/poteto-help

name: poteto-help
description: Guides users through pstack setup, /poteto-mode, and picking the skill, playbook, or principle for a task. Type /poteto-help with a question.
disable-model-invocation: true

Poteto help

Answer the user's question about pstack, hand them a prompt they can send, and link the file the answer came from. For a help question, don't start the work. The user asked how, and a pstack run spends real tokens, so let them send the prompt.

A message that asks for work, such as "use pstack to fix this bug", is not a help question. Read [`poteto-mode`](../poteto-mode/SKILL.md), do the work under it, and mention once that a Custom Mode keeps it on.

This file maps questions to the skills and guide pages that hold the answers. Those files own the details. Read the file you route to before you quote it, and trust it when it disagrees with this map. The links here point into the installed plugin, which the user may not be able to open, so give the user the file's public copy: `https://github.com/cursor/plugins/blob/main/pstack/` followed by its path.

Find out what they need

Infer the need from the message and the conversation. A named situation, such as "which skill reviews a PR?", goes straight to its section. If the need is still unclear, ask one multiple-choice question with these options, then answer only the section they pick:

• Get set up
• Start a task with `/poteto-mode`
• Pick a skill for a situation
• Fix a run that went wrong
• Make pstack my own

Check the state that changes the answer, and mention it only when it does:

• No `~/.cursor/rules/pstack-models.mdc` means `/setup-pstack` hasn't run for this user, so every role uses its default model.
• No `verify-*` skill or other app harness in the project means agents have no scripted way to drive the app. Mention `/create-verification-skill` when the question is about proving a change works.

When the model rule is missing and it matters, ask whether the user wants to pick a model for each role and a reasoning budget now. It matters when the user is new, the question is about setup or cost, or the answer depends on which models run. Ask at most once per chat. If the need is also unclear, ask both questions together. Offer two choices:

• Now: give them `/setup-pstack` to type, and answer their question too.
• Later: answer their question, and add one line saying every role keeps its default model until they run `/setup-pstack`.

Get set up

1. Install with `/add-plugin pstack` in chat, or from Customize in the sidebar. 2. Run [`/setup-pstack`](../setup-pstack/SKILL.md). It asks for a reasoning budget, maps a model to each role, and writes a rule. The rule applies to new chats. 3. Start a real task with `/poteto-mode`, a goal, and a check that can pass or fail.

Installing changes nothing until the user invokes a skill. Only `/setup-pstack` loads from the user's words. The [README](../../README.md) and [guide page 1](../../docs/guide/01-setup.md) have the details. Offer to word their first prompt with them, per [`references/prompting.md`](references/prompting.md).

If cost is the worry, say where the tokens go and how to spend fewer. pstack spends extra tokens on subagents and review panels. Rerun `/setup-pstack` and pick a smaller budget or cheaper models. A role set to `auto` or `inherit-parent` runs on the chat's model, which saves tokens when the chat runs on Auto or a cheaper model. A shorter panel list runs fewer subagents, one for each entry. Save `/poteto-mode` for work that needs rigor.

pstack is built for Cursor. Its skills use the Agent Skills format, so other tools can read them. But most workflow skills, including `/poteto-mode`, `/how`, `/why`, and `/teach`, spawn Cursor subagents with per-role models, and Custom Modes and `/loop` are Cursor features, so those parts may not work there.

Start a task with `/poteto-mode`

`/poteto-mode` matches the task to a playbook, copies the playbook's steps into the todo list, and runs the other skills as the steps need them. A step it skips stays in the list as `skip: <reason>`. A good prompt states the goal and how to tell it's done. It doesn't list skills, because a hand-written sequence tends to drop or reorder steps the playbook would keep. Read [`references/prompting.md`](references/prompting.md) before you help word one. [Guide page 2](../../docs/guide/02-poteto-mode.md) has examples.

Whether `/poteto-mode` stays on depends on how the user starts it:

• Enter on `/poteto-mode` attaches the skill to one message. It fades as the chat moves on.
• Option+Enter on Mac or Alt+Enter on Windows, or Use as Mode from the skill entry, makes it a Custom Mode. It stays in context every turn until the user exits the mode, and it stays out of casual turns.
• Cursor's docs list Custom Modes in the Agents Window and the CLI. Elsewhere, start each new task with `/poteto-mode`.

Link [Cursor's skills docs](https://cursor.com/docs/skills) when this comes up. Mid-chat, "new task" makes the mode match a fresh playbook. `/poteto-mode` already uses `poteto-agent` for the subagents its playbook steps spawn. To get the same style from a subagent of your own, spawn it with `subagent_type: "poteto-agent"`.

Pick a skill

The default answer is `/poteto-mode`, which runs most of the others when its steps need them. Name a skill directly when the user wants more or less of something than the playbook gives. Read the skill before you recommend it, and give one example prompt.

| The user wants to | Skill | |---|---| | Do any non-trivial task with rigor | [`/poteto-mode`](../poteto-mode/SKILL.md) | | Know how code works now, or where new code should live | [`/how`](../how/SKILL.md) | | Know why code is shaped this way, or where a number came from | [`/why`](../why/SKILL.md) | | Understand a change or subsystem, explained plainly | [`/teach`](../teach/SKILL.md) | | Catch up on their own recent work on a topic | [`/recall`](../recall/SKILL.md) | | Know what a small d