Cursor pstack: A Verification-First Workflow for AI Coding

 

Cursor pstack is Lauren Tan’s open plugin for routing AI coding tasks through 23 playbooks; its official documentation was checked on October 19, 2026.

 

Lauren Tan presents it as a way to prioritize deliberate changes and show evidence that they work. This guide uses documentation reviewed October 19, 2026, and notes where the video’s install guidance differs from current repository instructions.

 

 

What is Cursor pstack?

pstack packages skills and playbooks for investigation, design, implementation, testing, and review. Its main entry point, /poteto-mode, reads a task, selects a workflow, and invokes the skills needed at each step. The upstream README lists 23 playbooks, covering investigations, bug fixes, feature work, performance work, refactoring, prototypes, PR maintenance, shipping, and overnight runs.

 

Tan says she has worked with large codebases at Meta, Netflix, and Cursor and helps maintain React Compiler on the React team. pstack is her published workflow, not an engineering standard endorsed by every team at Cursor.

 

 

How pstack builds verification into the workflow

Understand the code before changing it

/how investigates how a system behaves. /why looks for evidence about why it was designed that way. If you ask why a retry limit is five, the workflow can inspect code, commits, issues, and documentation instead of guessing from the current implementation. It should distinguish documented facts from inference. Sometimes the repository contains no documented reason.

 

That step helps prevent a quick patch from hiding a root cause or silently changing a policy that another part of the system depends on.

 

Compare designs before a large change

/architect helps define data shapes and system boundaries before a change spans multiple functions. /arena asks multiple agents to propose approaches, then compares them. The video highlights a review by a model from a different family and a combination of the proposals’ strongest elements. If implementation requires the same workaround in several places, revisit the design instead of multiplying exceptions.

 

Prove behavior with a real run

The verification skill studies a repository and records how to start the app, exercise a feature, and capture results. Bug work follows a concrete loop: reproduce the failure, trace the cause, make a focused change, and rerun the same case. A successful edit alone is not evidence that behavior is fixed.

 

/interrogate asks multiple models to review changes independently and synthesizes a verdict. The official skill says findings should not be applied automatically. In the video’s walkthrough, findings are grouped into fixes, considerations, and rejections; that is an example, not a guaranteed format for every run.

 

/no-comments launches a separate Comment Sicko reviewer to flag workarounds or issues hidden by comments. The workflow fixes accepted root causes and rejects out-of-scope edits. For constraint comments, it checks evidence about whether the constraint can change, then offers a type, runtime check, test, or CI lint to enforce it. If you approve the proposed enforcement, the workflow adds it and deletes the comment. Otherwise, it deletes the comment and reports the constraint as open.

 

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Using /poteto-mode and parallel agents

Start a task with /poteto-mode; it chooses a playbook and loads relevant skills. The bug prompt shown in the video asks the agent to reproduce a subtle issue before fixing and verifying it. The README says /setup-pstack can change model assignments and reasoning budgets. Defaults route code delegation differently from the hardest changes and judgment calls. Available models and local configuration can change that setup.

 

pstack’s parallel workflow works best when agents can follow the same checks. The video’s swarm example assigns work by package and collects outcomes as pass, issue, or blocked. Parallelism does not remove the need to define file ownership, boundaries, and a shared definition of done.

 

The video also shows an overnight request to land a stack by morning. Treat that as an example of delegation, not a safe default. Before unattended work, define what counts as done, what to do when CI flakes, what files may change, and who is allowed to merge or deploy.

 

 

Install pstack in Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex

For Cursor, install the plugin from Customize or use the upstream README’s /add-plugin pstack command. Then run /setup-pstack to choose a reasoning budget and models, and use /poteto-mode for work that needs a rigorous workflow. Cursor’s official docs describe installing and managing plugins from Customize.

 

The video’s Claude Code and Codex commands point to a community port. As of October 19, 2026, the upstream README also documents a Claude Code installation path. Codex support comes from community ports such as michael-denyer/pstack-claude. Commands, hooks, and feature coverage can differ between the Cursor original and a port. Follow the README for the exact repository you choose.

 

The port says it has no server or telemetry. However, files its skills ask the agent to read—including session transcripts—are sent to your model provider. Check that provider’s data terms before using the port with sensitive code.

 

 

Availability for US developers

pstack is an MIT-licensed plugin, not a region-specific cloud service. Cursor says model providers can restrict availability by region, so /setup-pstack should use models that actually appear in your account. Cursor lets Enterprise teams enable US-only data residency for eligible models and features. As of October 19, 2026, Cursor says this option adds 10% to eligible model pricing. It is an account-level control, not something pstack configures. Review the list of supported models, any exclusions, and your team’s data policy before using the workflow with sensitive code.

 

 

Takeaways

• pstack routes tasks through investigation, design, implementation, runtime checks, and review.
• Its core value is a repeatable process with evidence, not autonomous code volume.
• Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex installs come from different instructions; verify the current repository and its permissions before running unattended tasks.

 

Sources

• Video: Cursor pstack walkthrough
• Upstream pstack README
• Official pstack plugin manifest
• Official pstack /no-comments skill
• Official pstack /interrogate skill
• Cursor plugin documentation
• Cursor regions and model availability
• Cursor Enterprise privacy and data governance
• Cursor brand guidelines
• Community pstack port