Garry Tan’s Obsession with AI Leads to Creation of “Gstack”
During a recent interview at SXSW, Garry Tan, the renowned CEO of Y Combinator, admitted that his fixation with AI has led to him suffering from “cyberpsychosis” and getting barely four hours of sleep a night. Speaking to fellow VC Bill Gurley, Tan made light of his condition, suggesting that one-third of the CEOs he knows are similarly afflicted (source).
Tan’s Excitement Over AI Agents
Tan’s fascination with AI has even replaced the need for sleep-inhibiting drugs, which he had to rely on while working on his startup, Posterous, that was later sold to Twitter in 2012. His current excitement comes from working with AI agents, a passion that keeps him awake until late in the night. Tan is currently juggling three projects and is eagerly awaiting the outcomes.
Open Sourcing of “Gstack”
In his fervor for AI, Tan open-sourced his Claude Code setup on GitHub on March 12, 2026, just two days before his interview. The setup, named “gstack,” includes six skills developed by Tan for Claude Code, which are reusable prompts that guide the AI in performing specific tasks. The gstack repository now houses 13 skills, with Tan continually adding more.
Reception of “Gstack”
The introduction of gstack was met with overwhelming approval from the tech community. Tan’s tweet announcing the release went viral, and the software quickly trended on Product Hunt. The repository has since gathered nearly 20,000 stars on GitHub, and has been forked over 2,200 times, indicating high levels of usage and modification by other users.
Controversies and Criticisms
However, the release of gstack was not without controversy. A subsequent tweet from Tan, in which he claimed that gstack had helped a CTO friend uncover a security hole in his company’s code, attracted significant backlash. Critics argued that if such a claim were true, it would reflect poorly on the CTO’s ability to secure his company’s systems.
The Verdict on “Gstack”
Opinions on gstack’s efficacy vary. Some critics argue that it is nothing more than a set of prompts in a text file, and that developers who use Claude Code would likely have their own versions of it. However, AI experts such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini have praised the setup. They describe gstack as a “mature, opinionated system,” a “reasonably sophisticated prompt workflow,” and a “Pro” setup, respectively.
Despite the criticisms, it’s clear that gstack has been adopted and appreciated by many in the tech community. Tan’s commitment to AI is indisputable, and his creation of gstack is a testament to his passion and dedication to the field.
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