~cytrogen/gstack

ref: 407b15692073dfd8aaff13e755d99a6022ff8ae5 gstack/autoplan/SKILL.md -rw-r--r-- 24.9 KiB
407b1569 — Garry Tan feat: /autoplan — auto-review pipeline (v0.10.0.0) (#327) a month ago

name: autoplan version: 1.0.0 description: | Auto-review pipeline — reads the full CEO, design, and eng review skills from disk and runs them sequentially with auto-decisions using 6 decision principles. Surfaces taste decisions (close approaches, borderline scope, codex disagreements) at a final approval gate. One command, fully reviewed plan out. Use when asked to "auto review", "autoplan", "run all reviews", "review this plan automatically", or "make the decisions for me". Proactively suggest when the user has a plan file and wants to run the full review gauntlet without answering 15-30 intermediate questions. benefits-from: [office-hours] allowed-tools:

  • Bash
  • Read
  • Write
  • Edit
  • Glob
  • Grep
  • WebSearch
  • AskUserQuestion

#Preamble (run first)

_UPD=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-update-check 2>/dev/null || .claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-update-check 2>/dev/null || true)
[ -n "$_UPD" ] && echo "$_UPD" || true
mkdir -p ~/.gstack/sessions
touch ~/.gstack/sessions/"$PPID"
_SESSIONS=$(find ~/.gstack/sessions -mmin -120 -type f 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
find ~/.gstack/sessions -mmin +120 -type f -delete 2>/dev/null || true
_CONTRIB=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-config get gstack_contributor 2>/dev/null || true)
_PROACTIVE=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-config get proactive 2>/dev/null || echo "true")
_BRANCH=$(git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null || echo "unknown")
echo "BRANCH: $_BRANCH"
echo "PROACTIVE: $_PROACTIVE"
_LAKE_SEEN=$([ -f ~/.gstack/.completeness-intro-seen ] && echo "yes" || echo "no")
echo "LAKE_INTRO: $_LAKE_SEEN"
_TEL=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-config get telemetry 2>/dev/null || true)
_TEL_PROMPTED=$([ -f ~/.gstack/.telemetry-prompted ] && echo "yes" || echo "no")
_TEL_START=$(date +%s)
_SESSION_ID="$$-$(date +%s)"
echo "TELEMETRY: ${_TEL:-off}"
echo "TEL_PROMPTED: $_TEL_PROMPTED"
mkdir -p ~/.gstack/analytics
echo '{"skill":"autoplan","ts":"'$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)'","repo":"'$(basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null)" 2>/dev/null || echo "unknown")'"}'  >> ~/.gstack/analytics/skill-usage.jsonl 2>/dev/null || true
for _PF in ~/.gstack/analytics/.pending-*; do [ -f "$_PF" ] && ~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-telemetry-log --event-type skill_run --skill _pending_finalize --outcome unknown --session-id "$_SESSION_ID" 2>/dev/null || true; break; done

If PROACTIVE is "false", do not proactively suggest gstack skills — only invoke them when the user explicitly asks. The user opted out of proactive suggestions.

If output shows UPGRADE_AVAILABLE <old> <new>: read ~/.claude/skills/gstack/gstack-upgrade/SKILL.md and follow the "Inline upgrade flow" (auto-upgrade if configured, otherwise AskUserQuestion with 4 options, write snooze state if declined). If JUST_UPGRADED <from> <to>: tell user "Running gstack v{to} (just updated!)" and continue.

If LAKE_INTRO is no: Before continuing, introduce the Completeness Principle. Tell the user: "gstack follows the Boil the Lake principle — always do the complete thing when AI makes the marginal cost near-zero. Read more: https://garryslist.org/posts/boil-the-ocean" Then offer to open the essay in their default browser:

open https://garryslist.org/posts/boil-the-ocean
touch ~/.gstack/.completeness-intro-seen

Only run open if the user says yes. Always run touch to mark as seen. This only happens once.

If TEL_PROMPTED is no AND LAKE_INTRO is yes: After the lake intro is handled, ask the user about telemetry. Use AskUserQuestion:

Help gstack get better! Community mode shares usage data (which skills you use, how long they take, crash info) with a stable device ID so we can track trends and fix bugs faster. No code, file paths, or repo names are ever sent. Change anytime with gstack-config set telemetry off.

Options:

  • A) Help gstack get better! (recommended)
  • B) No thanks

If A: run ~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-config set telemetry community

If B: ask a follow-up AskUserQuestion:

How about anonymous mode? We just learn that someone used gstack — no unique ID, no way to connect sessions. Just a counter that helps us know if anyone's out there.

Options:

  • A) Sure, anonymous is fine
  • B) No thanks, fully off

If B→A: run ~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-config set telemetry anonymous If B→B: run ~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-config set telemetry off

Always run:

touch ~/.gstack/.telemetry-prompted

This only happens once. If TEL_PROMPTED is yes, skip this entirely.

#AskUserQuestion Format

ALWAYS follow this structure for every AskUserQuestion call:

  1. Re-ground: State the project, the current branch (use the _BRANCH value printed by the preamble — NOT any branch from conversation history or gitStatus), and the current plan/task. (1-2 sentences)
  2. Simplify: Explain the problem in plain English a smart 16-year-old could follow. No raw function names, no internal jargon, no implementation details. Use concrete examples and analogies. Say what it DOES, not what it's called.
  3. Recommend: RECOMMENDATION: Choose [X] because [one-line reason] — always prefer the complete option over shortcuts (see Completeness Principle). Include Completeness: X/10 for each option. Calibration: 10 = complete implementation (all edge cases, full coverage), 7 = covers happy path but skips some edges, 3 = shortcut that defers significant work. If both options are 8+, pick the higher; if one is ≤5, flag it.
  4. Options: Lettered options: A) ... B) ... C) ... — when an option involves effort, show both scales: (human: ~X / CC: ~Y)

Assume the user hasn't looked at this window in 20 minutes and doesn't have the code open. If you'd need to read the source to understand your own explanation, it's too complex.

Per-skill instructions may add additional formatting rules on top of this baseline.

#Completeness Principle — Boil the Lake

AI-assisted coding makes the marginal cost of completeness near-zero. When you present options:

  • If Option A is the complete implementation (full parity, all edge cases, 100% coverage) and Option B is a shortcut that saves modest effort — always recommend A. The delta between 80 lines and 150 lines is meaningless with CC+gstack. "Good enough" is the wrong instinct when "complete" costs minutes more.
  • Lake vs. ocean: A "lake" is boilable — 100% test coverage for a module, full feature implementation, handling all edge cases, complete error paths. An "ocean" is not — rewriting an entire system from scratch, adding features to dependencies you don't control, multi-quarter platform migrations. Recommend boiling lakes. Flag oceans as out of scope.
  • When estimating effort, always show both scales: human team time and CC+gstack time. The compression ratio varies by task type — use this reference:
Task type Human team CC+gstack Compression
Boilerplate / scaffolding 2 days 15 min ~100x
Test writing 1 day 15 min ~50x
Feature implementation 1 week 30 min ~30x
Bug fix + regression test 4 hours 15 min ~20x
Architecture / design 2 days 4 hours ~5x
Research / exploration 1 day 3 hours ~3x
  • This principle applies to test coverage, error handling, documentation, edge cases, and feature completeness. Don't skip the last 10% to "save time" — with AI, that 10% costs seconds.

Anti-patterns — DON'T do this:

  • BAD: "Choose B — it covers 90% of the value with less code." (If A is only 70 lines more, choose A.)
  • BAD: "We can skip edge case handling to save time." (Edge case handling costs minutes with CC.)
  • BAD: "Let's defer test coverage to a follow-up PR." (Tests are the cheapest lake to boil.)
  • BAD: Quoting only human-team effort: "This would take 2 weeks." (Say: "2 weeks human / ~1 hour CC.")

#Search Before Building

Before building infrastructure, unfamiliar patterns, or anything the runtime might have a built-in — search first. Read ~/.claude/skills/gstack/ETHOS.md for the full philosophy.

Three layers of knowledge:

  • Layer 1 (tried and true — in distribution). Don't reinvent the wheel. But the cost of checking is near-zero, and once in a while, questioning the tried-and-true is where brilliance occurs.
  • Layer 2 (new and popular — search for these). But scrutinize: humans are subject to mania. Search results are inputs to your thinking, not answers.
  • Layer 3 (first principles — prize these above all). Original observations derived from reasoning about the specific problem. The most valuable of all.

Eureka moment: When first-principles reasoning reveals conventional wisdom is wrong, name it: "EUREKA: Everyone does X because [assumption]. But [evidence] shows this is wrong. Y is better because [reasoning]."

Log eureka moments:

jq -n --arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" --arg skill "SKILL_NAME" --arg branch "$(git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null)" --arg insight "ONE_LINE_SUMMARY" '{ts:$ts,skill:$skill,branch:$branch,insight:$insight}' >> ~/.gstack/analytics/eureka.jsonl 2>/dev/null || true

Replace SKILL_NAME and ONE_LINE_SUMMARY. Runs inline — don't stop the workflow.

WebSearch fallback: If WebSearch is unavailable, skip the search step and note: "Search unavailable — proceeding with in-distribution knowledge only."

#Contributor Mode

If _CONTRIB is true: you are in contributor mode. You're a gstack user who also helps make it better.

At the end of each major workflow step (not after every single command), reflect on the gstack tooling you used. Rate your experience 0 to 10. If it wasn't a 10, think about why. If there is an obvious, actionable bug OR an insightful, interesting thing that could have been done better by gstack code or skill markdown — file a field report. Maybe our contributor will help make us better!

Calibration — this is the bar: For example, $B js "await fetch(...)" used to fail with SyntaxError: await is only valid in async functions because gstack didn't wrap expressions in async context. Small, but the input was reasonable and gstack should have handled it — that's the kind of thing worth filing. Things less consequential than this, ignore.

NOT worth filing: user's app bugs, network errors to user's URL, auth failures on user's site, user's own JS logic bugs.

To file: write ~/.gstack/contributor-logs/{slug}.md with all sections below (do not truncate — include every section through the Date/Version footer):

# {Title}

Hey gstack team — ran into this while using /{skill-name}:

**What I was trying to do:** {what the user/agent was attempting}
**What happened instead:** {what actually happened}
**My rating:** {0-10} — {one sentence on why it wasn't a 10}

## Steps to reproduce
1. {step}

## Raw output

{paste the actual error or unexpected output here}


## What would make this a 10
{one sentence: what gstack should have done differently}

**Date:** {YYYY-MM-DD} | **Version:** {gstack version} | **Skill:** /{skill}

Slug: lowercase, hyphens, max 60 chars (e.g. browse-js-no-await). Skip if file already exists. Max 3 reports per session. File inline and continue — don't stop the workflow. Tell user: "Filed gstack field report: {title}"

#Completion Status Protocol

When completing a skill workflow, report status using one of:

  • DONE — All steps completed successfully. Evidence provided for each claim.
  • DONE_WITH_CONCERNS — Completed, but with issues the user should know about. List each concern.
  • BLOCKED — Cannot proceed. State what is blocking and what was tried.
  • NEEDS_CONTEXT — Missing information required to continue. State exactly what you need.

#Escalation

It is always OK to stop and say "this is too hard for me" or "I'm not confident in this result."

Bad work is worse than no work. You will not be penalized for escalating.

  • If you have attempted a task 3 times without success, STOP and escalate.
  • If you are uncertain about a security-sensitive change, STOP and escalate.
  • If the scope of work exceeds what you can verify, STOP and escalate.

Escalation format:

STATUS: BLOCKED | NEEDS_CONTEXT
REASON: [1-2 sentences]
ATTEMPTED: [what you tried]
RECOMMENDATION: [what the user should do next]

#Telemetry (run last)

After the skill workflow completes (success, error, or abort), log the telemetry event. Determine the skill name from the name: field in this file's YAML frontmatter. Determine the outcome from the workflow result (success if completed normally, error if it failed, abort if the user interrupted).

PLAN MODE EXCEPTION — ALWAYS RUN: This command writes telemetry to ~/.gstack/analytics/ (user config directory, not project files). The skill preamble already writes to the same directory — this is the same pattern. Skipping this command loses session duration and outcome data.

Run this bash:

_TEL_END=$(date +%s)
_TEL_DUR=$(( _TEL_END - _TEL_START ))
rm -f ~/.gstack/analytics/.pending-"$_SESSION_ID" 2>/dev/null || true
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-telemetry-log \
  --skill "SKILL_NAME" --duration "$_TEL_DUR" --outcome "OUTCOME" \
  --used-browse "USED_BROWSE" --session-id "$_SESSION_ID" 2>/dev/null &

Replace SKILL_NAME with the actual skill name from frontmatter, OUTCOME with success/error/abort, and USED_BROWSE with true/false based on whether $B was used. If you cannot determine the outcome, use "unknown". This runs in the background and never blocks the user.

#Step 0: Detect base branch

Determine which branch this PR targets. Use the result as "the base branch" in all subsequent steps.

  1. Check if a PR already exists for this branch: gh pr view --json baseRefName -q .baseRefName If this succeeds, use the printed branch name as the base branch.

  2. If no PR exists (command fails), detect the repo's default branch: gh repo view --json defaultBranchRef -q .defaultBranchRef.name

  3. If both commands fail, fall back to main.

Print the detected base branch name. In every subsequent git diff, git log, git fetch, git merge, and gh pr create command, substitute the detected branch name wherever the instructions say "the base branch."


#Prerequisite Skill Offer

When the design doc check above prints "No design doc found," offer the prerequisite skill before proceeding.

Say to the user via AskUserQuestion:

"No design doc found for this branch. /office-hours produces a structured problem statement, premise challenge, and explored alternatives — it gives this review much sharper input to work with. Takes about 10 minutes. The design doc is per-feature, not per-product — it captures the thinking behind this specific change."

Options:

  • A) Run /office-hours first (in another window, then come back)
  • B) Skip — proceed with standard review

If they skip: "No worries — standard review. If you ever want sharper input, try /office-hours first next time." Then proceed normally. Do not re-offer later in the session.

#/autoplan — Auto-Review Pipeline

One command. Rough plan in, fully reviewed plan out.

/autoplan reads the full CEO, design, and eng review skill files from disk and follows them at full depth — same rigor, same sections, same methodology as running each skill manually. The only difference: intermediate AskUserQuestion calls are auto-decided using the 6 principles below. Taste decisions (where reasonable people could disagree) are surfaced at a final approval gate.


#The 6 Decision Principles

These rules auto-answer every intermediate question:

  1. Choose completeness — Ship the whole thing. Pick the approach that covers more edge cases.
  2. Boil lakes — Fix everything in the blast radius (files modified by this plan + direct importers). Auto-approve expansions that are in blast radius AND < 1 day CC effort (< 5 files, no new infra).
  3. Pragmatic — If two options fix the same thing, pick the cleaner one. 5 seconds choosing, not 5 minutes.
  4. DRY — Duplicates existing functionality? Reject. Reuse what exists.
  5. Explicit over clever — 10-line obvious fix > 200-line abstraction. Pick what a new contributor reads in 30 seconds.
  6. Bias toward action — Merge > review cycles > stale deliberation. Flag concerns but don't block.

Conflict resolution (context-dependent tiebreakers):

  • CEO phase: P1 (completeness) + P2 (boil lakes) dominate.
  • Eng phase: P5 (explicit) + P3 (pragmatic) dominate.
  • Design phase: P5 (explicit) + P1 (completeness) dominate.

#Decision Classification

Every auto-decision is classified:

Mechanical — one clearly right answer. Auto-decide silently. Examples: run codex (always yes), run evals (always yes), reduce scope on a complete plan (always no).

Taste — reasonable people could disagree. Auto-decide with recommendation, but surface at the final gate. Three natural sources:

  1. Close approaches — top two are both viable with different tradeoffs.
  2. Borderline scope — in blast radius but 3-5 files, or ambiguous radius.
  3. Codex disagreements — codex recommends differently and has a valid point.

#Phase 0: Intake + Restore Point

#Step 1: Capture restore point

Before doing anything, save the plan file's current state to an external file:

source <(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-slug 2>/dev/null) && mkdir -p ~/.gstack/projects/$SLUG
BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD 2>/dev/null | tr '/' '-')
DATETIME=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
echo "RESTORE_PATH=$HOME/.gstack/projects/$SLUG/${BRANCH}-autoplan-restore-${DATETIME}.md"

Write the plan file's full contents to the restore path with this header:

# /autoplan Restore Point
Captured: [timestamp] | Branch: [branch] | Commit: [short hash]

## Re-run Instructions
1. Copy "Original Plan State" below back to your plan file
2. Invoke /autoplan

## Original Plan State
[verbatim plan file contents]

Then prepend a one-line HTML comment to the plan file: <!-- /autoplan restore point: [RESTORE_PATH] -->

#Step 2: Read context

  • Read CLAUDE.md, TODOS.md, git log -30, git diff against the base branch --stat
  • Discover design docs: ls -t ~/.gstack/projects/$SLUG/*-design-*.md 2>/dev/null | head -1
  • Detect UI scope: grep the plan for view/rendering terms (component, screen, form, button, modal, layout, dashboard, sidebar, nav, dialog). Require 2+ matches. Exclude false positives ("page" alone, "UI" in acronyms).

#Step 3: Load skill files from disk

Read each file using the Read tool:

  • ~/.claude/skills/gstack/plan-ceo-review/SKILL.md
  • ~/.claude/skills/gstack/plan-design-review/SKILL.md (only if UI scope detected)
  • ~/.claude/skills/gstack/plan-eng-review/SKILL.md

Section skip list — when following a loaded skill file, SKIP these sections (they are already handled by /autoplan):

  • Preamble (run first)
  • AskUserQuestion Format
  • Completeness Principle — Boil the Lake
  • Search Before Building
  • Contributor Mode
  • Completion Status Protocol
  • Telemetry (run last)
  • Step 0: Detect base branch
  • Review Readiness Dashboard
  • Plan File Review Report
  • Prerequisite Skill Offer (BENEFITS_FROM)

Follow ONLY the review-specific methodology, sections, and required outputs.

Output: "Here's what I'm working with: [plan summary]. UI scope: [yes/no]. Loaded review skills from disk. Starting full review pipeline with auto-decisions."


#Phase 1: CEO Review (Strategy & Scope)

Follow plan-ceo-review/SKILL.md — all sections, full depth. Override: every AskUserQuestion → auto-decide using the 6 principles.

Override rules:

  • Mode selection: SELECTIVE EXPANSION
  • Premises: accept reasonable ones (P6), challenge only clearly wrong ones
  • GATE: Present premises to user for confirmation — this is the ONE AskUserQuestion that is NOT auto-decided. Premises require human judgment.
  • Alternatives: pick highest completeness (P1). If tied, pick simplest (P5). If top 2 are close → mark TASTE DECISION.
  • Scope expansion: in blast radius + <1d CC → approve (P2). Outside → defer to TODOS.md (P3). Duplicates → reject (P4). Borderline (3-5 files) → mark TASTE DECISION.
  • All 10 review sections: run fully, auto-decide each issue, log every decision.

#Phase 2: Design Review (conditional — skip if no UI scope)

Follow plan-design-review/SKILL.md — all 7 dimensions, full depth. Override: every AskUserQuestion → auto-decide using the 6 principles.

Override rules:

  • Focus areas: all relevant dimensions (P1)
  • Structural issues (missing states, broken hierarchy): auto-fix (P5)
  • Aesthetic/taste issues: mark TASTE DECISION
  • Design system alignment: auto-fix if DESIGN.md exists and fix is obvious

#Phase 3: Eng Review + Codex

Follow plan-eng-review/SKILL.md — all sections, full depth. Override: every AskUserQuestion → auto-decide using the 6 principles.

Override rules:

  • Scope challenge: never reduce (P2)
  • Codex review: always run if available (P6) Command: codex exec "Review this plan for architectural issues, missing edge cases, and hidden complexity. Be adversarial. File: <plan_path>" -s read-only --enable web_search_cached Timeout: 10 minutes, then proceed with "Codex timed out — single-reviewer mode"
  • Architecture choices: explicit over clever (P5). If codex disagrees with valid reason → TASTE DECISION.
  • Evals: always include all relevant suites (P1)
  • Test plan: generate artifact at ~/.gstack/projects/$SLUG/{user}-{branch}-test-plan-{datetime}.md
  • TODOS.md: collect all deferred scope expansions from Phase 1, auto-write

#Decision Audit Trail

After each auto-decision, append a row to the plan file using Edit:

<!-- AUTONOMOUS DECISION LOG -->
## Decision Audit Trail

| # | Phase | Decision | Principle | Rationale | Rejected |
|---|-------|----------|-----------|-----------|----------|

Write one row per decision incrementally (via Edit). This keeps the audit on disk, not accumulated in conversation context.


#Phase 4: Final Approval Gate

STOP here and present the final state to the user.

Present as a message, then use AskUserQuestion:

## /autoplan Review Complete

### Plan Summary
[1-3 sentence summary]

### Decisions Made: [N] total ([M] auto-decided, [K] choices for you)

### Your Choices (taste decisions)
[For each taste decision:]
**Choice [N]: [title]** (from [phase])
I recommend [X] — [principle]. But [Y] is also viable:
  [1-sentence downstream impact if you pick Y]

### Auto-Decided: [M] decisions [see Decision Audit Trail in plan file]

### Review Scores
- CEO: [summary]
- Design: [summary or "skipped, no UI scope"]
- Eng: [summary]
- Codex: [summary or "unavailable"]

### Deferred to TODOS.md
[Items auto-deferred with reasons]

Cognitive load management:

  • 0 taste decisions: skip "Your Choices" section
  • 1-7 taste decisions: flat list
  • 8+: group by phase. Add warning: "This plan had unusually high ambiguity ([N] taste decisions). Review carefully."

AskUserQuestion options:

  • A) Approve as-is (accept all recommendations)
  • B) Approve with overrides (specify which taste decisions to change)
  • C) Interrogate (ask about any specific decision)
  • D) Revise (the plan itself needs changes)
  • E) Reject (start over)

Option handling:

  • A: mark APPROVED, write review logs, suggest /ship
  • B: ask which overrides, apply, re-present gate
  • C: answer freeform, re-present gate
  • D: make changes, re-run affected phases (scope→1B, design→2, test plan→3, arch→3). Max 3 cycles.
  • E: start over

#Completion: Write Review Logs

On approval, write 3 separate review log entries so /ship's dashboard recognizes them:

COMMIT=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD 2>/dev/null)
TIMESTAMP=$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)

~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-review-log '{"skill":"plan-ceo-review","timestamp":"'"$TIMESTAMP"'","status":"clean","unresolved":0,"critical_gaps":0,"mode":"SELECTIVE_EXPANSION","via":"autoplan","commit":"'"$COMMIT"'"}'

~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-review-log '{"skill":"plan-eng-review","timestamp":"'"$TIMESTAMP"'","status":"clean","unresolved":0,"critical_gaps":0,"issues_found":0,"mode":"FULL_REVIEW","via":"autoplan","commit":"'"$COMMIT"'"}'

If Phase 2 ran (UI scope):

~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-review-log '{"skill":"plan-design-review","timestamp":"'"$TIMESTAMP"'","status":"clean","unresolved":0,"via":"autoplan","commit":"'"$COMMIT"'"}'

Replace field values with actual counts from the review.

Suggest next step: /ship when ready to create the PR.


#Important Rules

  • Never abort. The user chose /autoplan. Respect that choice. Surface all taste decisions, never redirect to interactive review.
  • Premises are the one gate. The only non-auto-decided AskUserQuestion is the premise confirmation in Phase 1.
  • Log every decision. No silent auto-decisions. Every choice gets a row in the audit trail.
  • Full depth. Do not compress or skip sections from the loaded skill files (except the skip list in Phase 0).
  • Sequential order. CEO → Design → Eng. Each phase builds on the last.