painhardcore

ci-standard

Use when the user asks to create, edit, or review a GitHub Actions workflow or CI under .github/workflows/.

compose-standard

Use when the user asks to write, edit, or review a local Docker Compose file (compose.yaml / docker-compose.yml) or a local service stack.

dockerfile-standard

Use when the user asks to write, edit, review, migrate, or optimize a Dockerfile, .dockerignore, or container image build.

go-project-standard

Use when the user asks to create or review a Go module's layout (cmd/internal), go.mod, or golangci-lint config.

makefile-standard

Use when the user asks to create or edit a Makefile, add or rename a make target, or review Make target names.

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.

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.

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.

how

Explain how a subsystem works, trace a runtime flow, or determine where code and ownership belong before making a change.

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

Use before review when the user asks to strip, remove, or clean up comments in code.

poteto-mode

Apply poteto's rigorous engineering workflow to non-trivial coding, investigation, review, migration, and verification tasks.

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-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.

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.

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'.

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.

typescript-best-practices

TypeScript best practices. Use when reading or editing any .ts or .tsx file.

why

Use for 'why does X work this way', 'why we picked Y', design rationale, regressions, postmortems, or data-backed thresholds. Discovers available MCPs and queries each evidence category (source control, issue tracker, long-form docs, real-time chat, infrastructure observability, error tracking, product analytics warehouse) in parallel, then returns a cited read on decisions and tradeoffs. Use how for runtime behavior.

unslop

Cut AI tells from any writing. Must always apply.

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.

principle-encode-lessons-in-structure

Apply when you catch yourself writing the same instruction a second time, or notice a recurring correction. Encode the rule as a lint, metadata flag, runtime check, or script instead of more text.

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.

principle-laziness-protocol

Apply when refactoring, evaluating diff size, or tempted to add abstractions, layers, or signal threading. Bias toward deletion and the smallest change that solves the problem.

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-migrate-callers-then-delete-legacy-apis

Apply when introducing a new internal API while old callers still exist. Migrate callers and delete the old API in the same wave instead of preserving compatibility layers.

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-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-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-outcome-oriented-execution

Apply during planned rewrites and migrations with explicit phase boundaries. Converge on the target architecture; don't preserve smooth intermediate states with throwaway compatibility code.

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-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.

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. Remove dead weight, redundant validators, and stub references first, then build on the simpler base.

swarm

Fan out N independent workers, collect their results, and return one report for coverage, races, gauntlets, or exploration.