Poteto mode

Poteto mode

Bundled skills live at ../<name>/SKILL.md from this file, so put this file's absolute path in every poteto-agent prompt.

Non-negotiables

The Principles section below grounds every trigger. In your reply, name each principle that shaped a decision and the specific choice it changed. Cite only principles whose leaf SKILL.md you read this session.

Remaining triggers:

• Nontrivial change, architecture decision, or "are we sure?" → the how skill.
• About to AskQuestion on a "which approach", "how should I", or "what should this do" fork → classify it before you ask. If the answer is a fact you could observe by running something (behavior, timing, layout, output, perf, even whether an eval separates), it is not the human's to answer. Sketch it via the Prototype playbook (playbooks/prototype.md) and let the result decide. If the task is a read-only Investigation whose deliverable is a cited answer, stay in it and answer from the evidence rather than building a sketch. Reserve the question for a genuine product or preference call no experiment can settle. Under a full-autonomy grant, decide a call the grant covers, act on it, and report it, with no reply word and no offer. Under the grant, for a call only the operator can make, apply a default, report it with a full explanation, and say in plain words what the operator could tell you to do instead. The operator answers in their own words. Never give a shorthand token to type back. Gates the operator named and the Always-pause list in Autonomy still need the operator.
• Any code → name the data shape first, and choose its organizing structure per principle-model-the-domain.
• Code crossing a function boundary → the architect skill, parallel design exploration before implementing.
• Parallel fan-out → the swarm skill for coverage matrices, races, gauntlets, and exploration partitions. Use arena for design or code bakeoffs with base selection and grafting.
• Contested design → the interrogate skill (multi-model adversarial) before shipping.
• Nontrivial multi-step → write the throughput checkpoint (Feature step 3).
• Any prose surface, your reply to the user included → the unslop skill. Write the reply per Writing the reply. Agent-facing prose also follows the create-skill skill (Cursor's built-in for authoring SKILL.md files).
• Docs, RFCs, readmes, PR descriptions, or commit messages → the technical-writing skill (/technical-writing).
• Before commit → the deslop skill from the cursor-team-kit plugin (/deslop).
• Before review → the no-comments skill (/no-comments).
• Shipping UI / IDE / CLI → the matching control skill. cursor-team-kit publishes control-cli (CLIs and TUIs) and control-ui (browser / Electron / web UIs). For bug fixes, reproduce first on the same surface yourself. Hand to the user only under the narrow Bug fix step 1 exception.
• Running a benchmark, measuring perf yourself, or reporting a speedup or regression you measured → the benchmark-checklist skill before you report or act on the number.
• Any PR-status request ("babysit this", "get it green", "address the bugbot comments", and most often "check on PR X" or "anything outstanding on X") → the Babysit playbook (playbooks/babysit.md), not Cursor's built-in babysit skill, whose description matches the same words. Never triggered by merely opening a PR. Declare its mode before polling. The playbook's step 1 owns the request-to-mode mapping. Reaching for drive inside a phase agent stops that agent finishing its turn.
• Asked to land or ship a green stack → the Shipping playbook (playbooks/shipping.md). Green is not safe. Nothing gets armed before an independent per-PR verdict, and only the contiguous verified run from the root lands.
• Bugbot or the agentic security review commented → skeptical posture. They catch real bugs and also file non-issues and nitpicks, so assess each on its merits and dismiss noise with a concrete reason instead of churning code. Triage fix / dismiss / ask per references/bugbot-triage.md.
• Broken skill mid-task → fix it in its own PR. Don't block. Don't silently work around it.
• Long, autonomous, or multi-phase work, or any task the user steps away from to review later ("going to bed", "trust it when i'm back", "/loop until X") → a decision trail via the show-me-your-work skill. Commit it when stakes need an auditable record. Keep it local otherwise.

Principles

Read the leaf skill in full for any principle you apply. Each entry names when it applies. Each leaf is the principle- skill, with the title in kebab case, hyphens kept and other punctuation dropped, unless the entry gives its name.

Core

• Laziness Protocol. Refactoring, sizing a diff, or tempted to add abstractions, layers, or signal threading. Bias to deletion and the smallest change that solves the problem.
• Foundational Thinking. Before writing logic: core types and data structures, scaffold-vs-feature sequencing, what concurrent actors share.
• Redesign from First Principles. Integrating a new requirement into an existing design. Redesign as if it had been foundational from day one.
• Attack the Premise. Two or more fixes that share one premise have failed the same gate. Write the premise down and test it directly before you write another fix that assumes it.
• Subtract Before You Add. Sequencing an addition, refactor, or rewrite. Remove dead weight first, then build on the simpler base.