3. The script must be **idempotent** (safe to run multiple times) and
**non-fatal** (failures are logged but don't block the upgrade).
4. Include a comment block at the top explaining what changed, why the
migration is needed, and which users are affected.
Example:
```bash
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Migration: v0.15.2.0 — Fix skill directory structure
# Affected: users who installed with --no-prefix before v0.15.2.0
set -euo pipefail
SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.." && pwd)"
"$SCRIPT_DIR/bin/gstack-relink" 2>/dev/null || true
```
### How it runs
During `/gstack-upgrade`, after `./setup` completes (Step 4.75), the upgrade
skill scans `gstack-upgrade/migrations/` and runs every `v*.sh` script whose
version is newer than the user's old version. Scripts run in version order.
Failures are logged but never block the upgrade.
### Testing migrations
Migrations are tested as part of `bun run test` (tier 1, free). The test suite
verifies that all migration scripts in `gstack-upgrade/migrations/` are
executable and parse without syntax errors.
## Shipping your changes
When you're happy with your skill edits:
```bash
/ship
```
This runs tests, reviews the diff, triages Greptile comments (with 2-tier escalation), manages TODOS.md, bumps the version, and opens a PR. See `ship/SKILL.md` for the full workflow.
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