Agentic-Tool-Optimization

Before any multi-step work with a stated goal — a feature, a bugfix spanning multiple files, a QA sweep, a doc draft + iterations, a multi-day investigation — create an ATO Mission instead of doing it via bare `ato dispatch` calls. A Mission persists the goal + the verifiable success criteria, lets the coordinator tick drive the work across days, captures every event in a structured audit trail (SQLite + markdown narrative), and integrates parallel agents' work via merge strategies. Complement to `ato-warroom` (the cross-family decision before you start) and `ato-review` (the post-code-diff review). Missions is where multi-step work LIVES; war-rooms are where decisions ABOUT it get made; reviews are where the resulting commits get vetted. Fires when: the work has more than one decision point, a verifiable end state, or runs across more than one session. Use it for any ATO development that doesn't fit in a single dispatch.

Before committing any non-trivial change, dispatch the diff to a reviewer runtime via ATO (`ato dispatch <reviewer> --session <id>`), parse the numbered/severity-tagged findings, apply or defer each one with a recorded justification, then commit. Fights the "build passes therefore ship it" failure mode — what Garry Tan calls the AI agent complexity ratchet. Place in the v2.16 stack: this skill is the LAST gate. `ato-warroom` decides the design; `ato-mission` runs the multi-step work and produces the diff; `ato-review` checks the diff before commit. When the review is part of a Mission, dispatch the review with `--require-tools read_file,grep,git_diff,git_log` so the reviewer can walk the source itself instead of reasoning from a paraphrase (PR-1.5 tool surface). Receipts land in `execution_logs` and the Mission narrative. Fires automatically before commits touching public surface (CLI subcommands, Tauri commands, MCP tools, schema migrations, security boundaries) or whenever a diff exceeds ~50 LOC of behavi

Before any material decision — code chunk, plan, strategy, design, scope cut, push to GitHub — convene a war-room. The session driver takes the CEO seat: frame the tradeoff, summon specialist seats from whatever agent roster the user has built, dispatch a cross-family voice via `ato dispatch` so priors actually disagree, decide. A failure-mode filter (wrong assumptions / overcomplexity / orthogonal edits / imperative-over-declarative — Karpathy's four are one good default, swap in your own) runs on every dispatch. Place in the v2.16 stack: war-rooms DECIDE before code starts; `ato-mission` EXECUTES the work between decisions (multi-step, goal-driven, persisted across days); `ato-review` VERIFIES the resulting commits. Use a war-room for the design verdict, hand the verdict to a Mission, review the merged result. Fires before: sending a code draft to the user as final, opening a PR, pushing to a remote-tracking branch, committing >50 LOC of behavior change, or delivering a plan or strategic recommendation as

Turn any installed skill (gstack, custom, third-party) into an ATO agent the user can summon into war-rooms. Reads a SKILL.md, extracts the persona, strips runtime boilerplate, and writes an agent file at `.claude/agents/<slug>.md` (project-scoped) or `~/.claude/agents/<slug>.md` (global). Prompts for a model roster (primary + 1-2 alts) so cross-family dispatch in war-rooms produces real disagreement. Companion to `ato-warroom` — that skill summons agents this skill creates. Use when asked "turn this skill into an agent", "register X as a war-room agent", or when scoping a new persona before a war-room runs.

Fast headless browser for QA testing and site dogfooding. Navigate any URL, interact with elements, verify page state, diff before/after actions, take annotated screenshots, check responsive layouts, test forms and uploads, handle dialogs, and assert element states. ~100ms per command. Use when you need to test a feature, verify a deployment, dogfood a user flow, or file a bug with evidence. Use when asked to "open in browser", "test the site", "take a screenshot", or "dogfood this".

Systematic debugging with root cause investigation. Four phases: investigate, analyze, hypothesize, implement. Iron Law: no fixes without root cause.

Design consultation: understands your product, researches the landscape, proposes a complete design system (aesthetic, typography, color, layout, spacing, motion), and generates font+color preview pages. Creates DESIGN.md as your project's design source of truth. For existing sites, use /plan-design-review to infer the system instead. Use when asked to "design system", "brand guidelines", or "create DESIGN.md".

Designer's eye QA: finds visual inconsistency, spacing issues, hierarchy problems, AI slop patterns, and slow interactions — then fixes them. Iteratively fixes issues in source code, committing each fix atomically and re-verifying with before/after screenshots. For plan-mode design review (before implementation), use /plan-design-review. Use when asked to "audit the design", "visual QA", "check if it looks good", or "design polish".

Post-ship documentation update. Reads all project docs, cross-references the diff, updates README/ARCHITECTURE/CONTRIBUTING/CLAUDE.md to match what shipped, polishes CHANGELOG voice, cleans up TODOS, and optionally bumps VERSION. Use when asked to "update the docs", "sync documentation", or "post-ship docs".

Upgrade gstack to the latest version. Detects global vs vendored install, runs the upgrade, and shows what's new. Use when asked to "upgrade gstack", "update gstack", or "get latest version".

YC Office Hours — two modes. Startup mode: six forcing questions that expose demand reality, status quo, desperate specificity, narrowest wedge, observation, and future-fit. Builder mode: design thinking brainstorming for side projects, hackathons, learning, and open source. Saves a design doc. Use before /plan-ceo-review or /plan-eng-review.

CEO/founder-mode plan review. Rethink the problem, find the 10-star product, challenge premises, expand scope when it creates a better product. Four modes: SCOPE EXPANSION (dream big), SELECTIVE EXPANSION (hold scope + cherry-pick expansions), HOLD SCOPE (maximum rigor), SCOPE REDUCTION (strip to essentials). Use when asked to "think bigger", "expand scope", "strategy review", "rethink this", or "is this ambitious enough".

Designer's eye plan review — interactive, like CEO and Eng review. Rates each design dimension 0-10, explains what would make it a 10, then fixes the plan to get there. Works in plan mode. For live site visual audits, use /design-review. Use when asked to "review the design plan" or "design critique".

Eng manager-mode plan review. Lock in the execution plan — architecture, data flow, diagrams, edge cases, test coverage, performance. Walks through issues interactively with opinionated recommendations. Use when asked to "review the architecture", "engineering review", or "lock in the plan".

Report-only QA testing. Systematically tests a web application and produces a structured report with health score, screenshots, and repro steps — but never fixes anything. Use when asked to "just report bugs", "qa report only", or "test but don't fix". For the full test-fix-verify loop, use /qa instead.

Systematically QA test a web application and fix bugs found. Runs QA testing, then iteratively fixes bugs in source code, committing each fix atomically and re-verifying. Use when asked to "qa", "QA", "test this site", "find bugs", "test and fix", or "fix what's broken". Three tiers: Quick (critical/high only), Standard (+ medium), Exhaustive (+ cosmetic). Produces before/after health scores, fix evidence, and a ship-readiness summary. For report-only mode, use /qa-only.

Weekly engineering retrospective. Analyzes commit history, work patterns, and code quality metrics with persistent history and trend tracking. Team-aware: breaks down per-person contributions with praise and growth areas. Use when asked to "weekly retro", "what did we ship", or "engineering retrospective".

Pre-landing PR review. Analyzes diff against the base branch for SQL safety, LLM trust boundary violations, conditional side effects, and other structural issues. Use when asked to "review this PR", "code review", "pre-landing review", or "check my diff".

Import cookies from your real browser (Comet, Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge) into the headless browse session. Opens an interactive picker UI where you select which cookie domains to import. Use before QA testing authenticated pages. Use when asked to "import cookies", "login to the site", or "authenticate the browser".

Ship workflow: detect + merge base branch, run tests, review diff, bump VERSION, update CHANGELOG, commit, push, create PR. Use when asked to "ship", "deploy", "push to main", "create a PR", or "merge and push".