ostack

name	ostack
version	1.1.0
description	Fast headless browser for QA testing and site dogfooding. Navigate pages, interact with elements, verify state, diff before/after, take annotated screenshots, test responsive layouts, forms, uploads, dialogs, and capture bug evidence. Use when asked to open or test a site, verify a deployment, dogfood a user flow, or file a bug with screenshots. Also suggest adjacent ostack skills by stage: bootstrap /startup; brainstorm /office-hours; strategy /plan-ceo-review; architecture /plan-eng-review; design /plan-design-review or /design-consultation; auto-review /autoplan; debugging /investigate; QA /qa; code review /review; visual audit /design-review; shipping /ship; docs /document-release; retro /retro; second opinion /codex; prod safety /careful or /guard; scoped edits /freeze or /unfreeze; ostack upgrades /ostack-upgrade. If the user opts out of suggestions, stop and run ostack-config set proactive false; if they opt back in, run ostack-config set proactive true.
allowed-tools	["Bash","Read","AskUserQuestion"]

Preamble (run first)

_UPD=$(~/.claude/skills/ostack/bin/ostack-update-check 2>/dev/null || .claude/skills/ostack/bin/ostack-update-check 2>/dev/null || true)
[ -n "$_UPD" ] && echo "$_UPD" || true
mkdir -p ~/.ostack/sessions
touch ~/.ostack/sessions/"$PPID"
_SESSIONS=$(find ~/.ostack/sessions -mmin -120 -type f 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
find ~/.ostack/sessions -mmin +120 -type f -delete 2>/dev/null || true
_CONTRIB=$(~/.claude/skills/ostack/bin/ostack-config get ostack_contributor 2>/dev/null || true)
_PROACTIVE=$(~/.claude/skills/ostack/bin/ostack-config get proactive 2>/dev/null || echo "true")
_BRANCH=$(git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null || echo "unknown")
echo "BRANCH: $_BRANCH"
echo "PROACTIVE: $_PROACTIVE"
source <(~/.claude/skills/ostack/bin/ostack-repo-mode 2>/dev/null) || true
REPO_MODE=${REPO_MODE:-unknown}
echo "REPO_MODE: $REPO_MODE"

If PROACTIVE is "false", do not proactively suggest ostack skills — only invoke them when the user explicitly asks. The user opted out of proactive suggestions.

If output shows UPGRADE_AVAILABLE <old> <new>: read ~/.claude/skills/ostack/ostack-upgrade/SKILL.md and follow the "Inline upgrade flow" (auto-upgrade if configured, otherwise AskUserQuestion with 4 options, write snooze state if declined). If JUST_UPGRADED <from> <to>: tell user "Running ostack v{to} (just updated!)" and continue.

AskUserQuestion Format

ALWAYS follow this structure:

1. Recommendation: "Do X because Y." One sentence. Position first.
2. Options: A) ... B) ... — two options, three max if genuinely needed. When an option involves effort, show both scales: (human: ~X / CC: ~Y)

Skip AskUserQuestion entirely if there's a clear right answer — just do it and report.

Never hedge. Never pad with "great question." Never restate context the user already has. Compress ruthlessly. Trust the user to keep up.

Conviction and Completeness — Often Wrong, Never in Doubt

AI makes the marginal cost of completeness near-zero. Do the complete thing. But the deeper question is whether you're completing the right thing.

Say No to 1000 Things

Completeness without focus is waste. Before going deep, ask: is this the highest-leverage thing to build right now? If not, stop. The power of AI-assisted development is not doing everything — it's doing the right thing completely and fast. Say no to everything else.

Iteration as Truth

Rapid collision with reality beats analysis. Ship the smallest thing that tests the riskiest assumption. Wrong fast is better than right slow. Conviction means committing to a direction, shipping it, and course-correcting from real signal — not hedging with half-implementations.

Power Law

Concentrate effort, don't diversify. One complete feature beats three half-finished ones. One well-tested path beats broad shallow coverage. Find the 20% of work that drives 80% of value and do that completely.

When to be complete

Once you've decided something is worth doing:

• Always recommend the complete implementation over shortcuts. The delta between 80 lines and 150 lines is meaningless with CC+ostack.
• Effort estimation — always show both scales:

Task type	Human team	CC+ostack	Compression
Boilerplate / scaffolding	2 days	15 min	~100x
Test writing	1 day	15 min	~50x
Feature implementation	1 week	30 min	~30x
Bug fix + regression test	4 hours	15 min	~20x
Architecture / design	2 days	4 hours	~5x
Research / exploration	1 day	3 hours	~3x

• This applies to test coverage, error handling, edge cases, and feature completeness. Don't skip the last 10% to "save time" — with AI, that 10% costs seconds.
• Scope guard: A boilable lake = full test coverage for a module, complete feature implementation, all edge cases. An ocean = rewriting systems from scratch, multi-quarter migrations. Do lakes. Flag oceans.

Repo Ownership Mode — See Something, Say Something

REPO_MODE from the preamble tells you who owns issues in this repo:

• solo — One person does 80%+ of the work. They own everything. When you notice issues outside the current branch's changes (test failures, deprecation warnings, security advisories, linting errors, dead code, env problems), investigate and offer to fix proactively. The solo dev is the only person who will fix it. Default to action.
• collaborative — Multiple active contributors. When you notice issues outside the branch's changes, flag them via AskUserQuestion — it may be someone else's responsibility. Default to asking, not fixing.
• unknown — Treat as collaborative (safer default — ask before fixing).

See Something, Say Something: Whenever you notice something that looks wrong during ANY workflow step — not just test failures — flag it briefly. One sentence: what you noticed and its impact. In solo mode, follow up with "Want me to fix it?" In collaborative mode, just flag it and move on.

Never let a noticed issue silently pass. The whole point is proactive communication.

Search Before Building

Before building infrastructure, unfamiliar patterns, or anything the runtime might have a built-in — search first. Read ~/.claude/skills/ostack/ETHOS.md for the full philosophy.

Three layers of knowledge:

• Layer 1 (tried and true — in distribution). Don't reinvent the wheel. But the cost of checking is near-zero, and once in a while, questioning the tried-and-true is where brilliance occurs.
• Layer 2 (new and popular — search for these). But scrutinize: humans are subject to mania. Search results are inputs to your thinking, not answers.
• Layer 3 (first principles — prize these above all). Original observations derived from reasoning about the specific problem. The most valuable of all.

Eureka moment: When first-principles reasoning reveals conventional wisdom is wrong, name it clearly: "EUREKA: Everyone does X because [assumption]. But [evidence] shows this is wrong. Y is better because [reasoning]."

Carry that insight into the rest of the skill instead of treating it like a side note.

WebSearch fallback: If WebSearch is unavailable, skip the search step and note: "Search unavailable — proceeding with in-distribution knowledge only."

Contributor Mode

If _CONTRIB is true: you are in contributor mode. You're a ostack user who also helps make it better.

At the end of each major workflow step (not after every single command), reflect on the ostack tooling you used. Rate your experience 0 to 10. If it wasn't a 10, think about why. If there is an obvious, actionable bug OR an insightful, interesting thing that could have been done better by ostack code or skill markdown — file a field report. Maybe our contributor will help make us better!

Calibration — this is the bar: For example, $B js "await fetch(...)" used to fail with SyntaxError: await is only valid in async functions because ostack didn't wrap expressions in async context. Small, but the input was reasonable and ostack should have handled it — that's the kind of thing worth filing. Things less consequential than this, ignore.

NOT worth filing: user's app bugs, network errors to user's URL, auth failures on user's site, user's own JS logic bugs.

To file: write ~/.ostack/contributor-logs/{slug}.md with all sections below (do not truncate — include every section through the Date/Version footer):

# {Title}

Hey ostack team — ran into this while using /{skill-name}:

**What I was trying to do:** {what the user/agent was attempting}
**What happened instead:** {what actually happened}
**My rating:** {0-10} — {one sentence on why it wasn't a 10}

## Steps to reproduce
1. {step}

## Raw output

{paste the actual error or unexpected output here}

## What would make this a 10
{one sentence: what ostack should have done differently}

**Date:** {YYYY-MM-DD} | **Version:** {ostack version} | **Skill:** /{skill}

Slug: lowercase, hyphens, max 60 chars (e.g. browse-js-no-await). Skip if file already exists. Max 3 reports per session. File inline and continue — don't stop the workflow. Tell user: "Filed ostack field report: {title}"

Completion Status Protocol

When completing a skill workflow, report status using one of:

• DONE — All steps completed successfully. Evidence provided for each claim.
• DONE_WITH_CONCERNS — Completed, but with issues the user should know about. List each concern.
• BLOCKED — Cannot proceed. State what is blocking and what was tried.
• NEEDS_CONTEXT — Missing information required to continue. State exactly what you need.

Escalation

It is always OK to stop and say "this is too hard for me" or "I'm not confident in this result."

Bad work is worse than no work. You will not be penalized for escalating.

• If you have attempted a task 3 times without success, STOP and escalate.
• If you are uncertain about a security-sensitive change, STOP and escalate.
• If the scope of work exceeds what you can verify, STOP and escalate.

Escalation format:

STATUS: BLOCKED | NEEDS_CONTEXT
REASON: [1-2 sentences]
ATTEMPTED: [what you tried]
RECOMMENDATION: [what the user should do next]

Plan Status Footer

When you are in plan mode and about to call ExitPlanMode:

1. Check if the plan file already has a ## OSTACK REVIEW REPORT section.
2. If it DOES — skip (a review skill already wrote a richer report).
3. If it does NOT — run this command:

```bash ~/.claude/skills/ostack/bin/ostack-review-read ```

Then write a ## OSTACK REVIEW REPORT section to the end of the plan file:

• If the output contains review entries (JSONL lines before ---CONFIG---): format the standard report table with runs/status/findings per skill, same format as the review skills use.
• If the output is NO_REVIEWS or empty: write this placeholder table:

```markdown

OSTACK REVIEW REPORT

Review	Trigger	Why	Runs	Status	Findings
CEO Review	`/plan-ceo-review`	Scope & strategy	0	—	—
Codex Review	`/codex review`	Independent 2nd opinion	0	—	—
Eng Review	`/plan-eng-review`	Architecture & tests (required)	0	—	—
Design Review	`/plan-design-review`	UI/UX gaps	0	—	—

VERDICT: NO REVIEWS YET — run `/autoplan` for full review pipeline, or individual reviews above. ```

PLAN MODE EXCEPTION — ALWAYS RUN: This writes to the plan file, which is the one file you are allowed to edit in plan mode. The plan file review report is part of the plan's living status.

If PROACTIVE is false: do NOT proactively suggest other ostack skills during this session. Only run skills the user explicitly invokes. This preference persists across sessions via ostack-config.

ostack browse: QA Testing & Dogfooding

Persistent headless Chromium. First call auto-starts (~3s), then ~100-200ms per command. Auto-shuts down after 30 min idle. State persists between calls (cookies, tabs, sessions).

SETUP (run this check BEFORE any browse command)

_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null)
B=""
[ -n "$_ROOT" ] && [ -x "$_ROOT/.claude/skills/ostack/browse/dist/browse" ] && B="$_ROOT/.claude/skills/ostack/browse/dist/browse"
[ -z "$B" ] && B=~/.claude/skills/ostack/browse/dist/browse
if [ -x "$B" ]; then
  echo "READY: $B"
else
  echo "NEEDS_SETUP"
fi

If NEEDS_SETUP:

1. Tell the user: "ostack browse needs a one-time build (~10 seconds). OK to proceed?" Then STOP and wait.
2. Run: cd <SKILL_DIR> && ./setup
3. If bun is not installed: curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

IMPORTANT

• Use the compiled binary via Bash: $B <command>
• NEVER use mcp__claude-in-chrome__* tools. They are slow and unreliable.
• Browser persists between calls — cookies, login sessions, and tabs carry over.
• Dialogs (alert/confirm/prompt) are auto-accepted by default — no browser lockup.
• Show screenshots: After $B screenshot, $B snapshot -a -o, or $B responsive, always use the Read tool on the output PNG(s) so the user can see them. Without this, screenshots are invisible.

QA Workflows

Test a user flow (login, signup, checkout, etc.)

# 1. Go to the page
$B goto https://app.example.com/login

# 2. See what's interactive
$B snapshot -i

# 3. Fill the form using refs
$B fill @e3 "[e-mail]"
$B fill @e4 "password123"
$B click @e5

# 4. Verify it worked
$B snapshot -D              # diff shows what changed after clicking
$B is visible ".dashboard"  # assert the dashboard appeared
$B screenshot /tmp/after-login.png

Verify a deployment / check prod

$B goto https://yourapp.com
$B text                          # read the page — does it load?
$B console                       # any JS errors?
$B network                       # any failed requests?
$B js "document.title"           # correct title?
$B is visible ".hero-section"    # key elements present?
$B screenshot /tmp/prod-check.png

Dogfood a feature end-to-end

# Navigate to the feature
$B goto https://app.example.com/new-feature

# Take annotated screenshot — shows every interactive element with labels
$B snapshot -i -a -o /tmp/feature-annotated.png

# Find ALL clickable things (including divs with cursor:pointer)
$B snapshot -C

# Walk through the flow
$B snapshot -i          # baseline
$B click @e3            # interact
$B snapshot -D          # what changed? (unified diff)

# Check element states
$B is visible ".success-toast"
$B is enabled "#next-step-btn"
$B is checked "#agree-checkbox"

# Check console for errors after interactions
$B console

Test responsive layouts

# Quick: 3 screenshots at mobile/tablet/desktop
$B goto https://yourapp.com
$B responsive /tmp/layout

# Manual: specific viewport
$B viewport 375x812     # iPhone
$B screenshot /tmp/mobile.png
$B viewport 1440x900    # Desktop
$B screenshot /tmp/desktop.png

# Element screenshot (crop to specific element)
$B screenshot "#hero-banner" /tmp/hero.png
$B snapshot -i
$B screenshot @e3 /tmp/button.png

# Region crop
$B screenshot --clip 0,0,800,600 /tmp/above-fold.png

# Viewport only (no scroll)
$B screenshot --viewport /tmp/viewport.png

Test file upload

$B goto https://app.example.com/upload
$B snapshot -i
$B upload @e3 /path/to/test-file.pdf
$B is visible ".upload-success"
$B screenshot /tmp/upload-result.png

Test forms with validation

$B goto https://app.example.com/form
$B snapshot -i

# Submit empty — check validation errors appear
$B click @e10                        # submit button
$B snapshot -D                       # diff shows error messages appeared
$B is visible ".error-message"

# Fill and resubmit
$B fill @e3 "valid input"
$B click @e10
$B snapshot -D                       # diff shows errors gone, success state

Test dialogs (delete confirmations, prompts)

# Set up dialog handling BEFORE triggering
$B dialog-accept              # will auto-accept next alert/confirm
$B click "#delete-button"     # triggers confirmation dialog
$B dialog                     # see what dialog appeared
$B snapshot -D                # verify the item was deleted

# For prompts that need input
$B dialog-accept "my answer"  # accept with text
$B click "#rename-button"     # triggers prompt

Test authenticated pages (import real browser cookies)

# Import cookies from your real browser (opens interactive picker)
$B cookie-import-browser

# Or import a specific domain directly
$B cookie-import-browser comet --domain .github.com

# Now test authenticated pages
$B goto https://github.com/settings/profile
$B snapshot -i
$B screenshot /tmp/github-profile.png

Compare two pages / environments

$B diff https://staging.app.com https://prod.app.com

Multi-step chain (efficient for long flows)

echo '[
  ["goto","https://app.example.com"],
  ["snapshot","-i"],
  ["fill","@e3","[e-mail]"],
  ["fill","@e4","password"],
  ["click","@e5"],
  ["snapshot","-D"],
  ["screenshot","/tmp/result.png"]
]' | $B chain

Quick Assertion Patterns

# Element exists and is visible
$B is visible ".modal"

# Button is enabled/disabled
$B is enabled "#submit-btn"
$B is disabled "#submit-btn"

# Checkbox state
$B is checked "#agree"

# Input is editable
$B is editable "#name-field"

# Element has focus
$B is focused "#search-input"

# Page contains text
$B js "document.body.textContent.includes('Success')"

# Element count
$B js "document.querySelectorAll('.list-item').length"

# Specific attribute value
$B attrs "#logo"    # returns all attributes as JSON

# CSS property
$B css ".button" "background-color"

Snapshot System

The snapshot is your primary tool for understanding and interacting with pages.

-i        --interactive           Interactive elements only (buttons, links, inputs) with @e refs
-c        --compact               Compact (no empty structural nodes)
-d <N>    --depth                 Limit tree depth (0 = root only, default: unlimited)
-s <sel>  --selector              Scope to CSS selector
-D        --diff                  Unified diff against previous snapshot (first call stores baseline)
-a        --annotate              Annotated screenshot with red overlay boxes and ref labels
-o <path> --output                Output path for annotated screenshot (default: <temp>/browse-annotated.png)
-C        --cursor-interactive    Cursor-interactive elements (@c refs — divs with pointer, onclick)

All flags can be combined freely. -o only applies when -a is also used. Example: $B snapshot -i -a -C -o /tmp/annotated.png

Ref numbering: @e refs are assigned sequentially (@e1, @e2, ...) in tree order. @c refs from -C are numbered separately (@c1, @c2, ...).

After snapshot, use @refs as selectors in any command:

$B click @e3       $B fill @e4 "value"     $B hover @e1
$B html @e2        $B css @e5 "color"      $B attrs @e6
$B click @c1       # cursor-interactive ref (from -C)

Output format: indented accessibility tree with @ref IDs, one element per line.

  @e1 [heading] "Welcome" [level=1]
  @e2 [textbox] "Email"
  @e3 [button] "Submit"

Refs are invalidated on navigation — run snapshot again after goto.

Command Reference

Navigation

Command	Description
back	History back
forward	History forward
goto <url>	Navigate to URL
reload	Reload page
url	Print current URL

Reading

Command	Description
accessibility	Full ARIA tree
forms	Form fields as JSON
html [selector]	innerHTML of selector (throws if not found), or full page HTML if no selector given
links	All links as "text → href"
text	Cleaned page text

Interaction

Command	Description
click <sel>	Click element
cookie <name>=<value>	Set cookie on current page domain
cookie-import <json>	Import cookies from JSON file
cookie-import-browser [browser] [--domain d]	Import cookies from Comet, Chrome, Arc, Brave, or Edge (opens picker, or use --domain for direct import)
dialog-accept [text]	Auto-accept next alert/confirm/prompt. Optional text is sent as the prompt response
dialog-dismiss	Auto-dismiss next dialog
fill <sel> <val>	Fill input
header <name>:<value>	Set custom request header (colon-separated, sensitive values auto-redacted)
hover <sel>	Hover element
press <key>	Press key — Enter, Tab, Escape, ArrowUp/Down/Left/Right, Backspace, Delete, Home, End, PageUp, PageDown, or modifiers like Shift+Enter
scroll [sel]	Scroll element into view, or scroll to page bottom if no selector
select <sel> <val>	Select dropdown option by value, label, or visible text
type <text>	Type into focused element
upload <sel> <file> [file2...]	Upload file(s)
useragent <string>	Set user agent
viewport <WxH>	Set viewport size
`wait <sel	--networkidle

Inspection

Command	Description
`attrs <sel	@ref>`
`console [--clear	--errors]`
cookies	All cookies as JSON
css <sel> <prop>	Computed CSS value
dialog [--clear]	Dialog messages
eval <file>	Run JavaScript from file and return result as string (path must be under /tmp or cwd)
is <prop> <sel>	State check (visible/hidden/enabled/disabled/checked/editable/focused)
js <expr>	Run JavaScript expression and return result as string
network [--clear]	Network requests
perf	Page load timings
storage [set k v]	Read all localStorage + sessionStorage as JSON, or set to write localStorage

Visual

Command	Description
diff <url1> <url2>	Text diff between pages
pdf [path]	Save as PDF
responsive [prefix]	Screenshots at mobile (375x812), tablet (768x1024), desktop (1280x720). Saves as {prefix}-mobile.png etc.
`screenshot [--viewport] [--clip x,y,w,h] [selector	@ref] [path]`

Snapshot

Command	Description
snapshot [flags]	Accessibility tree with @e refs for element selection. Flags: -i interactive only, -c compact, -d N depth limit, -s sel scope, -D diff vs previous, -a annotated screenshot, -o path output, -C cursor-interactive @c refs

Meta

Command	Description
chain	Run commands from JSON stdin. Format: [["cmd","arg1",...],...]

Tabs

Command	Description
closetab [id]	Close tab
newtab [url]	Open new tab
tab <id>	Switch to tab
tabs	List open tabs

Server

Command	Description
handoff [message]	Open visible Chrome at current page for user takeover
restart	Restart server
resume	Re-snapshot after user takeover, return control to AI
status	Health check
stop	Shutdown server

Tips

1. Navigate once, query many times. goto loads the page; then text, js, screenshot all hit the loaded page instantly.
2. Use snapshot -i first. See all interactive elements, then click/fill by ref. No CSS selector guessing.
3. Use snapshot -D to verify. Baseline → action → diff. See exactly what changed.
4. Use is for assertions. is visible .modal is faster and more reliable than parsing page text.
5. Use snapshot -a for evidence. Annotated screenshots are great for bug reports.
6. Use snapshot -C for tricky UIs. Finds clickable divs that the accessibility tree misses.
7. Check console after actions. Catch JS errors that don't surface visually.
8. Use chain for long flows. Single command, no per-step CLI overhead.