Files
gstack/README.md
Garry Tan 7ca04d8ef0 v1.42.0.0 Daegu wave: 23 community-filed bugs + PTY classifier enforcement (24 bisect commits) (#1594)
* fix(gstack-paths): guard CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA against cross-plugin contamination (#1569)

gstack-paths previously trusted CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA as a fallback for
GSTACK_STATE_ROOT whenever GSTACK_HOME was unset. When another plugin
(e.g. Codex) persists its own CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA into the session env
via CLAUDE_ENV_FILE, gstack picked it up and wrote checkpoints,
analytics, and learnings into that plugin's directory. Anyone with the
Codex plugin installed alongside gstack hit this silently.

Fix: guard the CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA branch so it only fires when
CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT confirms we're running as the gstack plugin (path
contains "gstack"). Skill installs fall through to \$HOME/.gstack.

Contributed by @ElliotDrel via #1570. Closes #1569.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(gbrain-sync): sourceLocalPath handles wrapped {sources:[...]} shape from gbrain v0.20+

gbrain v0.20+ changed `gbrain sources list --json` to return
{sources: [...]} instead of a flat array. sourceLocalPath crashed
upstream with `list.find is not a function` on every /sync-gbrain
invocation against modern gbrain. Accept both shapes for
forward/backward compat, matching probeSource/sourcePageCount in
lib/gbrain-sources.ts.

Contributed by @jakehann11 via #1571. Closes #1567. Supersedes #1564
(@tonyjzhou, same fix, different shape — credit retained).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(brain-context-load): probe gbrain via execFile, not shell builtin (#1559)

gbrainAvailable() used `execFileSync("command", ["-v", "gbrain"])`,
which fails in any environment where the `command` builtin isn't on
the spawned process's PATH (most non-interactive shells). The probe
then reported gbrain as missing even when it was installed, and
context-load silently skipped vector/list queries.

Fix: probe `gbrain --version` directly with a 500ms timeout (matching
the rest of the file's MCP_TIMEOUT_MS). Same semantics, works
everywhere execFile works.

Contributed by @jbetala7 via #1560. Closes #1559.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* test(gbrain-doctor): pin schema_version:2 doctor parse path (#1418)

Adds an exec-path regression test that runs a fake gbrain shim emitting
the v0.25+ doctor JSON shape (schema_version: 2, status: "warnings",
exit 1 for health_score < 100, no top-level `engine` field). Confirms
freshDetectEngineTier recovers stdout from the non-zero exit and falls
back to GBRAIN_HOME/config.json for the engine label.

The pre-existing test for #1415 only stripped gbrain from PATH; this
test exercises the actual doctor parse path, closing the gap that
codex's plan review flagged.

Also documents the schema_version separation in
lib/gbrain-local-status.ts: the local CacheEntry stays at version 1,
distinct from the doctor-output schema_version which we accept across
versions in gstack-memory-helpers.

Closes #1418 (credit @mvanhorn for surfacing the doctor + schema_v2
collapse). The fix landed pre-emptively in v1.29.x; this commit pins
it with a stronger test.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* test(memory-ingest): pin put_page regression + scrub stale name from --help and comments (#1346)

#1346 reported that gstack-memory-ingest still called the renamed
gbrain put_page subcommand on gbrain v0.18+. The actual code migrated
to `gbrain put` and later to batch `gbrain import <dir>` before this
report landed — only documentation lag remained.

This commit:
- Updates the --help string ("Skip gbrain put calls (still updates
  state file)") so user-facing docs match the shipped subcommand
- Updates two inline comments that still referenced the old name
- Adds test/memory-ingest-no-put_page.test.ts: a regression pin that
  strips comments from bin/gstack-memory-ingest.ts and fails the build
  if "put_page" appears in any active code or string literal, plus a
  sanity check that the file still calls a supported gbrain page-write
  verb (put or import)

Closes #1346. Reporter @kylma-code surfaced the doc lag; the original
code migration credit is on the v1.27.x wave.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(resolvers): rewrite all gbrain put_page instructions to canonical put <slug>

scripts/resolvers/gbrain.ts emitted user-facing copy-paste instructions
using the renamed `gbrain put_page` subcommand across 10 skills
(office-hours, investigate, plan-ceo-review, retro, plan-eng-review,
ship, cso, design-consultation, fallback, entity-stub). Every gstack
user copying those snippets hit "unknown command: put_page" on gbrain
v0.18+.

This commit:
- Rewrites all 10 instruction templates to use `gbrain put <slug>
  --content "$(cat <<EOF...EOF)"` with title/tags moved into YAML
  frontmatter inside --content, matching the v0.18+ subcommand shape
- Updates README.md and USING_GBRAIN_WITH_GSTACK.md "common commands"
  table to reference `gbrain put` and `gbrain get`
- Adds test/resolvers-gbrain-put-rewrite.test.ts pinning two
  invariants: (a) resolver source ships only canonical instructions,
  (b) every tracked SKILL.md file is free of `gbrain put_page`

CHANGELOG entries are deliberately left untouched (historical record).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(build): extract package.json build to scripts/build.sh for Windows Bun compat (#1538, #1537, #1530, #1457, #1561)

Bun's Windows shell parser rejects multiple constructs the inline
package.json build chain used: brace groups `{ cmd; }`, subshells with
redirection `( git ... ) > path/.version`, and (in Bun 1.3.x) subshells
near redirections in general. Every Windows install + every
auto-upgrade since v1.34.2.0 has failed on `bun run build`.

Extracts the build chain to scripts/build.sh and the .version writes to
scripts/write-version-files.sh. POSIX-portable, no Bun shell parsing
involved. Also adds Windows-specific bun.exe handling for non-ASCII
PATHs (a separate Windows footgun where Bun's --compile fails when the
binary lives under a path with non-ASCII chars).

Updates test/build-script-shell-compat.test.ts to assert the new shape:
no subshells with redirections anywhere in the build chain, and build
delegates to scripts/build.sh which delegates .version writes.

Contributed by @Charlie-El via #1544. Supersedes #1531 (@scarson, fixed
in build helper), #1480 (@mikepsinn, partial overlap), #1460
(@realcarsonterry, brace-group fix subsumed) — credit retained.
Closes #1538, #1537, #1530, #1457, #1561.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(windows): .exe glob in .gitignore + .exe extension resolution in find-browse (#1554)

bun build --compile on Windows appends .exe to the output filename,
producing browse.exe instead of browse. find-browse's existsSync probe
only checked the bare path and returned null on Windows even when the
binary was correctly built. .gitignore similarly only excluded the
bare bin/gstack-global-discover path, leaving the .exe variant
tracked.

This commit:
- .gitignore: changes `bin/gstack-global-discover` →
  `bin/gstack-global-discover*` so the Windows .exe variant is ignored
- browse/src/find-browse.ts: adds isExecutable + findExecutable helpers
  that fall back to .exe/.cmd/.bat probing on Windows, mirroring the
  same helper already in make-pdf/src/browseClient.ts and pdftotext.ts

Contributed by @Mike-E-Log via #1554.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* ci(windows): add fresh-install E2E gate that runs bun run build on windows-latest

Adds .github/workflows/windows-setup-e2e.yml as the gate that catches
Bun shell-parser regressions in the build chain before they reach
users. Triggers on PRs touching package.json, scripts/build.sh,
scripts/write-version-files.sh, setup, browse cli/find-browse, or
gstack-paths.

What it verifies:
1. bun run build completes on Windows (the previously-broken path that
   #1538/#1537/#1530/#1457/#1561 reported)
2. All compiled binaries land on disk (browse.exe, find-browse.exe,
   design.exe, gstack-global-discover.exe)
3. find-browse resolves to the .exe variant on Windows (regression
   gate for #1554)
4. gstack-paths returns non-empty GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/PLAN_ROOT/TMP_ROOT
   on Windows (regression gate for #1570)

Complements the existing windows-free-tests.yml (curated unit subset);
this new workflow exercises the install path itself.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(codex): move diff scope into prompt instead of --base (Codex CLI 0.130+ argv conflict) (#1209)

Codex CLI ≥ 0.130.0 rejects passing a custom prompt and --base together
(mutually exclusive at argv level). Every /codex review, /review, and
/ship structured Codex review call ended with an argv error before the
model ran.

Fix: scope the diff in prompt text using
"Run git diff origin/<base>...HEAD 2>/dev/null || git diff <base>...HEAD"
instead of `--base <base>`. Preserves the filesystem boundary
instruction across all invocations and keeps Codex's review prompt
tuning.

Touches:
- codex/SKILL.md.tmpl + regenerated codex/SKILL.md
- scripts/resolvers/review.ts + regenerated review/SKILL.md, ship/SKILL.md
- test/gen-skill-docs.test.ts: new regression that fails if any of the
  five known files still contain the prompt+--base shape
- test/skill-validation.test.ts: corresponding negative + positive pin
  on the rendered SKILL.md files

Contributed by @jbetala7 via #1209. Closes #1479. Supersedes #1527
(@mvanhorn — same intent, different patch shape, CONFLICTING) and
#1449 (@Gujiassh — broader refactor, CONFLICTING). Credit retained
in CHANGELOG.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(review): diff from git merge-base, not git diff origin/<base> (#1492)

git diff origin/<base> shows everything since the common ancestor in
both directions — it includes commits that landed on origin/<base>
after this branch was created as deletions. That made /review and
/ship's pre-landing structured review report inflated diff totals and
flagged "removed" code that was actually still present in the working
tree.

Fix: compute DIFF_BASE via git merge-base origin/<base> HEAD and diff
the working tree against that point. Same coverage of uncommitted
edits, no phantom deletions from out-of-order base advancement.

Applies to /review's Step 1 (diff existence check), Step 3 (get the
diff), the build-on-intent scope-creep check, the structured review
DIFF_INS/DIFF_DEL stats, and the Claude adversarial subagent prompt.
Same change flows into ship/SKILL.md via the shared resolver.

Touches:
- review/SKILL.md.tmpl + regenerated review/SKILL.md, ship/SKILL.md
- scripts/resolvers/review.ts
- scripts/resolvers/review-army.ts

Contributed by @mvanhorn via #1492.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* test(codex): pin filesystem-boundary preservation across all codex review surfaces (#1503, #1522)

#1503 reported that the bare codex review --base path stripped the
filesystem boundary instruction, letting Codex spend tokens reading
.claude/skills/ and agents/. #1522 proposed adding a skill-path
detector that switched to the custom-instructions route when the diff
touched skill files.

After C10 (#1209) restructured codex review to always carry the
boundary in the prompt (the prompt+--base argv conflict forced the
restructure), the skill-path detector becomes redundant — every
default call already preserves the boundary.

This commit pins the post-#1209 invariant with a test that fails the
build if any future refactor strips the boundary from codex/SKILL.md,
review/SKILL.md, or ship/SKILL.md. Closes #1503 by regression test.

#1522 (@genisis0x) is superseded by #1209 (the prompt rewrite covers
its safety concern); credit retained in CHANGELOG.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(skills): use command -v instead of which for codex detection (#1197)

`which` is not on PATH in every shell — some Windows shells, BusyBox-
only containers, and minimal CI images all fail when skills probe
codex availability via `which codex`. `command -v` is a POSIX builtin
and always available where the skill is running.

Touched:
- codex/SKILL.md.tmpl: CODEX_BIN=$(command -v codex || echo "")
- scripts/resolvers/review.ts and scripts/resolvers/design.ts:
  3 + 3 sites each rewritten to `command -v codex >/dev/null 2>&1`
- Regenerated all 10 affected SKILL.md files (codex, review, ship,
  design-consultation, design-review, office-hours, plan-ceo-review,
  plan-design-review, plan-devex-review, plan-eng-review)
- test/skill-validation.test.ts: updated pin + defensive regression
  test that fails if `which codex` returns to codex/SKILL.md
- test/skill-e2e-plan.test.ts: updated summary regex

Contributed by @mvanhorn via #1197.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(codex): surface non-zero exits so wrappers stop reading as silent stalls (#1467, #1327)

When codex exits non-zero (parse errors, arg-shape breaks, model API
errors that propagate as non-zero status), the calling agent
previously saw an empty output and burned 30-60 minutes misdiagnosing
as a silent model/API stall. The hang-detection block only caught
exit 124 (the timeout-wrapper signal).

Adds elif blocks in all four codex invocation sites (Review default,
Challenge, Consult new-session, Consult resume) that:
- Echo "[codex exit N] <stderr first line>" to stdout
- Indent the first 20 stderr lines for inline context
- Log codex_nonzero_exit telemetry tagged with the call site

Contributed by @genisis0x via #1467. Closes #1327.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(design): disclose OpenAI key source + warn on cwd .env match (#1278, closes #1248)

The design binary previously called process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY without
checking where the key came from. If a user ran $D inside someone
else's project that had OPENAI_API_KEY in its .env, the resulting
generation billed that project's account. Silent and irreversible.

Fix: resolveApiKeyInfo() returns both the key and its source. When the
env-var path matches an OPENAI_API_KEY entry in the current
directory's .env, .env.<NODE_ENV>, or .env.local file, we set a
warning. requireApiKey() prints "Using OpenAI key from <source>" plus
the warning before the run — never the key itself.

Adds 6 unit tests covering: config-vs-env precedence, env-only (no
match), env+cwd .env match, quoted/exported values, value-mismatch
(no false positive), and the no-leak invariant for requireApiKey
stderr output.

Contributed by @jbetala7 via #1278. Closes #1248.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(browse): guard full-page screenshots against Anthropic vision API >2000px brick (#1214)

Full-page screenshots of tall pages routinely exceeded 2000px on the
longest dimension, silently bricking the agent's session: the
resulting base64 reached the Anthropic vision API which rejected the
oversized image, leaving the agent burning turns on a useless blob
with no stderr trace from the browse side.

Adds browse/src/screenshot-size-guard.ts as a shared helper:
- guardScreenshotBuffer(buf) → downscales in-memory if max(w,h) > 2000
- guardScreenshotPath(path) → file-mode variant that rewrites in place
- Aspect ratio preserved via sharp's resize fit:inside
- Stderr diagnostic on any downscale so callers can see when it fired
- Lazy sharp import so non-screenshot paths pay no startup cost

Wires the guard into all three full-page callsites codex review
flagged:
- browse/src/snapshot.ts: annotated + heatmap fullPage captures
- browse/src/meta-commands.ts: screenshot command (path + base64
  fullPage modes) plus the responsive 3-viewport sweep
- browse/src/write-commands.ts: prettyscreenshot fullPage path

Covers seven unit cases (pass-through, downscale, aspect ratio,
exactly-2000px edge, file-mode rewrite) plus a static invariant test
that fails the build if any of the three callsites stops importing the
guard.

Closes #1214.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(security): add Node sidecar entry for L4 prompt-injection classifier (#1370)

The L4 TestSavant classifier in browse/src/security-classifier.ts
can't be imported into the compiled browse server (onnxruntime-node
dlopen fails from Bun's compile extract dir per CLAUDE.md). The agent
that used to host it (sidebar-agent.ts) was removed when the PTY
proved out — leaving the classifier file shipped but with zero
callers. Exactly the gap codex flagged in #1370.

Adds browse/src/security-sidecar-entry.ts: a Node script that runs the
classifier as a subprocess of the browse server. It reads NDJSON
requests from stdin and writes id-correlated NDJSON responses to
stdout, supporting:
  - op: "scan-page-content" — full L4 classifier scan
  - op: "ping" — liveness probe for the client's health check
  - op: "status" — classifier readiness (used by /pty-inject-scan to
    surface l4 { available: bool } in its response)

Plus browse/src/find-security-sidecar.ts: a resolver that locates
node + the bundled JS entry (browse/dist/security-sidecar.js, built in
a follow-up package.json change) or falls back to the dev TS entry.
Returns null cleanly when node isn't on PATH so the calling endpoint
can degrade per D7 (extension WARN + user confirm).

C17 of the security-stack wave. C18 adds the IPC client + lifecycle
management; C19 wires the endpoint; C20 routes the extension through it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(security): sidecar IPC client with lifecycle + circuit breaker (#1370)

Adds browse/src/security-sidecar-client.ts to manage the Node L4
classifier subprocess from the compiled browse server:

- Lazy spawn on first scan; reuses the same process across requests
- Id-correlated request/response via NDJSON over stdio
- 5s default per-scan timeout; 64KB payload cap (short-circuits before
  spawn so oversized requests don't waste a process)
- 3-in-10-minutes respawn cap → trips circuit breaker; subsequent
  scans throw immediately so the /pty-inject-scan endpoint can surface
  l4 { available: false } to the extension and degrade to WARN+confirm
- process.on('exit') sends SIGTERM to the child for clean teardown
- isSidecarAvailable() lets the endpoint probe before scan calls so
  the response shape reflects degraded mode honestly

Unit tests cover the payload cap, the availability probe, and the
breaker-doesn't-crash invariant under repeated rejected calls.

C18 of the security-stack wave. C19 adds POST /pty-inject-scan; C20
routes the extension through it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(security): add POST /pty-inject-scan endpoint for pre-PTY-inject scans (#1370)

The sidebar's gstackInjectToTerminal callers (toolbar Cleanup,
Inspector "Send to Code") were piping page-derived text directly into
the live claude PTY with ZERO classifier processing — the gap codex
flagged in #1370. The documented sidebar security stack had a hole
the size of every Cleanup-button click.

Adds POST /pty-inject-scan to browse/src/server.ts:
- Local-only binding (NOT in TUNNEL_PATHS — tunnel attempts get the
  general 404 path; never reaches the scan logic)
- Root-token auth via existing validateAuth() — 401 on unauth
- 64KB request cap → 413 + payload-too-large body
- 5s scan timeout via sidecar client
- URL-blocklist forced to BLOCK in PTY context (page-derived REPL
  input is higher-risk than ordinary tool output)
- L4 ML classifier via the sidecar when available; degrades to WARN
  per D7 when sidecar is unavailable
- Response goes through JSON.stringify(..., sanitizeReplacer) per
  v1.38.0.0 Unicode-egress hardening
- Imports only from security-sidecar-client.ts, never directly from
  security-classifier.ts (which would brick the compiled Bun binary)

Seven static-invariant tests pin the POST verb, auth gate, 64KB cap,
tunnel-listener exclusion, sanitizeReplacer wrapping, l4 availability
shape, and the no-direct-classifier-import rule.

C19 of the security-stack wave. C20 routes the extension through it;
C21 adds the invariant AST check.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(extension): route gstackInjectToTerminal through /pty-inject-scan (#1370)

Closes the documented-vs-shipped gap codex flagged in #1370. The
sidebar's two PTY-injection call sites (Inspector "Send to Code" and
toolbar Cleanup) now pre-scan via the new /pty-inject-scan endpoint
before writing to the live claude REPL.

Adds window.gstackScanForPTYInject(text, origin) to
extension/sidepanel-terminal.js:
- Async, returns { allow, verdict, reasons, l4 }
- POST to /pty-inject-scan with the existing root-token auth
- WARN+confirm on scan failure (network down, sidecar absent, etc.)
  rather than silent PASS — D7 honest-degradation

gstackInjectToTerminal stays synchronous, returns boolean. Per D6:
keeping the inject sync means existing `const ok = ...?.()` callers
don't break, and the invariant test in
test/extension-pty-inject-invariant.test.ts can statically pin that
every call goes through the scan first.

extension/sidepanel.js call sites updated:
- inspectorSendBtn click → await scan, BLOCK drops + WARN prompts via
  window.confirm, PASS injects silently
- runCleanup() → same flow. Static cleanup prompt always PASSes but
  still routes through scan to honor the invariant.

C20 of the security-stack wave. C21 adds the static invariant test.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* test(security): invariant — extension PTY inject must be scan-gated (#1370)

Static-analysis invariant test that fails the build if any
extension/*.js path calls window.gstackInjectToTerminal without a
preceding window.gstackScanForPTYInject in the same enclosing
function. Closes the documented-vs-shipped gap codex demanded a
machine check on.

Rules:
- Rule 1: any file that calls inject must also reference scan
- Rule 2: in the enclosing function (function declaration, arrow,
  async (), event handler), a scan call must appear before the inject
  call by source position
- Exemption: sidepanel-terminal.js (the file that DEFINES the inject
  function) is exempt from Rule 2 since the definition is not a call

Plus two structural checks:
- sidepanel-terminal.js defines both the inject and scan functions
- inject stays SYNCHRONOUS (no `async` modifier) per D6 — async would
  silently break the `const ok = ...?.()` pattern at every caller

C21 of the security-stack wave. The sidecar architecture (#1370) is
complete: server-side L1-L3 + L4-via-sidecar (C17+C18+C19), extension
pre-scan wiring (C20), and now the regression gate (C21).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(browse): opt-in extended stealth mode with 6 detection-vector patches (#1112)

Rebases @garrytan's PR #1112 (Apr 2026, abandoned) onto the current
browse/src/stealth.ts contract. The existing minimal "codex narrowed"
stealth (webdriver-mask + AutomationControlled launch arg) stays the
default. PR #1112's six additional patches are added behind an opt-in
GSTACK_STEALTH=extended env flag.

Extended-mode patches (applied AFTER the default mask, in order):
  1. delete navigator.webdriver from prototype (not just the getter —
     detectors check `"webdriver" in navigator`)
  2. WebGL renderer spoof to Apple M1 Pro (SwiftShader was the #1
     software-GPU tell in containers)
  3. navigator.plugins returns a PluginArray-prototype-passing array
     with MimeType objects and namedItem()
  4. window.chrome populated with chrome.app, chrome.runtime,
     chrome.loadTimes(), chrome.csi() with realistic shapes
  5. navigator.mediaDevices backfilled when headless drops it
  6. CDP cdc_*-prefixed window globals cleared

Why opt-in: the default mode's contract is fingerprint CONSISTENCY,
which protects against detectors that flag spoofing mismatch. Extended
mode actively lies about the environment; sites that reflect on these
properties can break. Users who hit detection in default mode can flip
GSTACK_STEALTH=extended for SannySoft 100% pass-rate.

Twenty unit tests pin the env-flag semantics, all six patches' code
presence, and the applyStealth wiring order. Live SannySoft pass-rate
verification stays in the periodic-tier E2E suite.

Contributed by @garrytan via #1112 (rebased — original PR opened
before the codex-narrowed minimum landed; rebase preserves the
narrowed default while adding the SannySoft-passing path as opt-in).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* test(fixtures): regenerate ship-SKILL.md golden baselines after C10-C13 + C16 templates

Updates the three ship-SKILL.md golden baselines (claude, codex,
factory hosts) to match the new shape produced by:
- C10 #1209 codex argv (prompt + diff scope, no --base)
- C11 #1492 merge-base diff (DIFF_BASE= preamble)
- C13 #1197 command -v for codex detection
- C12 + boundary preservation per regen-enforcing test

Per CLAUDE.md SKILL.md workflow: edit the .tmpl, run gen:skill-docs,
commit the regenerated outputs together. Goldens are part of the
regen contract — without this commit, test/host-config.test.ts'
golden-baseline checks fail with the diff codex review surfaced.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* chore(release): v1.41.0.0 — Daegu wave (24 bisect commits, 14 user-facing fixes)

Bumps VERSION 1.40.0.0 → 1.41.0.0. CHANGELOG entry follows the
release-summary format in CLAUDE.md: two-line headline, lead
paragraph, "The numbers that matter" table, "What this means for
builders" closer, then itemized Added/Changed/Fixed/For contributors
with inline credit to every PR author and original issue reporter.

Scale-aware bump per CLAUDE.md: 24 commits, ~6000 LOC net,
substantial new capability across security (PTY sidecar wiring),
install (Windows build chain), compat (gbrain 0.18-0.35, Codex CLI
0.130+), and quality (screenshot guard, design key disclosure,
extended stealth opt-in). MINOR is the right call.

Closes for users: #1567, #1559, #1569, #1346, #1418, #1538, #1537,
#1530, #1457, #1561, #1554, #1479, #1503, #1248, #1214, #1370, #1327,
#1193 pattern, #1152 pattern. Credit retained inline.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(find-browse): resolve source-checkout layout <git-root>/browse/dist/browse[.exe]

windows-setup-e2e.yml runs `bun browse/src/find-browse.ts` against a
freshly-built repo where binaries land at browse/dist/browse.exe (no
.claude/skills/gstack/ install layout). The previous markers chain
only matched .codex/.agents/.claude prefixed paths, so find-browse
exited "not found" even when the binary was present.

Adds a source-checkout fallback after the marker scan: if no
installed layout resolves but <git-root>/browse/dist/browse[.exe]
exists, return that. Three real callers hit this path:
- gstack repo dev workflow before `./setup` runs
- windows-setup-e2e.yml CI (the breakage that surfaced this)
- make-pdf consumers running from a sibling source checkout

Smoke-verified: a fresh git repo with browse/dist/browse on disk now
resolves through the source-checkout branch (was returning null
before this commit).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* chore(release): bump v1.41.0.0 → v1.42.0.0 to clear queue collision with #1574

The version-gate workflow flagged a collision: PR #1574
(garrytan/colombo-v3) already claims v1.41.0.0, and #1592
(fix/audit-critical-high-bugs) claims v1.41.1.0. Per CLAUDE.md's
workspace-aware ship rule, queue-advancing past a claimed version
within the same bump level is permitted — MINOR work landing on top
of a queued MINOR still reads as MINOR relative to main.

Util's suggested next slot is v1.42.0.0; taking it. CHANGELOG entry
header bumped + dated 2026-05-19; entry body unchanged (same wave
content, same credit list).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-05-20 07:35:01 -07:00

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# gstack
> "I don't think I've typed like a line of code probably since December, basically, which is an extremely large change." — [Andrej Karpathy](https://fortune.com/2026/03/21/andrej-karpathy-openai-cofounder-ai-agents-coding-state-of-psychosis-openclaw/), No Priors podcast, March 2026
When I heard Karpathy say this, I wanted to find out how. How does one person ship like a team of twenty? Peter Steinberger built [OpenClaw](https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw) — 247K GitHub stars — essentially solo with AI agents. The revolution is here. A single builder with the right tooling can move faster than a traditional team.
I'm [Garry Tan](https://x.com/garrytan), President & CEO of [Y Combinator](https://www.ycombinator.com/). I've worked with thousands of startups — Coinbase, Instacart, Rippling — when they were one or two people in a garage. Before YC, I was one of the first eng/PM/designers at Palantir, cofounded Posterous (sold to Twitter), and built Bookface, YC's internal social network.
**gstack is my answer.** I've been building products for twenty years, and right now I'm shipping more products than I ever have. In the last 60 days: 3 production services, 40+ shipped features, part-time, while running YC full-time. On logical code change — not raw LOC, which AI inflates — my 2026 run rate is **~810× my 2013 pace** (11,417 vs 14 logical lines/day). Year-to-date (through April 18), 2026 has already produced **240× the entire 2013 year**. Measured across 40 public + private `garrytan/*` repos including Bookface, after excluding one demo repo. AI wrote most of it. The point isn't who typed it, it's what shipped.
> The LOC critics aren't wrong that raw line counts inflate with AI. They are wrong that normalized-for-inflation, I'm less productive. I'm more productive, by a lot. Full methodology, caveats, and reproduction script: **[On the LOC Controversy](docs/ON_THE_LOC_CONTROVERSY.md)**.
**2026 — 1,237 contributions and counting:**
![GitHub contributions 2026 — 1,237 contributions, massive acceleration in Jan-Mar](docs/images/github-2026.png)
**2013 — when I built Bookface at YC (772 contributions):**
![GitHub contributions 2013 — 772 contributions building Bookface at YC](docs/images/github-2013.png)
Same person. Different era. The difference is the tooling.
**gstack is how I do it.** It turns Claude Code into a virtual engineering team — a CEO who rethinks the product, an eng manager who locks architecture, a designer who catches AI slop, a reviewer who finds production bugs, a QA lead who opens a real browser, a security officer who runs OWASP + STRIDE audits, and a release engineer who ships the PR. Twenty-three specialists and eight power tools, all slash commands, all Markdown, all free, MIT license.
This is my open source software factory. I use it every day. I'm sharing it because these tools should be available to everyone.
Fork it. Improve it. Make it yours. And if you want to hate on free open source software — you're welcome to, but I'd rather you just try it first.
**Who this is for:**
- **Founders and CEOs** — especially technical ones who still want to ship
- **First-time Claude Code users** — structured roles instead of a blank prompt
- **Tech leads and staff engineers** — rigorous review, QA, and release automation on every PR
## Quick start
1. Install gstack (30 seconds — see below)
2. Run `/office-hours` — describe what you're building
3. Run `/plan-ceo-review` on any feature idea
4. Run `/review` on any branch with changes
5. Run `/qa` on your staging URL
6. Stop there. You'll know if this is for you.
## Install — 30 seconds
**Requirements:** [Claude Code](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code), [Git](https://git-scm.com/), [Bun](https://bun.sh/) v1.0+, [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/) (Windows only)
### Step 1: Install on your machine
Open Claude Code and paste this. Claude does the rest.
> Install gstack: run **`git clone --single-branch --depth 1 https://github.com/garrytan/gstack.git ~/.claude/skills/gstack && cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setup`** then add a "gstack" section to CLAUDE.md that says to use the /browse skill from gstack for all web browsing, never use mcp\_\_claude-in-chrome\_\_\* tools, and lists the available skills: /office-hours, /plan-ceo-review, /plan-eng-review, /plan-design-review, /design-consultation, /design-shotgun, /design-html, /review, /ship, /land-and-deploy, /canary, /benchmark, /browse, /connect-chrome, /qa, /qa-only, /design-review, /setup-browser-cookies, /setup-deploy, /setup-gbrain, /retro, /investigate, /document-release, /document-generate, /codex, /cso, /autoplan, /plan-devex-review, /devex-review, /careful, /freeze, /guard, /unfreeze, /gstack-upgrade, /learn. Then ask the user if they also want to add gstack to the current project so teammates get it.
### Step 2: Team mode — auto-update for shared repos (recommended)
From inside your repo, paste this. Switches you to team mode, bootstraps the repo so teammates get gstack automatically, and commits the change:
```bash
(cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setup --team) && ~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-team-init required && git add .claude/ CLAUDE.md && git commit -m "require gstack for AI-assisted work"
```
No vendored files in your repo, no version drift, no manual upgrades. Every Claude Code session starts with a fast auto-update check (throttled to once/hour, network-failure-safe, completely silent).
Swap `required` for `optional` if you'd rather nudge teammates than block them.
### OpenClaw
OpenClaw spawns Claude Code sessions via ACP, so every gstack skill just works
when Claude Code has gstack installed. Paste this to your OpenClaw agent:
> Install gstack: run `git clone --single-branch --depth 1 https://github.com/garrytan/gstack.git ~/.claude/skills/gstack && cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setup` to install gstack for Claude Code. Then add a "Coding Tasks" section to AGENTS.md that says: when spawning Claude Code sessions for coding work, tell the session to use gstack skills. Include these examples — security audit: "Load gstack. Run /cso", code review: "Load gstack. Run /review", QA test a URL: "Load gstack. Run /qa https://...", build a feature end-to-end: "Load gstack. Run /autoplan, implement the plan, then run /ship", plan before building: "Load gstack. Run /office-hours then /autoplan. Save the plan, don't implement."
**After setup, just talk to your OpenClaw agent naturally:**
| You say | What happens |
|---------|-------------|
| "Fix the typo in README" | Simple — Claude Code session, no gstack needed |
| "Run a security audit on this repo" | Spawns Claude Code with `Run /cso` |
| "Build me a notifications feature" | Spawns Claude Code with /autoplan → implement → /ship |
| "Help me plan the v2 API redesign" | Spawns Claude Code with /office-hours → /autoplan, saves plan |
See [docs/OPENCLAW.md](docs/OPENCLAW.md) for advanced dispatch routing and
the gstack-lite/gstack-full prompt templates.
### Native OpenClaw Skills (via ClawHub)
Four methodology skills that work directly in your OpenClaw agent, no Claude Code
session needed. Install from ClawHub:
```
clawhub install gstack-openclaw-office-hours gstack-openclaw-ceo-review gstack-openclaw-investigate gstack-openclaw-retro
```
| Skill | What it does |
|-------|-------------|
| `gstack-openclaw-office-hours` | Product interrogation with 6 forcing questions |
| `gstack-openclaw-ceo-review` | Strategic challenge with 4 scope modes |
| `gstack-openclaw-investigate` | Root cause debugging methodology |
| `gstack-openclaw-retro` | Weekly engineering retrospective |
These are conversational skills. Your OpenClaw agent runs them directly via chat.
### Other AI Agents
gstack works on 10 AI coding agents, not just Claude. Setup auto-detects which
agents you have installed:
```bash
git clone --single-branch --depth 1 https://github.com/garrytan/gstack.git ~/gstack
cd ~/gstack && ./setup
```
Or target a specific agent with `./setup --host <name>`:
| Agent | Flag | Skills install to |
|-------|------|-------------------|
| OpenAI Codex CLI | `--host codex` | `~/.codex/skills/gstack-*/` |
| OpenCode | `--host opencode` | `~/.config/opencode/skills/gstack-*/` |
| Cursor | `--host cursor` | `~/.cursor/skills/gstack-*/` |
| Factory Droid | `--host factory` | `~/.factory/skills/gstack-*/` |
| Slate | `--host slate` | `~/.slate/skills/gstack-*/` |
| Kiro | `--host kiro` | `~/.kiro/skills/gstack-*/` |
| Hermes | `--host hermes` | `~/.hermes/skills/gstack-*/` |
| GBrain (mod) | `--host gbrain` | `~/.gbrain/skills/gstack-*/` |
**Want to add support for another agent?** See [docs/ADDING_A_HOST.md](docs/ADDING_A_HOST.md).
It's one TypeScript config file, zero code changes.
## See it work
```
You: I want to build a daily briefing app for my calendar.
You: /office-hours
Claude: [asks about the pain — specific examples, not hypotheticals]
You: Multiple Google calendars, events with stale info, wrong locations.
Prep takes forever and the results aren't good enough...
Claude: I'm going to push back on the framing. You said "daily briefing
app." But what you actually described is a personal chief of
staff AI.
[extracts 5 capabilities you didn't realize you were describing]
[challenges 4 premises — you agree, disagree, or adjust]
[generates 3 implementation approaches with effort estimates]
RECOMMENDATION: Ship the narrowest wedge tomorrow, learn from
real usage. The full vision is a 3-month project — start with
the daily briefing that actually works.
[writes design doc → feeds into downstream skills automatically]
You: /plan-ceo-review
[reads the design doc, challenges scope, runs 10-section review]
You: /plan-eng-review
[ASCII diagrams for data flow, state machines, error paths]
[test matrix, failure modes, security concerns]
You: Approve plan. Exit plan mode.
[writes 2,400 lines across 11 files. ~8 minutes.]
You: /review
[AUTO-FIXED] 2 issues. [ASK] Race condition → you approve fix.
You: /qa https://staging.myapp.com
[opens real browser, clicks through flows, finds and fixes a bug]
You: /ship
Tests: 42 → 51 (+9 new). PR: github.com/you/app/pull/42
```
You said "daily briefing app." The agent said "you're building a chief of staff AI" — because it listened to your pain, not your feature request. Eight commands, end to end. That is not a copilot. That is a team.
## The sprint
gstack is a process, not a collection of tools. The skills run in the order a sprint runs:
**Think → Plan → Build → Review → Test → Ship → Reflect**
Each skill feeds into the next. `/office-hours` writes a design doc that `/plan-ceo-review` reads. `/plan-eng-review` writes a test plan that `/qa` picks up. `/review` catches bugs that `/ship` verifies are fixed. Nothing falls through the cracks because every step knows what came before it.
| Skill | Your specialist | What they do |
|-------|----------------|--------------|
| `/office-hours` | **YC Office Hours** | Start here. Six forcing questions that reframe your product before you write code. Pushes back on your framing, challenges premises, generates implementation alternatives. Design doc feeds into every downstream skill. |
| `/plan-ceo-review` | **CEO / Founder** | Rethink the problem. Find the 10-star product hiding inside the request. Four modes: Expansion, Selective Expansion, Hold Scope, Reduction. |
| `/plan-eng-review` | **Eng Manager** | Lock in architecture, data flow, diagrams, edge cases, and tests. Forces hidden assumptions into the open. |
| `/plan-design-review` | **Senior Designer** | Rates each design dimension 0-10, explains what a 10 looks like, then edits the plan to get there. AI Slop detection. Interactive — one AskUserQuestion per design choice. |
| `/plan-devex-review` | **Developer Experience Lead** | Interactive DX review: explores developer personas, benchmarks against competitors' TTHW, designs your magical moment, traces friction points step by step. Three modes: DX EXPANSION, DX POLISH, DX TRIAGE. 20-45 forcing questions. |
| `/design-consultation` | **Design Partner** | Build a complete design system from scratch. Researches the landscape, proposes creative risks, generates realistic product mockups. |
| `/review` | **Staff Engineer** | Find the bugs that pass CI but blow up in production. Auto-fixes the obvious ones. Flags completeness gaps. |
| `/investigate` | **Debugger** | Systematic root-cause debugging. Iron Law: no fixes without investigation. Traces data flow, tests hypotheses, stops after 3 failed fixes. |
| `/design-review` | **Designer Who Codes** | Same audit as /plan-design-review, then fixes what it finds. Atomic commits, before/after screenshots. |
| `/devex-review` | **DX Tester** | Live developer experience audit. Actually tests your onboarding: navigates docs, tries the getting started flow, times TTHW, screenshots errors. Compares against `/plan-devex-review` scores — the boomerang that shows if your plan matched reality. |
| `/design-shotgun` | **Design Explorer** | "Show me options." Generates 4-6 AI mockup variants, opens a comparison board in your browser, collects your feedback, and iterates. Taste memory learns what you like. Repeat until you love something, then hand it to `/design-html`. |
| `/design-html` | **Design Engineer** | Turn a mockup into production HTML that actually works. Pretext computed layout: text reflows, heights adjust, layouts are dynamic. 30KB, zero deps. Detects React/Svelte/Vue. Smart API routing per design type (landing page vs dashboard vs form). The output is shippable, not a demo. |
| `/qa` | **QA Lead** | Test your app, find bugs, fix them with atomic commits, re-verify. Auto-generates regression tests for every fix. |
| `/qa-only` | **QA Reporter** | Same methodology as /qa but report only. Pure bug report without code changes. |
| `/pair-agent` | **Multi-Agent Coordinator** | Share your browser with any AI agent. One command, one paste, connected. Works with OpenClaw, Hermes, Codex, Cursor, or anything that can curl. Each agent gets its own tab. Auto-launches headed mode so you watch everything. Auto-starts ngrok tunnel for remote agents. Scoped tokens, tab isolation, rate limiting, activity attribution. |
| `/cso` | **Chief Security Officer** | OWASP Top 10 + STRIDE threat model. Zero-noise: 17 false positive exclusions, 8/10+ confidence gate, independent finding verification. Each finding includes a concrete exploit scenario. |
| `/ship` | **Release Engineer** | Sync main, run tests, audit coverage, push, open PR. Bootstraps test frameworks if you don't have one. |
| `/land-and-deploy` | **Release Engineer** | Merge the PR, wait for CI and deploy, verify production health. One command from "approved" to "verified in production." |
| `/canary` | **SRE** | Post-deploy monitoring loop. Watches for console errors, performance regressions, and page failures. |
| `/benchmark` | **Performance Engineer** | Baseline page load times, Core Web Vitals, and resource sizes. Compare before/after on every PR. |
| `/document-release` | **Technical Writer** | Update all project docs to match what you just shipped. Catches stale READMEs automatically. Builds a Diataxis coverage map (reference / how-to / tutorial / explanation) so gaps are visible in the PR body. |
| `/document-generate` | **Documentation Author** | Generate missing docs from scratch using the Diataxis framework. Researches the codebase first, then writes reference / how-to / tutorial / explanation docs that actually match the code. Invokable standalone or chained from `/document-release` when the coverage map finds gaps. Learn more: [tutorial](docs/tutorial-document-generate.md) • [how-to](docs/howto-document-a-shipped-feature.md) • [why Diataxis](docs/explanation-diataxis-in-gstack.md). |
| `/retro` | **Eng Manager** | Team-aware weekly retro. Per-person breakdowns, shipping streaks, test health trends, growth opportunities. `/retro global` runs across all your projects and AI tools (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini). |
| `/browse` | **QA Engineer** | Give the agent eyes. Real Chromium browser, real clicks, real screenshots. ~100ms per command. `/open-gstack-browser` launches GStack Browser with sidebar, anti-bot stealth, and auto model routing. |
| `/setup-browser-cookies` | **Session Manager** | Import cookies from your real browser (Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge) into the headless session. Test authenticated pages. |
| `/autoplan` | **Review Pipeline** | One command, fully reviewed plan. Runs CEO → design → eng review automatically with encoded decision principles. Surfaces only taste decisions for your approval. |
| `/learn` | **Memory** | Manage what gstack learned across sessions. Review, search, prune, and export project-specific patterns, pitfalls, and preferences. Learnings compound across sessions so gstack gets smarter on your codebase over time. |
### Which review should I use?
| Building for... | Plan stage (before code) | Live audit (after shipping) |
|-----------------|--------------------------|----------------------------|
| **End users** (UI, web app, mobile) | `/plan-design-review` | `/design-review` |
| **Developers** (API, CLI, SDK, docs) | `/plan-devex-review` | `/devex-review` |
| **Architecture** (data flow, perf, tests) | `/plan-eng-review` | `/review` |
| **All of the above** | `/autoplan` (runs CEO → design → eng → DX, auto-detects which apply) | — |
### Power tools
| Skill | What it does |
|-------|-------------|
| `/codex` | **Second Opinion** — independent code review from OpenAI Codex CLI. Three modes: review (pass/fail gate), adversarial challenge, and open consultation. Cross-model analysis when both `/review` and `/codex` have run. |
| `/careful` | **Safety Guardrails** — warns before destructive commands (rm -rf, DROP TABLE, force-push). Say "be careful" to activate. Override any warning. |
| `/freeze` | **Edit Lock** — restrict file edits to one directory. Prevents accidental changes outside scope while debugging. |
| `/guard` | **Full Safety**`/careful` + `/freeze` in one command. Maximum safety for prod work. |
| `/unfreeze` | **Unlock** — remove the `/freeze` boundary. |
| `/open-gstack-browser` | **GStack Browser** — launch GStack Browser with sidebar, anti-bot stealth, auto model routing (Sonnet for actions, Opus for analysis), one-click cookie import, and Claude Code integration. Clean up pages, take smart screenshots, edit CSS, and pass info back to your terminal. |
| `/setup-deploy` | **Deploy Configurator** — one-time setup for `/land-and-deploy`. Detects your platform, production URL, and deploy commands. |
| `/setup-gbrain` | **GBrain Onboarding** — from zero to running gbrain in under 5 minutes. PGLite local, Supabase existing URL, or auto-provision a new Supabase project via Management API. MCP registration for Claude Code + per-repo trust triad (read-write/read-only/deny). [Full guide](USING_GBRAIN_WITH_GSTACK.md). |
| `/sync-gbrain` | **Keep Brain Current** — re-index this repo's code into gbrain via `gbrain sources add` + `gbrain sync --strategy code`, refresh the `## GBrain Search Guidance` block in CLAUDE.md, and auto-remove guidance when the capability check fails. `--incremental` (default), `--full`, `--dry-run`. Idempotent; safe to re-run. |
| `/gstack-upgrade` | **Self-Updater** — upgrade gstack to latest. Detects global vs vendored install, syncs both, shows what changed. |
### New binaries (v0.19)
Beyond the slash-command skills, gstack ships standalone CLIs for workflows that don't belong inside a session:
| Command | What it does |
|---------|-------------|
| `gstack-model-benchmark` | **Cross-model benchmark** — run the same prompt through Claude, GPT (via Codex CLI), and Gemini; compare latency, tokens, cost, and (optionally) LLM-judge quality score. Auth detected per provider, unavailable providers skip cleanly. Output as table, JSON, or markdown. `--dry-run` validates flags + auth without spending API calls. |
| `gstack-taste-update` | **Design taste learning** — writes approvals and rejections from `/design-shotgun` into a persistent per-project taste profile. Decays 5%/week. Feeds back into future variant generation so the system learns what you actually pick. |
### Continuous checkpoint mode (opt-in, local by default)
Set `gstack-config set checkpoint_mode continuous` and skills auto-commit your work as you go with a `WIP:` prefix plus a structured `[gstack-context]` body (decisions, remaining work, failed approaches). Survives crashes and context switches. `/context-restore` reads those commits to reconstruct session state. `/ship` filter-squashes WIP commits before the PR (preserving non-WIP commits) so bisect stays clean. Push is opt-in via `checkpoint_push=true` — default is local-only so you don't trigger CI on every WIP commit.
### Domain skills + raw CDP escape hatch
Two new browser primitives compound the gstack agent over time:
- **`$B domain-skill save`** — agent saves a per-site note (e.g., "LinkedIn's Apply button lives in an iframe") that fires automatically next time it visits that hostname. Quarantined → active after 3 successful uses → optional cross-project promotion via `$B domain-skill promote-to-global`. Storage lives alongside `/learn`'s per-project learnings file. Full reference: **[docs/domain-skills.md](docs/domain-skills.md)**.
- **`$B cdp <Domain.method>`** — raw Chrome DevTools Protocol escape hatch for the rare case curated commands miss. Deny-default: methods must be explicitly added to `browse/src/cdp-allowlist.ts` with a one-line justification. Two-tier mutex serializes browser-scoped CDP calls against per-tab work. Output for data-exfil methods is wrapped in the UNTRUSTED envelope.
> Want raw CDP with no rails, no allowlist, no daemon — just thin transport from agent to Chrome? [browser-use/browser-harness-js](https://github.com/browser-use/browser-harness-js) is a different philosophy (agent-authored helpers vs gstack's curated commands) and a good fit if you don't want gstack's security stack. The two can coexist: gstack's `$B cdp` and harness can both attach to the same Chrome via Playwright's `newCDPSession`.
**[Deep dives with examples and philosophy for every skill →](docs/skills.md)**
### Karpathy's four failure modes? Already covered.
Andrej Karpathy's [AI coding rules](https://github.com/forrestchang/andrej-karpathy-skills) (17K stars) nail four failure modes: wrong assumptions, overcomplexity, orthogonal edits, imperative over declarative. gstack's workflow skills enforce all four. `/office-hours` forces assumptions into the open before code is written. The Confusion Protocol stops Claude from guessing on architectural decisions. `/review` catches unnecessary complexity and drive-by edits. `/ship` transforms tasks into verifiable goals with test-first execution. If you already use Karpathy-style CLAUDE.md rules, gstack is the workflow enforcement layer that makes them stick across entire sprints, not just single prompts.
## Parallel sprints
gstack works well with one sprint. It gets interesting with ten running at once.
**Design is at the heart.** `/design-consultation` builds your design system from scratch, researches what's out there, proposes creative risks, and writes `DESIGN.md`. But the real magic is the shotgun-to-HTML pipeline.
**`/design-shotgun` is how you explore.** You describe what you want. It generates 4-6 AI mockup variants using GPT Image. Then it opens a comparison board in your browser with all variants side by side. You pick favorites, leave feedback ("more whitespace", "bolder headline", "lose the gradient"), and it generates a new round. Repeat until you love something. Taste memory kicks in after a few rounds so it starts biasing toward what you actually like. No more describing your vision in words and hoping the AI gets it. You see options, pick the good ones, and iterate visually.
**`/design-html` makes it real.** Take that approved mockup (from `/design-shotgun`, a CEO plan, a design review, or just a description) and turn it into production-quality HTML/CSS. Not the kind of AI HTML that looks fine at one viewport width and breaks everywhere else. This uses Pretext for computed text layout: text actually reflows on resize, heights adjust to content, layouts are dynamic. 30KB overhead, zero dependencies. It detects your framework (React, Svelte, Vue) and outputs the right format. Smart API routing picks different Pretext patterns depending on whether it's a landing page, dashboard, form, or card layout. The output is something you'd actually ship, not a demo.
**`/qa` was a massive unlock.** It let me go from 6 to 12 parallel workers. Claude Code saying *"I SEE THE ISSUE"* and then actually fixing it, generating a regression test, and verifying the fix — that changed how I work. The agent has eyes now.
**Smart review routing.** Just like at a well-run startup: CEO doesn't have to look at infra bug fixes, design review isn't needed for backend changes. gstack tracks what reviews are run, figures out what's appropriate, and just does the smart thing. The Review Readiness Dashboard tells you where you stand before you ship.
**Test everything.** `/ship` bootstraps test frameworks from scratch if your project doesn't have one. Every `/ship` run produces a coverage audit. Every `/qa` bug fix generates a regression test. 100% test coverage is the goal — tests make vibe coding safe instead of yolo coding.
**`/document-release` is the engineer you never had.** It reads every doc file in your project, cross-references the diff, and updates everything that drifted. README, ARCHITECTURE, CONTRIBUTING, CLAUDE.md, TODOS — all kept current automatically. And now `/ship` auto-invokes it — docs stay current without an extra command.
**Real browser mode.** `/open-gstack-browser` launches GStack Browser, an AI-controlled Chromium with anti-bot stealth, custom branding, and the sidebar extension baked in. Sites like Google and NYTimes work without captchas. The menu bar says "GStack Browser" instead of "Chrome for Testing." Your regular Chrome stays untouched. All existing browse commands work unchanged. `$B disconnect` returns to headless. The browser stays alive as long as the window is open... no idle timeout killing it while you're working.
**Sidebar agent — your AI browser assistant.** Type natural language in the Chrome side panel and a child Claude instance executes it. "Navigate to the settings page and screenshot it." "Fill out this form with test data." "Go through every item in this list and extract the prices." The sidebar auto-routes to the right model: Sonnet for fast actions (click, navigate, screenshot) and Opus for reading and analysis. Each task gets up to 5 minutes. The sidebar agent runs in an isolated session, so it won't interfere with your main Claude Code window. One-click cookie import right from the sidebar footer.
**Personal automation.** The sidebar agent isn't just for dev workflows. Example: "Browse my kid's school parent portal and add all the other parents' names, phone numbers, and photos to my Google Contacts." Two ways to get authenticated: (1) log in once in the headed browser, your session persists, or (2) click the "cookies" button in the sidebar footer to import cookies from your real Chrome. Once authenticated, Claude navigates the directory, extracts the data, and creates the contacts.
**Prompt injection defense.** Hostile web pages try to hijack your sidebar agent. gstack ships a layered defense: a 22MB ML classifier bundled with the browser scans every page and tool output locally, a Claude Haiku transcript check votes on the full conversation shape, a random canary token in the system prompt catches session exfil attempts across text, tool args, URLs, and file writes, and a verdict combiner requires two classifiers to agree before blocking (prevents single-model false positives on Stack Overflow-style instruction pages). A shield icon in the sidebar header shows status (green/amber/red). Opt in to a 721MB DeBERTa-v3 ensemble via `GSTACK_SECURITY_ENSEMBLE=deberta` for 2-of-3 agreement. Emergency kill switch: `GSTACK_SECURITY_OFF=1`. See [ARCHITECTURE.md](ARCHITECTURE.md#prompt-injection-defense-sidebar-agent) for the full stack.
**Browser handoff when the AI gets stuck.** Hit a CAPTCHA, auth wall, or MFA prompt? `$B handoff` opens a visible Chrome at the exact same page with all your cookies and tabs intact. Solve the problem, tell Claude you're done, `$B resume` picks up right where it left off. The agent even suggests it automatically after 3 consecutive failures.
**`/pair-agent` is cross-agent coordination.** You're in Claude Code. You also have OpenClaw running. Or Hermes. Or Codex. You want them both looking at the same website. Type `/pair-agent`, pick your agent, and a GStack Browser window opens so you can watch. The skill prints a block of instructions. Paste that block into the other agent's chat. It exchanges a one-time setup key for a session token, creates its own tab, and starts browsing. You see both agents working in the same browser, each in their own tab, neither able to interfere with the other. If ngrok is installed, the tunnel starts automatically so the other agent can be on a completely different machine. Same-machine agents get a zero-friction shortcut that writes credentials directly. This is the first time AI agents from different vendors can coordinate through a shared browser with real security: scoped tokens, tab isolation, rate limiting, domain restrictions, and activity attribution.
**Multi-AI second opinion.** `/codex` gets an independent review from OpenAI's Codex CLI — a completely different AI looking at the same diff. Three modes: code review with a pass/fail gate, adversarial challenge that actively tries to break your code, and open consultation with session continuity. When both `/review` (Claude) and `/codex` (OpenAI) have reviewed the same branch, you get a cross-model analysis showing which findings overlap and which are unique to each.
**Safety guardrails on demand.** Say "be careful" and `/careful` warns before any destructive command — rm -rf, DROP TABLE, force-push, git reset --hard. `/freeze` locks edits to one directory while debugging so Claude can't accidentally "fix" unrelated code. `/guard` activates both. `/investigate` auto-freezes to the module being investigated.
**Proactive skill suggestions.** gstack notices what stage you're in — brainstorming, reviewing, debugging, testing — and suggests the right skill. Don't like it? Say "stop suggesting" and it remembers across sessions.
## 10-15 parallel sprints
gstack is powerful with one sprint. It is transformative with ten running at once.
[Conductor](https://conductor.build) runs multiple Claude Code sessions in parallel — each in its own isolated workspace. One session running `/office-hours` on a new idea, another doing `/review` on a PR, a third implementing a feature, a fourth running `/qa` on staging, and six more on other branches. All at the same time. I regularly run 10-15 parallel sprints — that's the practical max right now.
The sprint structure is what makes parallelism work. Without a process, ten agents is ten sources of chaos. With a process — think, plan, build, review, test, ship — each agent knows exactly what to do and when to stop. You manage them the way a CEO manages a team: check in on the decisions that matter, let the rest run.
### Voice input (AquaVoice, Whisper, etc.)
gstack skills have voice-friendly trigger phrases. Say what you want naturally —
"run a security check", "test the website", "do an engineering review" — and the
right skill activates. You don't need to remember slash command names or acronyms.
## Uninstall
### Option 1: Run the uninstall script
If gstack is installed on your machine:
```bash
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-uninstall
```
This handles skills, symlinks, global state (`~/.gstack/`), project-local state, browse daemons, and temp files. Use `--keep-state` to preserve config and analytics. Use `--force` to skip confirmation.
### Option 2: Manual removal (no local repo)
If you don't have the repo cloned (e.g. you installed via a Claude Code paste and later deleted the clone):
```bash
# 1. Stop browse daemons
pkill -f "gstack.*browse" 2>/dev/null || true
# 2. Remove per-skill directories whose SKILL.md points into gstack/
find ~/.claude/skills -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d ! -name gstack 2>/dev/null |
while IFS= read -r dir; do
link="$dir/SKILL.md"
[ -L "$link" ] || continue
target=$(readlink "$link" 2>/dev/null) || continue
case "$target" in
gstack/*|*/gstack/*)
rm -f "$link"
rmdir "$dir" 2>/dev/null || true
;;
esac
done
# 3. Remove gstack
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/gstack
# 4. Remove global state
rm -rf ~/.gstack
# 5. Remove integrations (skip any you never installed)
rm -rf ~/.codex/skills/gstack* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/.factory/skills/gstack* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/.kiro/skills/gstack* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/.openclaw/skills/gstack* 2>/dev/null
# 6. Remove temp files
rm -f /tmp/gstack-* 2>/dev/null
# 7. Per-project cleanup (run from each project root)
rm -rf .gstack .gstack-worktrees .claude/skills/gstack 2>/dev/null
rm -rf .agents/skills/gstack* .factory/skills/gstack* 2>/dev/null
```
### Clean up CLAUDE.md
The uninstall script does not edit CLAUDE.md. In each project where gstack was added, remove the `## gstack` and `## Skill routing` sections.
### Playwright
`~/Library/Caches/ms-playwright/` (macOS) is left in place because other tools may share it. Remove it if nothing else needs it.
---
Free, MIT licensed, open source. No premium tier, no waitlist.
I open sourced how I build software. You can fork it and make it your own.
> **We're hiring.** Want to ship real products at AI-coding speed and help harden gstack?
> Come work at YC — [ycombinator.com/software](https://ycombinator.com/software)
> Extremely competitive salary and equity. San Francisco, Dogpatch District.
## GBrain — persistent knowledge for your coding agent
[GBrain](https://github.com/garrytan/gbrain) is a persistent knowledge base for AI agents — think of it as the memory your agent actually keeps between sessions. GStack gives you a one-command path from zero to "it's running, my agent can call it."
```bash
/setup-gbrain
```
Four paths, pick one:
- **Supabase, existing URL** — your cloud agent already provisioned a brain; paste the Session Pooler URL, now this laptop uses the same data.
- **Supabase, auto-provision** — paste a Supabase Personal Access Token; the skill creates a new project, polls to healthy, fetches the pooler URL, hands it to `gbrain init`. ~90 seconds end-to-end.
- **PGLite local** — zero accounts, zero network, ~30 seconds. Isolated brain on this Mac only. Great for try-first; migrate to Supabase later with `/setup-gbrain --switch`.
- **Remote gbrain MCP** — your brain runs on another machine (Tailscale, ngrok, internal LAN) or a teammate's server; paste an MCP URL and bearer token. Optionally pair with a local PGLite for symbol-aware code search in split-engine mode. Best for cross-machine memory without standing up a local DB.
After init, the skill offers to register gbrain as an MCP server for Claude Code (`claude mcp add gbrain -- gbrain serve`) so `gbrain search`, `gbrain put`, etc. show up as first-class typed tools — not bash shell-outs.
**Keeping the brain current.** Run `/sync-gbrain` from any repo to re-index its code into gbrain (incremental by default, `--full` for a full reindex, `--dry-run` to preview). The skill registers the cwd as a federated source via `gbrain sources add`, runs `gbrain sync --strategy code`, and writes a `## GBrain Search Guidance` block to your project's CLAUDE.md so the agent prefers `gbrain search`/`code-def`/`code-refs` over Grep. The block is removed automatically if the capability check fails — no stale guidance pointing at tools that aren't installed.
**Per-remote trust policy.** Each repo on your machine gets one of three tiers:
- `read-write` — agent can search the brain AND write new pages back from this repo
- `read-only` — agent can search but never writes (best for multi-client consultants: search the shared brain, don't contaminate it with Client A's work while in Client B's repo)
- `deny` — no gbrain interaction at all
The skill asks once per repo. The decision is sticky across worktrees and branches of the same remote.
**GStack memory sync (different feature, same private-repo infra).** Optionally pushes your gstack state (learnings, CEO plans, design docs, retros, developer profile) to a private git repo so your memory follows you across machines, with a one-time privacy prompt (everything allowlisted / artifacts only / off) and a defense-in-depth secret scanner that blocks AWS keys, tokens, PEM blocks, and JWTs before they leave your machine.
```bash
gstack-brain-init
```
**Running gstack in Conductor?** Conductor explicitly strips `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` and `OPENAI_API_KEY` from every workspace's process env, so paid evals and gbrain embeddings won't work out of the box. Set `GSTACK_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` and `GSTACK_OPENAI_API_KEY` in Conductor's workspace env config instead — gstack's TS entry points promote them to canonical names at runtime. Full details and the contributor checklist for adding the import to new entry points: [Conductor + GSTACK_* env vars](USING_GBRAIN_WITH_GSTACK.md#conductor--gstack_-env-vars).
**Full monty — every scenario, every flag, every bin helper, every troubleshooting step:** [USING_GBRAIN_WITH_GSTACK.md](USING_GBRAIN_WITH_GSTACK.md)
Other references: [docs/gbrain-sync.md](docs/gbrain-sync.md) (sync-specific guide) • [docs/gbrain-sync-errors.md](docs/gbrain-sync-errors.md) (error index)
## Docs
| Doc | What it covers |
|-----|---------------|
| [Skill Deep Dives](docs/skills.md) | Philosophy, examples, and workflow for every skill (includes Greptile integration) |
| [Builder Ethos](ETHOS.md) | Builder philosophy: Boil the Lake, Search Before Building, three layers of knowledge |
| [Using GBrain with GStack](USING_GBRAIN_WITH_GSTACK.md) | Every path, flag, bin helper, and troubleshooting step for `/setup-gbrain` |
| [GBrain Sync](docs/gbrain-sync.md) | Cross-machine memory setup, privacy modes, troubleshooting |
| [Architecture](ARCHITECTURE.md) | Design decisions and system internals |
| [Browser Reference](BROWSER.md) | Full command reference for `/browse` |
| [Contributing](CONTRIBUTING.md) | Dev setup, testing, contributor mode, and dev mode |
| [Changelog](CHANGELOG.md) | What's new in every version |
## Privacy & Telemetry
gstack includes **opt-in** usage telemetry to help improve the project. Here's exactly what happens:
- **Default is off.** Nothing is sent anywhere unless you explicitly say yes.
- **On first run,** gstack asks if you want to share anonymous usage data. You can say no.
- **What's sent (if you opt in):** skill name, duration, success/fail, gstack version, OS. That's it.
- **What's never sent:** code, file paths, repo names, branch names, prompts, or any user-generated content.
- **Change anytime:** `gstack-config set telemetry off` disables everything instantly.
Data is stored in [Supabase](https://supabase.com) (open source Firebase alternative). The schema is in [`supabase/migrations/`](supabase/migrations/) — you can verify exactly what's collected. The Supabase publishable key in the repo is a public key (like a Firebase API key) — row-level security policies deny all direct access. Telemetry flows through validated edge functions that enforce schema checks, event type allowlists, and field length limits.
**Local analytics are always available.** Run `gstack-analytics` to see your personal usage dashboard from the local JSONL file — no remote data needed.
## Troubleshooting
**Skill not showing up?** `cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setup`
**`/browse` fails?** `cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && bun install && bun run build`
**Stale install?** Run `/gstack-upgrade` — or set `auto_upgrade: true` in `~/.gstack/config.yaml`
**Want shorter commands?** `cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setup --no-prefix` — switches from `/gstack-qa` to `/qa`. Your choice is remembered for future upgrades.
**Want namespaced commands?** `cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setup --prefix` — switches from `/qa` to `/gstack-qa`. Useful if you run other skill packs alongside gstack.
**Codex says "Skipped loading skill(s) due to invalid SKILL.md"?** Your Codex skill descriptions are stale. Fix: `cd ~/.codex/skills/gstack && git pull && ./setup --host codex` — or for repo-local installs: `cd "$(readlink -f .agents/skills/gstack)" && git pull && ./setup --host codex`
**Windows users:** gstack works on Windows 11 via Git Bash or WSL. Node.js is required in addition to Bun — Bun has a known bug with Playwright's pipe transport on Windows ([bun#4253](https://github.com/oven-sh/bun/issues/4253)). The browse server automatically falls back to Node.js. Make sure both `bun` and `node` are on your PATH.
On Windows without Developer Mode (MSYS2 / Git Bash), `setup` falls back to file copies instead of symlinks because `ln -snf` produces frozen copies that don't refresh on `git pull`. **Re-run `cd ~/.claude/skills/gstack && ./setup` after every `git pull`** so your skill files match the repo. `setup` prints a one-line note reminding you. Unix and WSL keep symlinks and don't need the re-run.
**Claude says it can't see the skills?** Make sure your project's `CLAUDE.md` has a gstack section. Add this:
```
## gstack
Use /browse from gstack for all web browsing. Never use mcp__claude-in-chrome__* tools.
Available skills: /office-hours, /plan-ceo-review, /plan-eng-review, /plan-design-review,
/design-consultation, /design-shotgun, /design-html, /review, /ship, /land-and-deploy,
/canary, /benchmark, /browse, /open-gstack-browser, /qa, /qa-only, /design-review,
/setup-browser-cookies, /setup-deploy, /setup-gbrain, /sync-gbrain, /retro, /investigate,
/document-release, /document-generate, /codex, /cso, /autoplan, /pair-agent, /careful, /freeze,
/guard, /unfreeze, /gstack-upgrade, /learn.
```
## License
MIT. Free forever. Go build something.