Using SteleHow-to recipes
Using Stele

How-to recipes

Short answers to "how do I…?" — each anchored to the prompt or command that does it. Most of the time you talk to your agent in plain language; these show what to say.

Resume work after a context limit

You hit a token wall, or you want a different model. Don't re-explain anything — point the new session at the task. It reads the task, the linked decisions, and the risks, and continues.

In the new session

Continue TASK-14. Read it and its linked knowledge from Stele first, then pick up where the last session left off.

Find out why something exists

When a piece of code makes you ask "why is this here?", the answer is a path through the record, not a guess from the diff. The agent traces it back to the decision and the risk behind it.

Paste into your agent

Why does our API paginate by cursor instead of page number? Check Stele for the decision and the reason behind it.

your agent
why cursor pagination, not page numbers?
KNOW-9 — offset paging skipped rows when records were inserted mid-scan; cursors keep results stable under writes. See TASK-12.

Capture a decision you just made

You and the agent just settled something — an approach, a tradeoff, a thing not to do. Write it down while it's fresh, so the next session inherits it instead of relitigating it.

Paste into your agent

We just decided to drop the second config format. Save that to Stele as a decision, with the reasoning, so nobody reopens it later.

Keep the record honest

Over time, some knowledge drifts out of date. A periodic health check surfaces what's stale, what looks duplicated, and what's no longer true — and the agent helps you resolve each one.

your agent
/stele:doctor
3 facts unverified in 30+ days · 1 near-duplicate · 1 expired note
walk each one — verify, merge, or retire?

You can also point the agent at a single area to re-verify the decisions that govern it before you build on them.

Paste into your agent

Before I work on auth, re-verify the decisions Stele has about it — confirm what still holds, and supersede anything that's drifted.

Coordinate several agents

Running more than one agent at once? Claims keep them off each other's work. Each claims a task before starting, so the others see it's taken; what each learns is written back for the rest.

your agent
start on the export feature
TASK-20 (export) is already claimed by another session.
TASK-21 — the import side — is open and unblocked. Starting there.