Skill verbosity ~15.6k tokens #377

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1. marcoabreu

   changed the title [-]Skill verbosity - around 11k tokens[/-] [+]Skill verbosity - around 16k tokens[/+] on Jul 30, 2026
2. marcoabreu

   changed the title [-]Skill verbosity - around 16k tokens[/-] [+]Skill verbosity ~15.6k tokens[/+] on Jul 30, 2026
3. carlos-vitallink360 commented on Jul 31, 2026

   

   carlos-vitallink360

   on Jul 31, 2026

   Last edited by carlos-vitallink360

   More actions

   The skill is indeed bloated, PR stacks is not the widest used feature out there and it's not especially complex, paying 15k token tax when you use it is too much, its basically a dump of the --help output in the CLI.

   Agents are very capable now and as long as they know you have the extension installed, often read the man page themselves, the skill should let the agent know the extension exists and cover a few common edge cases like conflicts mid stack.

   I myself would compact the skill to this (~365 tokens):

   ---
   name: gh-stack
   description: >
     Manage stacked branches and pull requests with `gh stack`.
     Use for stacked diffs, dependent PRs, branch chains, or mid-stack edits.
   ---
   
   # gh-stack
   
   `gh stack` manages ordered branch stacks rooted on trunk (usually `main`).
   Each branch maps to one PR based on the branch below it.
   
   ```
   main (trunk)
    └── auth-layer     → PR #1 (base: main)          ← bottom
     └── api-endpoints → PR #2 (base: auth-layer)
      └── frontend     → PR #3 (base: api-endpoints) ← top
   ```
   
   `up` moves away from trunk; `down` moves toward it.
   
   ## Agent rules (non-interactive)
   
   Every command must avoid prompts/TUIs or it will hang.
   
   1. **Always pass branch names** to `init`, `add`, and `checkout`. No bare invocations.
   2. **Always** `gh stack submit --auto` (no `--auto` → title prompts).
   3. **Always** `gh stack view --json` (no `--json` → interactive TUI).
   4. **Merge with** `gh stack merge --yes`, not `gh pr merge`.
   5. **Mid-stack edits:** go to the lower branch (`down` / `checkout` / `bottom`), commit there, then `gh stack rebase --upstack` and navigate back up.
   
   ## Minimal workflow
   
   ```bash
   gh stack init layer-a layer-b layer-c
   # commit on each layer with git add / git commit
   gh stack submit --auto
   gh stack view --json
   ```
   
   For help on a specific command: `gh stack <command> --help`.
4. skarim

   linked a pull request that will close this issueImprove skill efficiency and performance #388on Aug 3, 2026
5. skarim

   self-assigned this

   on Aug 3, 2026
6. skarim

   closed this as completedin #388on Aug 4, 2026