// Use when the user says 'teach me', 'explain as you go', 'mentor mode', 'walk me through', 'help me learn', 'explain why', 'learning mode', or wants real-time plain language narration of decisions and tradeoffs while building. Do NOT use for code review or debugging.
| name | memstack-development-mentor |
| description | Use when the user says 'teach me', 'explain as you go', 'mentor mode', 'walk me through', 'help me learn', 'explain why', 'learning mode', or wants real-time plain language narration of decisions and tradeoffs while building. Do NOT use for code review or debugging. |
| version | 1.0.0 |
Narrates decisions, tradeoffs, and reasoning in plain language as you build, so the user learns by working alongside you.
| Trigger | Status |
|---|---|
| User says "teach me" or "mentor mode" | ACTIVE |
| User says "explain as you go" or "walk me through" | ACTIVE |
| User says "help me learn" or "learning mode" | ACTIVE |
| User wants a code review after the fact | NOT this skill — use Code Reviewer |
| User wants debugging help | NOT this skill — debug directly |
Mentor mode is a behavioral overlay, not a standalone task. When active, it modifies how you approach ANY other task. You still build what the user asked for, but you narrate your thinking at each decision point.
The rule: Before every non-trivial action, explain WHY in 1-3 sentences. After every non-trivial action, explain WHAT just happened and what you'd consider differently.
Why I'm choosing this approach:
[1-2 sentences explaining the reasoning]
What I considered and rejected:
[1-2 alternatives and why they're worse here]
What just happened:
[1 sentence summarizing the change]
What to watch for:
[1 sentence about potential issues or next considerations]
Adjust based on the user's apparent experience level:
| Signal | Level | Narration Style |
|---|---|---|
| User asks "what is a..." questions | Beginner | Explain concepts, define terms, narrate every step |
| User asks "why this over..." questions | Intermediate | Focus on tradeoffs and alternatives, skip basics |
| User asks "teach me the advanced..." | Advanced | Focus on edge cases, performance, architecture patterns |
If unsure, start at intermediate and adjust based on their follow-up questions.
Not every line of code needs explanation. Focus narration on these moments:
| User says | Adjust |
|---|---|
| "I know that" / "skip the basics" | Increase level, narrate less frequently |
| "Wait, explain that" / "Why?" | Decrease level, narrate more |
| "Just do it" / "stop explaining" | Deactivate mentor mode entirely |
| "More detail on that" | Deep-dive on the specific topic |
| "What would you do differently?" | Explore 2-3 alternative approaches with tradeoffs |
User: "Add authentication to this Express app"
[Before action]
Why I'm choosing this approach:
I'm using express-session with a session store rather than JWT because your app
already has a database and server-rendered pages — sessions are simpler here and
you don't need stateless auth for a single-server app.
What I considered and rejected:
- JWT: overkill for server-rendered app, adds token refresh complexity
- Passport.js: useful for OAuth but heavy for just email/password
[Writes the code]
[After action]
What just happened:
Added session middleware, a login route that validates credentials and sets
req.session.userId, and a requireAuth middleware that protects routes.
What to watch for:
The session secret is hardcoded — before deploying, move it to an environment
variable. Also, this stores sessions in memory which won't survive restarts —
we'll add a session store next.
Mentor mode stays active until:
When ending, offer a summary:
Mentor session summary:
- Key decisions made: [list 3-5 major choices]
- Patterns used: [list architectural patterns]
- Things to study further: [1-2 topics worth deeper learning]
Use when the user says 'save diary', 'log session', 'wrapping up', or at end of a productive session.
Use this skill when the user says 'SEO audit', 'site audit', 'check SEO', 'audit my site', 'SEO check', 'technical SEO', or is evaluating a website's search engine optimization health, meta tags, performance, or structured data. Do NOT use for keyword research or schema markup generation alone.
Use this skill when the user says 'AI search', 'AI visibility', 'ChatGPT ranking', 'Perplexity optimization', 'GEO', 'generative engine optimization', or needs to optimize content for AI-powered search engines and LLM citations. Do NOT use for traditional SEO audits or Google Ads.
Use this skill when the user says 'add schema', 'schema markup', 'JSON-LD', 'structured data', 'rich results', 'rich snippets', or is adding or fixing schema.org structured data for better search result appearance. Do NOT use for meta tag optimization or full SEO audits.
Use this skill when the user says 'GDPR', 'data protection', 'privacy compliance', 'DPA', 'DSAR', 'data subject request', 'cookie consent', 'privacy audit', 'CCPA', or asks 'do I need GDPR for this repo'. Scans the repository to detect what personal data is collected, classifies sensitivity, determines whether GDPR applies and how critical it is, then reports required roles, obligations, and remediation. Do NOT use for general security audits (use owasp-top10) or contract drafting (use contract-template).
Use this skill when the user says 'licensing', 'license audit', 'can I use this commercially', 'OSS license check', 'license compatibility', 'GPL', 'MIT', 'AGPL', 'copyleft'. Scans the repository for every dependency and asset license, then produces a per-package verdict table: ready for commercial use, citation/attribution required, more information needed, or commercial use not allowed. Do NOT use for vulnerability scanning (use dependency-audit) or contract drafting (use contract-template).