gstack/CONTRIBUTING.md

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.

git clone <repo> && cd gstack
bun install                    # install dependencies
bin/dev-setup                  # activate dev mode

Now edit any SKILL.md, invoke it in Claude Code (e.g. /review), and see your changes live. When you're done developing:

bin/dev-teardown               # deactivate — back to your global install

Contributor mode

Contributor mode turns gstack into a self-improving tool. Enable it and Claude Code will periodically reflect on its gstack experience — rating it 0-10 at the end of each major workflow step. When something isn't a 10, it thinks about why and files a report to ~/.gstack/contributor-logs/ with what happened, repro steps, and what would make it better.

~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-config set gstack_contributor true

The logs are for you. When something bugs you enough to fix, the report is already written. Fork gstack, symlink your fork into the project where you hit the issue, fix it, and open a PR.

The contributor workflow

1. Use gstack normally — contributor mode reflects and logs issues automatically
2. Check your logs: ls ~/.gstack/contributor-logs/
3. Fork and clone gstack (if you haven't already)
4. Symlink your fork into the project where you hit the bug:

   # 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
   

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 -> gstack/review
│   ├── ship -> gstack/ship
│   └── ...                      <- one symlink per skill
├── review/
│   └── SKILL.md                 <- edit this, test with /review
├── ship/
│   └── SKILL.md
├── browse/
│   ├── src/                     <- TypeScript source
│   └── dist/                    <- compiled binary (gitignored)
└── ...

Day-to-day workflow

# 1. Enter dev mode
bin/dev-setup

# 2. Edit a skill
vim review/SKILL.md

# 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

Testing & evals

Setup

# 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 test	Free	Command validation, snapshot flags, SKILL.md correctness, TODOS-format.md refs, observability unit tests
2 — E2E	bun run test:e2e	~$3.85	Full skill execution via claude -p subprocess
3 — LLM eval	bun run test:evals	~$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)

bun test                     # Tier 1 only (runs on every commit, <5s)
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/run)

Tier 1: Static validation (free)

Runs automatically with bun test. 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.
• 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).

Tier 2: E2E via claude -p (~$3.85/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?"

# 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

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:

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

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:

• 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.

# 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.

Tests run against the browse binary directly — they don't require dev mode.

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.

# 1. Edit the template
vim SKILL.md.tmpl              # or browse/SKILL.md.tmpl

# 2. Regenerate for both hosts
bun run gen:skill-docs
bun run gen:skill-docs --host codex

# 3. Check health (reports both Claude and Codex)
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.

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.

Dual-host development (Claude + Codex)

gstack generates SKILL.md files for two hosts: Claude (.claude/skills/) and Codex (.agents/skills/). Every template change needs to be generated for both.

Generating for both hosts

# Generate Claude output (default)
bun run gen:skill-docs

# Generate Codex output
bun run gen:skill-docs --host codex
# --host agents is an alias for --host codex

# Or use build, which does both + compiles binaries
bun run build

What changes between hosts

Aspect	Claude	Codex
Output directory	{skill}/SKILL.md	.agents/skills/gstack-{skill}/SKILL.md
Frontmatter	Full (name, description, allowed-tools, hooks, version)	Minimal (name + description only)
Paths	~/.claude/skills/gstack	~/.codex/skills/gstack
Hook skills	hooks: frontmatter (enforced by Claude)	Inline safety advisory prose (advisory only)
/codex skill	Included (Claude wraps codex exec)	Excluded (self-referential)

Testing Codex output

# Run all static tests (includes Codex validation)
bun test

# Check freshness for both hosts
bun run gen:skill-docs --dry-run
bun run gen:skill-docs --host codex --dry-run

# Health dashboard covers both hosts
bun run skill:check

Dev setup for .agents/

When you run bin/dev-setup, it creates symlinks in both .claude/skills/ and .agents/skills/ (if applicable), so Codex-compatible agents can discover your dev skills too.

Adding a new skill

When you add a new skill template, both hosts get it automatically:

1. Create {skill}/SKILL.md.tmpl
2. Run bun run gen:skill-docs (Claude output) and bun run gen:skill-docs --host codex (Codex output)
3. The dynamic template discovery picks it up — no static list to update
4. Commit both {skill}/SKILL.md and .agents/skills/gstack-{skill}/SKILL.md

Conductor workspaces

If you're using Conductor 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
archive	bin/dev-teardown	Removes skill symlinks, 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.

First-time setup: Put your ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in .env in the main repo (see .env.example). Every Conductor workspace inherits it automatically.

Things to know

• SKILL.md files are generated. Edit the .tmpl template, not the .md. Run bun run gen:skill-docs to regenerate.
• 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 source changes need a rebuild. If you touch browse/src/*.ts, run bun run build.
• 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.

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:

# In your core project
ln -sfn /path/to/your/gstack-checkout .claude/skills/gstack
cd .claude/skills/gstack && bun install && bun run build

Now every gstack skill invocation in this project uses your working tree. Edit a template, run bun run gen:skill-docs, and the next /review or /qa call picks it up immediately.

To go back to the stable global install, just remove the symlink:

rm .claude/skills/gstack

Claude Code falls back to ~/.claude/skills/gstack/ automatically.

Alternative: point your global install at a branch

If you don't want per-project symlinks, you can switch the global install:

cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack
git fetch origin
git checkout origin/<branch>
bun install && bun run build

This affects all projects. To revert: git checkout main && git pull && bun run build.

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 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 (v0.8.3) for the first wave as an example.

Shipping your changes

When you're happy with your skill edits:

/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.