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/office-hours

@dcaea52 official
by Garry Tangarrytan/gstack135k stars
20,051

YC Office Hours — two modes. (gstack)

Requires /plan-ceo-review /plan-eng-review /gstack-upgrade /plan-tune /retro /ship /qa-only /document-generate /context-save /learn /qa /review /browse /design-consultation /plan-design-review /design-review

Ask your Agent

Use this Skill: https://skilld.dev/gh/garrytan/gstack/office-hours

This session only. Nothing lands on disk.

sectionsphase-2b-builder-brainstorm.md

≈806 tokens on demand. Your agent reads this file only when SKILL.md points to it.

<!-- AUTO-GENERATED from phase-2b-builder-brainstorm.md.tmpl — do not edit directly --> <!-- Regenerate: bun run gen:skill-docs -->

Operating Principles

  1. Delight is the currency — what makes someone say "whoa"?
  2. Ship something you can show people. The best version of anything is the one that exists.
  3. The best side projects solve your own problem. If you're building it for yourself, trust that instinct.
  4. Explore before you optimize. Try the weird idea first. Polish later.

Before choosing what to pitch, name what the core capability makes possible beyond the user's current task. Imagine someone using it for a different purpose, or combining it with another activity; follow that possibility into a concrete scene you want to try. If the ideas all help the same person do the same job better, keep exploring. Then riff on what someone could do with it, and say which possibility you'd try first.

Wild exemplar:

STRUCTURED (avoid): "Consider adding tags and search to the sound recorder. This would improve retention by making recordings easier to organize."

WILD (aim for): "Oh — what if your sound recorder became an instrument? Record the kettle, a slammed door, your dog snoring, then play a beat made entirely out of your house. Or take it outside: leave a sound-only scavenger hunt for a friend and see if they can find the squeaky gate. I'd try the kitchen beat tonight. You already own the drum kit."

Both are outcome-framed. Only one has the 'whoa.' Builder mode's job is to surface the most exciting version of the idea, not the most strategically optimized one. Lead with the fun; let the user edit it down.

Response Posture

  • Enthusiastic, opinionated collaborator. You're here to help them build the coolest thing possible. Riff on their ideas. Get excited about what's exciting.
  • Help them find the most exciting version of their idea. Don't settle for the obvious version.
  • Suggest cool things they might not have thought of. Bring adjacent ideas, unexpected combinations, "what if you also..." suggestions.
  • End with concrete build steps, not business validation tasks. The deliverable is "what to build next," not "who to interview."

Questions (generative, not interrogative)

Ask these ONE AT A TIME via AskUserQuestion. The goal is to brainstorm and sharpen the idea, not interrogate.

  • What's the coolest version of this? What would make it genuinely delightful?
  • Who would you show this to? What would make them say "whoa"?
  • What's the fastest path to something you can actually use or share?
  • What existing thing is closest to this, and how is yours different?
  • What would you add if you had unlimited time? What's the 10x version?

Smart-skip: If the user's initial prompt already answers a question, skip it. Only ask questions whose answers aren't yet clear.

STOP after each question. Wait for the response before asking the next.

Escape hatch: If the user says "just do it," expresses impatience, or provides a fully formed plan → fast-track to Phase 4 (Alternatives Generation). If user provides a fully formed plan, skip Phase 2 entirely but still run Phase 3 and Phase 4.

Source: SKILL.md on GitHub

Third-party checks

2 warningstoday3 checks · Risk SAFE
  • Gen Agent Trust Hubtoday

    The 'office-hours' skill is a sophisticated brainstorming and design tool following the YC Office Hours model. It utilizes a framework of local helper scripts for project analysis, visual sketching, and artifact management. While it interacts with external sources through web research (via the Aside browser) and secondary agent opinions (via Codex or sub-agents), it incorporates strong safety measures including explicit instructions to treat external data as untrusted, a redaction process before writing to the user's repository, and comprehensive user consent gates for third-party tool usage and telemetry.

  • Sockettoday

    2 alerts: gptAnomaly

  • Snyktoday

    Risk: MEDIUM · 1 issue

Provenance

Signed by skilld at dcaea52. This ties the file your Agent reads to that commit on GitHub. It does not review the instructions.

Last checked against GitHub 17 hours ago.

Activeupdated 2 days ago

Capability

What it can do
Runs commands Reads files Edits files Network
preamble-tier
3
version
2.0.0
All 8 allowed tools
BashReadGrepGlobWriteEditAskUserQuestionWebSearch
Other metadata
triggers
[
  "brainstorm this",
  "is this worth building",
  "help me think through",
  "office hours"
]
gbrain
{
  "schema": 1,
  "context_queries": [
    {
      "id": "prior-sessions",
      "kind": "list",
      "filter": {
        "type": "ceo-plan",
        "tags_contains": "repo:{repo_slug}"
      },
      "sort": "updated_at_desc",
      "limit": 5,
      "render_as": "## Prior office-hours sessions in this repo"
    },
    {
      "id": "builder-profile",
      "kind": "filesystem",
      "glob": "~/.gstack/builder-profile.jsonl",
      "tail": 1,
      "render_as": "## Your builder profile snapshot"
    },
    {
      "id": "design-doc-history",
      "kind": "filesystem",
      "glob": "~/.gstack/projects/{repo_slug}/*-design-*.md",
      "sort": "mtime_desc",
      "limit": 3,
      "render_as": "## Recent design docs for this project"
    },
    {
      "id": "prior-eureka",
      "kind": "filesystem",
      "glob": "~/.gstack/analytics/eureka.jsonl",
      "tail": 5,
      "render_as": "## Recent eureka moments"
    }
  ]
}

Topics

  • brainstorm
  • design-thinking
  • startup
  • product-strategy
  • ideation
  • planning
  • ceo-mode
  • builder-mode

README badge

README badge for garrytan/gstack/office-hours

What it does

Offers startup validation (six forcing questions on demand, traction, specificity, wedge, observation, future-fit) and design brainstorming for side projects and open source. Saves design docs and surfaces prior office-hours sessions, builder profile, and recent eureka moments from local gstack context.

Generated from the current SKILL.md.

Frequently asked

What are the two modes this skill operates in?
Startup mode asks six forcing questions to validate demand and find the narrowest wedge for a product idea. Builder mode uses design thinking for brainstorming side projects, hackathons, learning, and open source work.
When should I invoke this skill?
Invoke it when you describe a new product idea, ask if something is worth building, want to think through design decisions before code exists, or explore a concept. Use it before /plan-ceo-review or /plan-eng-review.
Does this skill save output?
Yes. It saves a design doc and can retrieve prior office-hours sessions in the same repo, your builder profile snapshot, recent design docs, and recent eureka moments from local gstack storage.
What tools does this skill use?
It uses Bash, Read, Grep, Glob, Write, Edit, AskUserQuestion, and WebSearch to gather context and guide you through the brainstorming or validation process.

Generated from the current SKILL.md. These answers refresh after source changes.