pstack for Hermes

Lauren Tan's complete pstack 0.14.5, ported to Hermes Agent without flattening the skill set or pretending Cursor-only runtime features exist.

45 first-class skills · 157 upstream paths accounted · 7 adaptation patches receipted

Important

This is an unofficial community port. It is not endorsed by Lauren Tan, Cursor, or the upstream pstack maintainers.

Why this port exists

pstack is a coherent engineering system, not a bag of prompts. Partial ports lose the playbook routing, principles, support files, agent briefs, and verification machinery that make the system useful.

This repository preserves the whole upstream product while translating only the runtime seams:

• every upstream path is represented in a machine-readable parity ledger;
• the original source is kept as an immutable, byte-identical mirror;
• Cursor-specific tools, model selectors, paths, transcripts, and slash commands are replaced with explicit Hermes equivalents;
• unsupported capabilities fail closed or report a degraded state instead of being replaced with plausible prose;
• all skills use qualified names such as pstack:architect, so the full set does not flood Hermes' startup skill index.

Install

Plugin-pack installation requires Hermes Agent 0.20.6 or newer. The pack displays its contents before installation and pins each plugin to an exact commit.

PACK_URL=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Steamedhams89/hermes-pstack/v0.14.5-hermes.1/hermes-pack.yaml

# Read-only review
hermes plugins pack show "$PACK_URL"

# Interactive install and per-plugin capability review
hermes plugins pack install "$PACK_URL"

The default pack installs:

1. pstack — the complete 45-skill content plugin;
2. pstack-runtime — the optional route/state companion and its single local configuration tool.

It deliberately does not install pstack-benny. Benny's three automation procedures are preserved in this repository but remain dormant until an operator separately reviews and authorizes their external integrations.

Restart the Hermes gateway after installation when prompted:

hermes gateway restart

Use

Load a workflow explicitly:

skill_view(name="pstack:poteto-mode")

Then state the outcome and the evidence:

Goal: add a --json flag without changing the existing text output.
Evidence: run and verify both forms.

Other useful entry points:

skill_view(name="pstack:how")          # understand a codebase
skill_view(name="pstack:why")          # recover design rationale
skill_view(name="pstack:architect")    # compare designs before coding
skill_view(name="pstack:interrogate")  # adversarial multi-lens review
skill_view(name="pstack:reflect")      # review the work and process

The complete adapted guide starts at docs/upstream-guide/README.md.

What is included

Package	Contents	Runtime surface	Default pack
pstack	24 workflows, 21 principles, all linked references, playbooks, and scripts	No tools, hooks, networking, or background work	Yes
pstack-runtime	Two preserved role briefs, validated route mapping, local state and health descriptors	One local tool: pstack_routes	Yes
pstack-benny	Three Benny procedures and all support material	Dormant; external adapters are not configured	No

All 24 workflows

architect · arena · automate-me · blast-radius · bro · create-verification-skill · figure-it-out · how · interrogate · maintain-verification-skill · make-bot-ui · no-comments · poteto-mode · recall · reflect · setup-pstack · show-me-your-work · swarm · tdd · teach · technical-writing · typescript-best-practices · unslop · why

All 21 principles

boundary-discipline · build-the-lever · encode-lessons-in-structure · exhaust-the-design-space · experience-first · fix-root-causes · foundational-thinking · guard-the-context-window · laziness-protocol · make-operations-idempotent · migrate-callers-then-delete-legacy-apis · minimize-reader-load · model-the-domain · never-block-on-the-human · outcome-oriented-execution · prove-it-works · redesign-from-first-principles · separate-before-serializing-shared-state · sequence-verifiable-units · subtract-before-you-add · type-system-discipline

Source accounting

Field	Locked value
Upstream	cursor/plugins/pstack
Upstream version	0.14.5
Upstream commit	6fecddba65801f9b9c08b8b328d998ee5b09d290
Source files	157
Source bytes	3,091,772
Canonical tree SHA-256	0b261012eb982e45472b5e368592da26a8c15c92bb12dd680d3786b997c57177
Registered skills	45 — 24 workflows + 21 principles
Documented adaptation patches	7

The authoritative records are:

• provenance/UPSTREAM.lock.json — immutable source identity;
• upstream/pstack — byte-identical upstream mirror;
• provenance/parity-ledger.json — one row per upstream path;
• provenance/patches/index.json — every mechanical or semantic translation;
• provenance/test-receipts.json — deterministic verification receipts.

See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the package and authority boundaries.

Safety model

• pstack registers content only. It has no tools, hooks, network clients, background workers, or implicit installers.
• pstack-runtime exposes one local route-configuration tool. It does not start delegation or external work itself.
• The versioned pack pins exact commits and cannot pre-grant capabilities or carry secrets.
• pstack-benny is excluded from the default pack.
• The source and installed package trees reject symlinks and path escapes.
• A workflow never grants its own authority. Publishing or installing this repository does not authorize messages, pushes, merges, deployments, deletion, credentials, payments, recurring automation, or non-loopback exposure.

Verify from source

Development verification uses Python 3.11+, Bun 1.4.0, and a Hermes Agent source checkout:

export HERMES_SOURCE_ROOT=/path/to/hermes-agent
export PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1

python -B -m pytest -q -p no:cacheprovider
python -B tools/receipt.py --write --provision-script-deps
python -B tools/verify.py --require-complete

hermes plugins doctor --ci packages/pstack
hermes plugins doctor --ci packages/pstack-runtime
hermes plugins doctor --ci packages/pstack-benny
hermes plugins pack show hermes-pack.yaml

--provision-script-deps is an explicit networked development step. It runs bun install --frozen-lockfile, the 52 preserved Bun tests, and strict TypeScript checking inside an automatically removed temporary copy. It never writes node_modules into the release tree.

CI repeats the source-lock, parity, receipt, Python, Bun, TypeScript, plugin-doctor, pack, and residue gates against a pinned Hermes Agent revision.

Repository layout

packages/
  pstack/          complete content plugin
  pstack-runtime/  optional Hermes runtime companion
  pstack-benny/    preserved, dormant automation resources
upstream/pstack/   immutable upstream source mirror
provenance/        lock, parity ledger, patches, notices, receipts
docs/              architecture and the adapted pstack guide
tools/             source-accounting and receipt tooling
tests/             parity, authority, runtime, and packaging gates

Contributing

Read CONTRIBUTING.md before changing the port. Do not edit upstream/pstack directly. Every upstream update must replace the locked mirror, account for every path, document every translation, and regenerate passing receipts.

Security reports should follow SECURITY.md.

License and attribution

Upstream pstack is MIT licensed, Copyright © 2026 Lauren Tan. The Hermes adaptation and release tooling are also MIT licensed. See LICENSE, NOTICE.md, and provenance/NOTICE.md.

This project preserves upstream attribution and clearly separates original source from Hermes-specific adaptation work.