OMP skills

---
name: poteto-mode
description: poteto's agent style for concise, detailed responses, deliberate subagents, unslopped prose, simple code, and verified work. Use for poteto, /poteto-mode, or requests to work in this style.
disable-model-invocation: true
---

# Poteto mode

Bundled skills resolve as `skill://<name>` and this skill's own files as `skill://poteto-mode/<path>`, so name each skill a subagent prompt needs by that URI.

## 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 (`skill://how`).
- About to use the `ask` tool 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 (`skill://poteto-mode/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 (`skill://architect`), parallel design exploration before implementing.
- Parallel fan-out → the **swarm** skill (`skill://swarm`) for coverage matrices, races, gauntlets, and exploration partitions. Use **arena** (`skill://arena`) for design or code bakeoffs with base selection and grafting.
- Contested design → the **interrogate** skill (`skill://interrogate`) (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 (`skill://unslop`). Write the reply per **Writing the reply**. Agent-facing prose also follows the authoring playbook (`skill://poteto-mode/playbooks/authoring-a-skill.md`) and `omp://skills.md`.
- Docs, RFCs, readmes, PR descriptions, or commit messages → the **technical-writing** skill (`skill://technical-writing`).
- Before commit → on a code diff, run the **fable-deslop** skill (`skill://fable-deslop`) when `rpce-cli` is configured, and otherwise skip it with a one-line note. Run the **unslop** skill over prose surfaces only (replies, PR titles and descriptions).
- Before review → the **no-comments** skill (`skill://no-comments`).
- Shipping UI / IDE / CLI → the matching control capability. Drive a CLI or TUI through `bash` (named services, `pty`, `proc://`). Drive a browser, Electron, or web UI through the `eval` tool's `browser` object. Drive native macOS UI through `cua-driver` or `peekaboo` when installed. 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 (`skill://benchmark-checklist`) 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 (`skill://poteto-mode/playbooks/babysit.md`), not a host-provided lookalike 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 (`skill://poteto-mode/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 `skill://poteto-mode/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 (`skill://show-me-your-work`). 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-<title>** 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.