kstack

Validate the branch diff against the task's acceptance criteria before marking it done. Use when implementation looks complete, before a status update to done/awaiting_review, or when the user asks "did we cover everything?"

One-pass AI code review of a PR or branch diff (tech-lead style). Use when the user asks for a code review, PR review, AI review, or wants code quality, architecture, bugs, and patterns reviewed.

Simplify changed code in a PR or branch for readability while preserving behavior. Use when the user asks to simplify code, reduce complexity, clean up a PR, or improve readability of recent changes.

Capture new project-specific learnings into context files. Runs during reviews or after debugging to evolve the project's skill knowledge base. Use when the thread reveals patterns, anti-patterns, conventions, or codebase gotchas that should be remembered.

Debug pipeline: investigate (prod or local) → fix-issues → scoped polish (deslop + code-simplify) → pattern-check → kestral-sync retroactive capture. Only invoked by the kstack subagent.

Capture the decision when a spike, prototype, or investigation concludes. Use when a prototype or spike wraps up, the user makes a go/no-go call after de-risking, or an investigation answers its question — prompts "what did you decide?" and writes the decision + rationale to the task tracker.

Remove AI-generated slop from the branch diff. Strips redundant comments, unnecessary casts, extra defensive code, and style inconsistencies. Use when cleaning up AI-generated code, removing slop, or polishing a branch before review.

Update project docs to match code changes. Use when adding docs, checking what a change requires, or syncing docs/skills/commands with code.

Validate reported issues against the codebase and fix confirmed ones with minimal, safe changes. Use when the user provides a list of issues, bugs, or review findings to triage and fix.

Interview the user relentlessly about a plan or design until reaching shared understanding, resolving each branch of the decision tree. Use when user wants to stress-test a plan, get grilled on their design, or mentions "grill me".

Create a follow-up implementation task with decision context pre-filled after a spike or prototype concludes with "proceed". Use when a validated approach needs to become trackable implementation work without the engineer re-explaining the context from scratch.

Execute an implementation plan in sequential phases with review checkpoints. Use when the user asks to implement a plan or execute a plan step-by-step.

Implementation pipeline with optional pickup and ship phases around the core build: task-pickup → implement-plan → review-pipeline polish pass → acceptance-check + merge readiness. Only invoked by the kstack subagent.

Sync session progress to your task tracker via MCP. Use after push, phase completion, PR creation, or review conclusion. See context.md for the project API and intents.

Interactive section-by-section PR review with pauses for discussion. Optionally syncs review findings to a linked task at the end, including draft PR creation and linking when no PR exists. Asks to track deferred follow-ups as Kestral tasks. Use when the user asks for a manual review, interactive review, walkthrough review, or wants to be guided through a PR change-by-change.

Search existing tasks and incidents for similar bugs or review misses, and link related issues. Use after creating a retroactive bugfix task, when a review finds a familiar-looking issue, or when the user asks "have we seen this before?"

Interactive plan review and requirements validation against the codebase. Use when the user asks for a plan review, wants to validate an implementation plan, or provides a requirements doc, spec, PRD, acceptance criteria, or gap analysis to verify against the codebase.

Planning pipeline: write-plan, then hand off to review-plan-pipeline for the full review pass (plan-review, product-review). Spike mode skips the review pass and ends with decision capture. Only invoked by the kstack subagent.

Product consistency and completeness review. Use when the user asks for a product review, wants to check surface area completeness, multi-user collaboration scenarios, or AI agent interaction points across a feature.

Fixed seven-step review pipeline: code-review, fix-issues, code-simplify, deslop, context-evolve, documentation-update, task-sync. Orchestrates the full polish pass for a branch. Only invoked by the kstack subagent.

Fixed four-step plan review pipeline: plan-review (requirements validation mode), plan-review (interactive mode), product-review, review summary to Kestral. Orchestrates the full review pass for an implementation plan. Only invoked by the kstack subagent.

Turn a review finding or incident into a durable prevention: a new or updated .cursor/rules/*.mdc rule, skill check, or checklist item. Use after a review surfaces "we should always check X", after a production incident reveals a preventable class of bug, or when the same miss keeps recurring.

Create a single self-contained HTML file that mocks a feature using inline React and CSS. Use when the user asks to prototype a UI flow, build a mockup, create a shareable demo, or iterate on a feature's look and feel before implementation.

Claim a task from your task tracker and start working on it. Use when the user says "I'm working on [task]", picks up a task from the board, or wants to start an existing task — handles lookup, conflict check, claim, status, branch naming, and context pull in one flow.

Author structured implementation plan documents. Use when the user asks to write a plan, create an implementation plan, design a feature spec, or says /plan.