pstack — Lauren Tan (@poteto)'s prompt-stack coding workflow, published inside the cursor/plugins monorepo — adapted to run on ZCode. This glossary fixes the vocabulary used across skills, docs, and issues in this repo.
pstack:
The upstream workflow plugin: a stack of skills whose entry point (poteto-mode) routes each task to a playbook.
Avoid: poteto stack, the plugin
pstack-zcode: This repository — the ZCode adaptation of pstack. Not a fork of the whole monorepo: only the pstack subtree is tracked. Avoid: fork, port
upstream:
The cursor/plugins monorepo; only changes to its pstack/ subtree are ever merged here.
Avoid: origin (that is this repo), cursor repo
pstack- prefix:
The mandatory prefix on every adapted skill name (pstack-tdd, pstack-arena). Lives in SKILL.md frontmatter only; directories keep upstream names.
Avoid: pt- prefix, plugin-qualified invocation as a collision workaround
playbook:
A routed step-by-step procedure under skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/ that executes one task type.
Avoid: runbook, recipe
principle:
One of the 24 principle-* skills cited as decision grounds by other skills.
Avoid: rule, guideline
panel: A role whose value is a list of models; each entry spawns one reviewer, so the panel reviews in parallel and cross-checks across families. Avoid: ensemble, jury
role: A named slot in pstack's model configuration mapping a class of work (code, judgment, exploration…) to a model choice. Avoid: persona, profile
inherit-parent: The alias meaning "omit the model field so the subagent follows the session model". Avoid: auto
models file:
~/.zcode/pstack/models.md, the per-user role-to-model table written by /pstack-setup-pstack and read by skills at spawn time; absent means every role runs on the session model.
Avoid: models rule, .mdc rule
preset:
An agent file (~/.zcode/agents/pstack-<role>.md) written by /pstack-setup-pstack only for a role pinned to a model; it carries that model and reasoning level so a plain subagent spawn can run the role on it.
Avoid: role agent
poteto-agent: The delegate-wrapper subagent that runs playbooks; it never pins a model — the spawning role decides. Avoid: helper agent
comment-sicko:
The read-only comment-review subagent invoked by /pstack-no-comments.
benny:
The Slack triage-and-reproduce automation pack in automations/benny/; dormant until installed as ZCode automations.
Avoid: bot, routine (that is Cursor's term)
dynamic workflow: ZCode's mechanism where a runtime-authored TypeScript script orchestrates subagents with typed intermediate results; the adaptation target for orchestrate-style playbooks and panels. Avoid: pipeline, macro
automation: ZCode's scheduled unattended prompt run (the CronCreate family); the adaptation target for benny's triggers. Avoid: routine, cron job
session context:
The material ZCode's ReadSessionContext tool returns for one sess_* session id — persisted conversation retrieved by query, never a file on disk. Only the main thread can call the tool; skills retrieve in the parent and hand subagents the material.
Avoid: transcript, agent-transcripts
session store:
~/.zcode/cli/db/db.sqlite, ZCode's local session database; read-only queries against it are the listing route (by workspace directory, recency, content), fail-closed to asking for explicit ids when absent or schema-drifted.
Avoid: transcripts directory, session API
resident mode: The opt-in SessionStart hook that injects a condensed poteto-mode summary into every new session; installed explicitly via script and removable with one command, never part of the default install. Avoid: always-on mode, global mode