Dev Mentor

Build features you understand. Learn where to start next time.

Dev Mentor is a set of skills for your AI coding assistant. It helps you find your way around a codebase, plan a feature, build it one step at a time, and check your work. It adapts to you, whether you're vibe coding your first app or you're a principal engineer reviewing a design.

What it looks like

You:     Use mentor. Help me add a "remember me" option to login. I'll write the code.

Mentor:  I'll pitch this for a junior dev, balanced tone, one step at a time,
         and ask who does each edit. Say `settings` to change.

         **Remember me · orientation**
         The ticket asks for sessions that survive closing the browser (today
         they end on close). Login flows through:

           LoginForm.tsx → POST /api/login → auth/session.ts (createSession)
                                                    ▲ start here

         Open `auth/session.ts` and look at how `createSession` sets the cookie.
         Nothing to edit yet.

You:     next

Mentor:  **Remember me · the cookie today**
         `createSession` sets `maxAge` to undefined, so the browser treats the
         cookie as a session cookie and deletes it on close…

You:     done

Mentor:  **Works ✓**
         Your diff passes `remember` through and sets `maxAge` only when it's
         true. `npm test auth` passes (12 tests). Next: the checkbox in LoginForm.

Make it yours

On first use, mentor asks a few quick setup questions (about a minute). If your assistant has a clickable picker (e.g. Claude Code or Cursor), it uses that; otherwise you get one text card you answer like d 3 a a off. Or just say defaults. You can change any setting mid-lesson, or just for one task.

Build always starts by showing you where to start and why, so you learn the route even when the AI writes the code. With the default, ask me each step, you choose per edit: write it yourself, copy an explained snippet, let the AI do it (handy for tests or boilerplate), or turn it into a spec or OpenSpec change.

ADHD mode is off by default. Turn it on and every reply starts with the one thing to do, shows where you are (Step 3 of 5), gives a time estimate (~2 min), ticks off finished steps, and parks side topics until you're ready. It changes how replies are shaped, not what they say.

Changing them later:

If you saved a profile, changes are saved automatically to the same place and the AI tells you in one line. Then it shows the step you were on again, in your new settings, so you carry on from where you left off.

Tone changes how things are said, never the truth: problems are always stated plainly.

Where settings live: for all your projects in ~/.dev-mentor/profile.md (the default), or for one project in .dev-mentor/profile.md, which overrides only the lines it contains.

The flow

flowchart LR
    Start(["mentor<br/>onboard + settings"]) --> Where["Find a starting point<br/>in your real code"]
    Where --> Pick{"What do you<br/>want to do?"}
    Pick -->|understand| U["explain · learn<br/>review · walkthrough"]
    Pick -->|decide| D["architect · challenge<br/>devils-advocate"]
    Pick -->|build| PF["preflight<br/>worktree or branch"] --> C["coach"]
    C --> Edit["One step: you write it,<br/>copy it, or the AI does"] --> Check["done → mentor checks<br/>the diff + runs a test"]
    Check -->|next step| C
    C -. capture .-> S["share · spec"]
    C -. keep .-> L["save · resume<br/>export lesson"]

Skills

Install them all: every skill loads mentor-style for your settings, and hands saved lessons and exports over to mentor. Each skill has a short guide with what it does, when to use it, and how to tell it's working.

Install

Any skill-capable assistant (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more). Run this in your project:

npx skills add SirL0fty/dev-mentor

Pick your assistant and choose global to use it in every project. This needs Node.js 22.20 or newer.

Claude Code plugin:

claude plugin marketplace add SirL0fty/dev-mentor
claude plugin install dev-mentor@dev-mentor

Then run /dev-mentor:mentor.

ChatGPT desktop / Codex: go to Plugins → Add plugin marketplace, enter SirL0fty/dev-mentor with Git ref main, then install Dev Mentor. Select it with @ in a new chat.

Cursor: go to Customize → From GitHub Repository, paste https://github.com/SirL0fty/dev-mentor, then install Dev Mentor.

OpenCode and others: use the npx command above.

Detailed install, update and troubleshooting · Host compatibility

Get started

Use mentor to help me get started.

Or give it a ticket: "Help me build this one step at a time. I'll write the code."

Things you can say

If what you ask about isn't in the project, it tells you which project it looked in and asks whether to build it as a new feature, switch project, or point it to the right file.

Update

npx skills update (add -g for a global install). For plugins, see the update guide. See the changelog for what changed.

Contributing

Found a skill doing the wrong thing? Open an issue with the transcript. Want to change a skill? See CONTRIBUTING.md and the skill guides.

Inspired by pstack.

MIT licence · By SirL0fty