fstack — the simple stack

Agent skills that ask: can this be less?

The problem

Skill collections keep growing. Personas, pipelines, ceremonies, and overlapping commands become harder to remember than the work itself.

That complexity leaks into the code. A process built to sound smart often produces layers, abstractions, and options nobody asked for.

The idea

fstack is 14 small skills with plain names and one job each.

It has two deliberate modes:

• Interactive mode: you drive each stage and approve real choices.
• Cloud mode: /fstack-run continues from source-truth inspection through implementation, tests, review, fixes, commit, push, and pull request.

One skill — /fstack-simplify — exists only to remove things.

Install

With GitHub CLI 2.90 or later, preview and install the continuous runner for GitHub Copilot or another supported agent host:

gh skill preview naytewilson/fstack fstack-run
gh skill install naytewilson/fstack fstack-run

With the cross-agent skills CLI, review the collection and install only the runner globally:

npx skills@latest add naytewilson/fstack --list
npx skills@latest add naytewilson/fstack --skill fstack-run -g -y

Install the complete collection interactively:

npx skills@latest add naytewilson/fstack

The skills themselves have no runtime dependencies or build step.

See Cloud-agent setup for agent-specific installation, permissions, invocation prompts, safety defaults, validation, updates, and maintenance.

Cloud mode

Use /fstack-run when the agent should finish a repository task without routine approval stops.

flowchart LR
    Inspect["Inspect source truth"] --> Isolate["Protect existing work"]
    Isolate --> Plan["Plan briefly"]
    Plan --> Build["Implement"]
    Build --> Test["Test and validate"]
    Test --> Review["Review and simplify"]
    Review -->|Fix needed| Build
    Review -->|Ready| Deliver["Commit, push, pull request"]
    Deliver --> Verify["Verify checks and receipt"]

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The runner stops only for a proven external blocker, a decision that changes the safe action, an explicit user stop, or a completed verified delivery.

Interactive mode

Use the original loop when you want to control each transition:

flowchart TD
    Start{"Task clear?"}
    Start -->|No| N["fstack-nail"]
    N --> Task["Human approves task"]
    Task --> P["fstack-plan"]
    Start -->|Yes| P
    P --> Plan["Human approves plan"]
    Plan --> B["fstack-build"]
    B --> C["fstack-check"]
    C -->|Ready| Push["fstack-push"]
    C -->|Not ready| Earlier["Human chooses an earlier step"]
    Earlier -.-> N
    Earlier -.-> P
    Earlier -.-> B

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Invoke a skill directly, or ask /fstack to choose one.

The 14 skills

Skill	What it does
/fstack	Front door. Lists the stack or routes a task to one skill.
/fstack-run	Completes repository work continuously from inspection through verified pull request.
/fstack-roast	Stress-tests a product idea and finds the smallest version worth building.
/fstack-interview	Records product, customer, demand, pricing, distribution, and risk context in the repository.
/fstack-counselors	Gets three independent model opinions and synthesizes one verdict.
/fstack-nail	Clarifies a vague task and gets approval on a three-line summary.
/fstack-plan	Writes a one-page plan with a mandatory "what we're NOT doing" section.
/fstack-build	Implements an approved plan in small verified steps.
/fstack-simplify	Audits unnecessary complexity and proposes deletions only.
/fstack-design	Makes UI follow the project's existing visual system.
/fstack-document	Writes or updates project documentation from ELI5 to deep.
/fstack-check	Reviews whether work functions, matches the plan, and stays simple.
/fstack-learn	Captures one non-obvious lesson in three lines.
/fstack-push	Commits task-owned changes and pushes them. It intentionally does not test or deploy.

Repository support for cloud agents

This fork includes:

• AGENTS.md — canonical repository-wide agent contract;
• CLAUDE.md — Claude Code entrypoint;
• .github/copilot-instructions.md — GitHub Copilot coding-agent entrypoint;
• .github/workflows/validate.yml — automatic skill validation;
• .github/pull_request_template.md — evidence-focused delivery checklist;
• .cursor/environment.json — Cursor cloud install hook that runs on each environment boot;
• .cursor/skills/ — Cursor project skill discovery via symlinks to skills/;
• scripts/install-cursor-cloud-skills.sh — copies skills into ~/.cursor/skills for cloud session persistence;
• scripts/validate.sh — dependency-free frontmatter, naming, size, duplication, and README checks;
• scripts/test-validate.sh — regression tests for validator behavior and path safety;
• docs/CLOUD_AGENTS.md — complete operator guide.

Validate locally with:

sh -n scripts/validate.sh
sh -n scripts/test-validate.sh
sh -n scripts/install-cursor-cloud-skills.sh
sh scripts/test-validate.sh
sh scripts/validate.sh
git diff --check

With GitHub CLI 2.90 or later, run the current Agent Skills publishing checks without publishing:

gh skill publish --dry-run

Philosophy

1. Short sentences. One idea per sentence.
2. Short paragraphs, then a blank line.
3. Plain language before jargon.
4. No personas. Skills describe actions, not characters.
5. One job per skill.
6. Prefer deletion and the smallest complete change.
7. Keep each skill compact; move real detail into referenced files only when needed.
8. Interactive skills stop at decision points. The cloud runner continues through ordinary choices.
9. Stay agent-agnostic and use the open SKILL.md format.
10. Evidence beats confidence. Unrun tests are missing evidence, not a pass.
11. Preserve unrelated work. Never make destructive Git behavior an automation default.
12. A cloud run is done only after implementation, verification, review, and durable delivery.

Credits

fstack exists because of the stacks it distills. gstack by Garry Tan gave it the full lifecycle idea and idea-roasting step. pstack by Lauren Tan gave it design-before-code and blast-radius thinking. Compound Engineering by Every gave it the plan artifact and lesson-capture step. Matt Pocock's skills gave it grilling, two-axis review, and the small-skills shape. counselors by Aaron Francis gave it the independent-advisor pattern behind /fstack-counselors.

The original fstack was created by Flavio Copes. This fork keeps the interactive stack and adds the continuous cloud-agent operating mode.

License

MIT