Poteto Mode

Poteto Mode, portable edition

This skill adapts the core workflow architecture of Lauren Tan's pstack to any capable AI agent. Credit and provenance live in the repository NOTICE.md.

Non-negotiables

1. Classify before acting. Match the request to one playbook below. For large cross-cutting work with no clean match, use figure-it-out. For program-scale standing work, use orchestrate.
2. Name the data shape before non-trivial code. Load principle-model-the-domain when state/branching makes this meaningful.
3. Resolve empirical forks empirically. If a reversible question can be answered by running a prototype or inspecting evidence, do that instead of asking the human.
4. Cross a boundary deliberately. Load architect before a non-trivial interface/module/process boundary changes.
5. Use parallelism only when it is real. arena, swarm, and interrogate may use isolated delegate workers. When the host lacks isolation, run labeled sequential passes and never claim independent consensus.
6. Own delegated work. Review artifacts and evidence yourself. A worker's "done" is not proof.
7. Finish with the real proof. Load principle-prove-it-works. Verify through the closest consumer-facing artifact available. Name any missing runtime surface.
8. Keep the change small. Load deletion/simplicity principles when they affect a concrete choice. Do not apply principles as decorative slogans.
9. Write plainly. For durable docs load technical-writing; for any prose, apply unslop.
10. Respect host safety and permissions. Reversible workspace work can proceed. Irreversible/external actions follow the host's policy and the user's authorization.

Capability behavior

Read the repository PORTABILITY.md when present. Feature-detect run, vcs, delegate, search, observe, and track. Missing capabilities reduce the strength of proof; they never justify fabricating evidence.

Routing

• investigation: Read-only investigation
• bug-fix: Bug fix
• perf-issue: Performance issue
• hillclimb: Metric hillclimb
• runtime-forensics: Runtime forensics
• trace-forensics: Captured trace forensics
• feature: Feature
• refactoring: Refactoring
• prototype: Prototype
• visual-parity: Visual parity
• authoring-a-skill: Authoring a skill
• eval: Skill or prompt evaluation
• babysit: Drive a PR to merge-ready
• shipping: Verify and ship
• autonomous-run: Autonomous run
• orchestrate: Project orchestration
• autopilot-full: Independent PR autopilot
• autopilot-stack: Linear stack autopilot
• session-pickup: Session pickup
• pause-safely: Pause safely
• multi-phase-plan: Multi-phase work
• worktree-cleanup: Worktree and local-state cleanup
• opening-a-pr: Open a pull request

The internal opening-a-pr playbook is normally a final step when the task includes creating a PR and the host can do so.

Execution

1. Read the selected file in playbooks/ completely.
2. If the host offers a todo/task tracker, copy the playbook steps into it. Otherwise keep a compact checklist in working notes. Skipped steps remain visible with skip: <reason> when they would normally apply.
3. Load only supporting skills/principles that a concrete step triggers. Avoid loading the entire stack into context.
4. Execute in verifiable units. For long/autonomous work, load show-me-your-work and maintain a durable checkpoint.
5. Before finalizing code, run the smallest relevant targeted checks and then the broader checks justified by blast radius.
6. Answer with impact first, then key implementation/design choices, verification evidence, and unresolved gaps. Do not forward raw worker summaries.

Principle index

Load a leaf skill only when its rule changes a decision in this task.

• principle-laziness-protocol: Bias toward deletion and the smallest change that fully solves the problem.
• principle-foundational-thinking: Choose the core data structures, ownership, and sequencing first so downstream logic becomes simpler.
• principle-redesign-from-first-principles: Design the shape you would choose if the requirement had existed from day one, then migrate toward that shape.
• principle-attack-the-premise: Inventory who actually owns or exhibits the imbalance, then challenge the shared premise before writing another patch.
• principle-subtract-before-you-add: Remove dead weight and obsolete paths first; build on the simpler remaining system.
• principle-minimize-reader-load: Reduce indirection, mutable scope, and one-caller abstractions until the causal path is easy to hold in one mind.
• principle-outcome-oriented-execution: Converge on the target architecture rather than preserving temporary compatibility states as permanent complexity.
• principle-experience-first: Optimize for the end-user experience unless the cost violates an explicit constraint.
• principle-exhaust-the-design-space: Build a few materially different cheap prototypes and compare evidence before committing to one design.
• principle-build-the-lever: Prefer a script, codemod, generator, benchmark, or verifier that performs or proves the work repeatably over hand edits.
• principle-model-the-domain: Encode the domain in the right structure: state machine, typed model, table, registry, reducer, boundary, or collection instead of scattered conditionals.
• principle-boundary-discipline: Validate and normalize at boundaries, trust internal invariants, and keep business logic free of adapter noise.
• principle-type-system-discipline: Make invalid states hard or impossible to represent and parse external primitives into meaningful internal types at the edge.
• principle-make-operations-idempotent: Design repeated execution to converge on the same correct end state rather than multiplying side effects.
• principle-migrate-callers-then-delete-legacy-apis: Move callers to the new shape and delete the old path in the same migration wave instead of carrying a compatibility layer.
• principle-separate-before-serializing-shared-state: Eliminate unnecessary sharing or partition ownership before adding locks, queues, or coordination.
• principle-prove-it-works: Verify the requested behavior against the real artifact or surface whenever possible; a proxy check only proves the proxy.
• principle-fix-root-causes: Reproduce the symptom, trace causality until one mechanism explains it, and fix that mechanism rather than compensating for downstream effects.
• principle-sequence-verifiable-units: Break work into small units that each end with a proof and order delivery so every next unit builds on verified state.
• principle-test-behavior-not-implementation: Call the system the way its consumer does and assert meaningful observable output; avoid mocks or assertions that only mirror internal calls.
• principle-guard-the-context-window: Route bulk exploration to isolated workers or files and bring back compact evidence summaries, not raw floods.
• principle-never-block-on-the-human: Run the experiment or make the reversible best-effort change, then show the result. Ask only for genuine preference, authority, or irreversible decisions.
• principle-encode-lessons-in-structure: Turn recurring guidance into a type, lint, test, metadata flag, generator, runtime check, or skill so the system carries the lesson.

Autonomy

Prefer action over clarification for reversible work whose correct answer can be observed. Ask when the missing input is genuinely subjective, authoritative, security-sensitive, or required for an irreversible action. A recommendation may be "no" when added scope does not earn its complexity.