Garry Tan's Claude Code Setup Sparks Mixed Reactions

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan told a SXSW audience he's experiencing "cyber psychosis" and surviving on minimal sleep, fueled by his excitement for working with AI agents.

"I'm getting about four hours of sleep a night right now," he revealed to interviewer and fellow VC Bill Gurley on stage Saturday. "I have cyber psychosis, but I think a third of the CEOs I know have it too," he quipped about his AI fixation. (We assume he was joking, as AI-induced psychosis can be a serious concern.)

"Once you try it, you'll understand: It felt like I could rebuild my startup, which originally took $10 million in VC funding, a team of ten, and two years of work—back when I was taking anti-narcoleptics like modafinil," he explained, referencing the wakefulness-promoting drug popular in startup culture. (Tan sold his Y Combinator-backed startup Posterous to Twitter in 2012.)

Now, however, his mind is so energized by collaborating with AI agents that the insomnia comes naturally.

"I don't need modafinil for this revolution. I'm just awake. I went to bed at 4 a.m. and was up by 8 a.m.," he said. "I wanted more sleep, but I couldn't because I had to check on my ten workers. I have about three different projects running simultaneously."

His enthusiasm is such that on March 12, just two days before the interview, he openly shared his Claude Code setup, named "gstack," on GitHub under an open-source license. The setup included six "opinionated" Claude Code skills he developed. These skills are reusable prompts stored in "skill.md" files that guide the AI to perform specific roles or tasks.

"I've been having such an incredible experience with Claude Code that I wanted you to have my *exact* skill setup," he posted on X.

gstack is available now at https://t.co/VPvWDzV5c0

Open source, MIT license, let me know if it works for you. It's just one paste to install it on your local Claude Code, and it's a 2nd one to install it in your repo for your teammates.

— Garry Tan (@garrytan) March 12, 2026

He has since added more skills. The gstack GitHub repository currently lists 13, and Tan seems to announce new updates almost hourly via tweets.

In one post, he demonstrated his workflow: First, he uses a skill where Claude acts as a CEO to evaluate a startup idea. Then, another skill has Claude write the code as an engineer, followed by a third skill where it reviews its own work for bugs and security as a code reviewer. Additional skills handle design, documentation, and more.

The response to gstack was immediate: His tweet went viral on X and trended on Product Hunt. The GitHub repository has amassed nearly 20,000 stars and 2,200 forks, indicating significant adoption and modification by other developers.

However, shortly after the release, a tweet from Tan also sparked considerable backlash.

He quoted a CTO friend who called gstack "god mode," claiming it instantly identified a security flaw and predicting it would become ubiquitous.

My CTO friend texted me: "Your gstack is crazy. This is like god mode. Your eng review discovered a subtle cross site scripting attack that I don't even think my team is aware of. I will make a bet that over 90% of new repos from today forward will use gstack." https://t.co/P7aOFu5wFM

— Garry Tan (@garrytan) March 12, 2026

The critical responses were swift. One founder posted: "(1) Garry should be embarrassed for tweeting this. (2) If it's true, that CTO should be fired immediately."

Vlogger Mo Bitar released a critique titled "AI is making CEOs delusional," arguing the project was essentially "a bunch of prompts" in a text file and noting that many Claude Code users already have similar custom setups.

A comment on Product Hunt stated, "Garry, let's be honest: if you weren't the CEO of YC, this wouldn't be trending on PH."

So, what's the real value? Is gstack a uniquely useful framework for Claude Code, or is it unremarkable? To find out, I consulted experts, including Claude itself (which, unsurprisingly, praised it highly), as well as ChatGPT and Gemini, both of which offered positive assessments.

ChatGPT described gstack as a set of "reasonably sophisticated prompt workflows, but they're not 'magical.' The key insight is that AI coding excels when you simulate an engineering org structure, not just by asking 'build this feature.'"

Gemini called the setup "sophisticated," adding that "gstack is essentially a 'Pro' configuration. It's less about making coding easier and more about ensuring it's correct."

Claude praised gstack as "a mature, opinionated system built by a heavy user," concluding, "It's one of the better examples of Claude Code skill design available."

We'll consider that a strong endorsement from a qualified source.

On Monday, Tan elaborated in another X post: "I used to take modafinil to stay awake longer, transforming fleeting ideas in my mind into code before sleep or distraction could erase them. I love coding, but I love coding with AI even more. I speak, it listens, and we create. I visualize the structure, and it's built. To me, there is no more powerful experience."

Tan did not respond to multiple requests for comment.