justinramos101

ram-mode

Ram-mode agent style for concise, detailed responses, deliberate subagents, unslopped prose, simple code, and verified work. Use for ram-mode, /ram-mode, or requests to work in this style.

Sketch types, signatures, and module structure before code, then stay in the loop while implementation fills in. Use for /architect, 'architect this', 'design this', or non-trivial work where jumping to code would lock in the wrong shape.

arena

Spawn N parallel candidates at the same task, pick a base, graft the strongest parts of the losers into it. Use for /arena, 'arena this', 'throw it in the arena', or when one attempt at a non-trivial artifact would lock in the wrong shape.

automate-me

Use for "automate me", "create/update/refresh my -mode skill", "turn/capture my preferences or working style into a skill", or wanting agents to follow how the user works. Drafts or revises a personal -mode skill via create-skill + unslop, optionally pulling fresh evidence from recent transcripts.

blast-radius

Find what a change could break somewhere else before it ships, beyond the diff, and prove the one fact it's safe because of by running real code instead of writing it up. Use for 'blast radius of X', 'what could this break', or reviewing a small diff you don't trust.

capture

Park an out-of-scope find without derailing the work in flight: an unrelated bug, an idea for later, a chore you will not do now. One write to this repo's inbox, then straight back to the task. Use for /capture, "note that for later", "add that to the inbox", or finding something real that is not what you are working on.

create-verification-skill

Generate a project-local verification skill that drives your app the way a user does — any language, framework, or platform. Use for /create-verification-skill, "make a control skill for this repo", or when a project has no scripted way to prove UI/CLI/service behavior.

figure-it-out

Design an auditable playbook when no narrower one fits: a large migration, an ambitious multi-part change, or work a human reviews after stepping away. Scales rigor to the task, runs a hypothesis loop, and logs decisions via show-me-your-work. Use for /figure-it-out, 'figure it out', a large migration, or when no narrower playbook applies.

interrogate

Use for "interrogate", "adversarial review", "multi-model review", "challenge this", "stress test this code", "find blind spots", or "tear this apart". Multiple LLM reviewers challenge changes from independent angles.

maintain-verification-skill

Periodic pass that keeps a project's verification skill and feature map honest: parallel source readers per feature, one live session driving every feature, at most one PR of proven corrections. Use for /maintain-verification-skill or "audit the verify skill".

no-comments

Spawn Comment Sicko, fix accepted findings, and offer encodings for claimed constraints.

Web & Frontend Listed

principle-build-the-lever

Apply to any non-trivial work, not just bulk work: edits, migrations, analyses, checks. Build the tool that does it or proves it (codemod, script, generator, or a skill your subagents follow) instead of working by hand. The tool is the artifact a reviewer can rerun.

principle-converge-on-the-target

Apply during planned rewrites, migrations, and API replacements. Optimize for the intended end state instead of preserving smooth intermediate states; migrate callers and delete the old path in the same wave. Expand-and-contract only at deployed boundaries you cannot migrate atomically.

principle-deep-modules

Apply when decomposing a system, adding a module, or assigning parallel agent work. Wide at the system level, deep at the module level, shallow in directory nesting: each module hides substantial functionality behind a small public entry point, and agents coordinate through contracts, not shared internals.

principle-define-the-terms

Apply when writing or editing prose an agent reads (a SKILL.md, CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md, a subagent brief, a plan, a PR description), when naming a concept, or when a word in the repo is doing double duty. One term, one meaning, and a glossary that bans the synonyms it displaces.

principle-design-the-surface

Apply when designing anything another party consumes: an API, a CLI, a tool schema, an error message, a config format, a skill. The consumer may be a person, an LLM, or another system. Keep the surface simple and seamless regardless of the complexity under the hood, and verify it from the consumer's seat.

principle-encode-lessons-in-structure

Apply whenever you are about to write a rule as prose, not only the second time. Encode it as a test, custom lint, CI check, pre-commit hook, agent hook, or helper script instead of more text. Prose is the last rung, for the rules a mechanism genuinely cannot hold.

principle-model-the-domain

Apply when writing stateful logic, or when code branches a lot or repeats a shape assumption across files. Encode the domain in a structure instead of scattered conditionals.

principle-prove-it-works

Apply after completing a task, before declaring done. Verify against the real artifact (run the feature, read the actual value, inspect the diff), not a proxy, self-report, or 'it compiles.'

principle-sequence-verifiable-units

Apply to multi-step work (sweeps, migrations, runs of similar edits) and to how you stack commits and PRs. Break work into small units that each end in a verifiable state, check each before the next, and order delivery so the sequence proves itself to a reviewer.

principle-subtract-before-you-add

Apply when sequencing an addition, refactor, or rewrite, when sizing a diff, or when tempted to add abstractions, layers, or signal threading. Remove dead weight first, then make the smallest change that solves the problem on the simpler base.

Data & Documents Listed

principle-type-system-discipline

Apply when designing types, reviewing a function signature, or writing code in any statically-typed language. Make illegal states unrepresentable, brand semantic primitives, parse external data at boundaries, refuse to lie to the compiler, exhaust variants, derive from authoritative schemas.

recall

Reconstruct your recent working context from your own chat history, live state, and the shared record (user reports, prior fixes, incidents), then hand back a tight current-state brief. Use for 'recall my work on X', 'catch me up', 'what have I been working on', 'where did I leave off', before starting or resuming work.

reflect

Spawn three parallel review subagents over the active transcript, surface learnings, and route each to a concrete edit on an existing skill. Use when the user says reflect.

Code & Development Listed

show-me-your-work

Keep a reviewable decision trail for long-running or unattended work: a TSV log with one row per decision (what, why, evidence, result). Local by default; commit it when a reviewer needs the trail to trust the result. Use for /show-me-your-work, autonomous or multi-phase runs, or work a human reviews after stepping away.

swarm

Fan out N parallel workers, drain them, and return one report. Use for /swarm, 'swarm this', or parallel coverage, races, gauntlets, and exploration.

Testing & QA Listed

tdd

Use only when the user explicitly asks for TDD, a failing test, or a regression test, OR when the bug has an obvious cheap local test target. Skip when the test path is unclear, expensive, integration-heavy, or not requested.

teach

Explain a body of work plainly so a person actually understands it. Runs the `how` and `why` skills and weaves what they find into one clear explanation. Use for 'teach me this', 'help me really understand X', 'explain this change or subsystem to me'.

Code & Development Listed

technical-writing

Layered technical-writing standard: Diátaxis structure, Google developer style sentences, STE instruction rules, Global English syntax. Use for /technical-writing or when writing or reviewing docs, RFCs, readmes, PR descriptions, or commit messages.

principle-align-on-intent

Apply before non-trivial work and whenever a request admits more than one reading. Converge on shared understanding of terms and intent: restate the ask, surface the assumptions you are operating on, and interrupt only when readings produce materially different work.

principle-boundary-discipline

Apply when wiring validation, error handling, or framework adapters. Concentrate guards at system boundaries (CLI, config, network, external APIs); trust internal types and keep business logic in pure functions.

Web & Frontend Listed

principle-exhaust-the-design-space

Apply when facing a novel UI interaction or architectural decision with no precedent in the codebase. Build 2-3 competing prototypes and compare side by side before committing.

principle-experience-first

Apply when product, UX, or feature-scope tradeoffs come up. Choose user delight over implementation convenience; ship fewer polished features over more rough ones.

principle-fix-root-causes

Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom to its root cause and fix it there; reproduce first, ask why until you reach it, resist nil-check guards that silence crashes.

principle-foundational-thinking

Apply before writing logic: choosing core types and data structures, sequencing scaffold-vs-feature work, asking what concurrent actors share. Get the data structures right so downstream code becomes obvious.

principle-guard-the-context-window

Apply when context is filling up: large outputs, long files, repeated reads, fan-out planning. Route bulk to subagents; keep summaries in the main thread, not raw payloads.

Code & Development Listed

principle-make-operations-idempotent

Apply when designing commands, lifecycle steps, or processing loops that run amid crashes, restarts, and retries. Converge to the same end state regardless of partial prior runs.

principle-minimize-reader-load

Apply when reviewing or shaping code that's hard to trace. Count layers between question and answer, and hidden state in the reader's head; collapse one-caller wrappers and shrink mutable scope.

principle-never-block-on-the-human

Apply when tempted to ask 'should I do X?' on reversible work. Proceed, present the result, let the human course-correct after the fact; reserve confirmation for irreversible actions.

principle-record-decisions

Apply when settling a non-obvious technical decision: a stack choice, a swap, an integration approach, an experiment outcome, a design-space pick. Write an ADR with the options considered and why the pick won, so a rejected option stays recoverable. Offer it proactively.

Web & Frontend Listed

principle-redesign-from-first-principles

Apply when integrating a new requirement into an existing design. Redesign as if the requirement had been a foundational assumption from day one, instead of bolting it on.

principle-separate-before-serializing-shared-state

Apply when concurrent actors might write to the same file, branch, key, or state object. Eliminate the sharing first; serialize structurally only when one shared writer is a real invariant.

catch-me-up

Use for "catch me up", getting oriented in an unfamiliar repo, or returning after time away: module map and entry points, repo conventions, test structure, unfamiliar syntax, or what changed recently. Six exploration modes with deliberately visual output. Routes feature traces to how and decision rationale to why.

debrief

Merge-boundary debrief: the moment a PR merges, answer what worked, what didn't, what generalizes, and write at most three ledger rows before the next task. Also for /debrief at any finished unit of work. /debrief ladder runs the batch routing pass in LADDER.md over the accumulated rows.

how

Use for "how does X work", code walkthroughs before changing something, and placement / ownership / layering questions ("where should this live", "which package owns this", "is this the right layer"). Explains subsystem architecture, runtime flow, onboarding mental models. Can critique architecture. Use why for motivation.

setup-ramstack

Configure which models ramstack uses per role, for the host you're running in (Claude Code, Codex, or pi). Detects your available models and writes your host's section of the shared config file. Also binds this repo's capture inbox, where playbooks park out-of-scope finds, and offers to seed the repo glossary. Use for /setup-ramstack, "configure ramstack models", "where do captures go", "seed the glossary", or changing ramstack's model choices.