Section 3.1.2 of the 2.2 guide describes a state that is not true. stacks.json is an artifact of Che 6 / CRW 1.2, not of CRW 2.x.

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_codeready_workspaces/2.2/html-single/end-user_guide/index#disambiguation-between-stacks-and-devfiles_configuring-a-workspace-using-a-devfile

The doc gets worse in the CRW 2.3 docs, since it seems a version was bumped for the "previous" but not the current version, resulting in some doublespeak-like confusing sentences and more ambiguity:

3.1.2. Disambiguation between stacks and devfiles
This section describes differences between stacks in CodeReady Workspaces 2.2 and devfiles in CodeReady Workspaces 2.2

Starting with CodeReady Workspaces 2.2:

A stack is a pre-configured CodeReady Workspaces workspace.

A devfile is a configuration YAML file that CodeReady Workspaces consumes and transforms in a cloud workspace composed of multiple containers.

In CodeReady Workspaces 2.2, stacks were defined by a stacks.json file that was included with the che server. In contrast, in CodeReady Workspaces 2.2, the stacks.json file does not exist. Instead, a stack is defined in the devfile registry, which is a separate service. Every single devfile in the registry corresponds to a stack.

Note that in CodeReady Workspaces 2.2, stacks and workspaces were defined using two different formats. However, with CodeReady Workspaces 2.2, the devfile format is used to define both the stacks and the workspaces. Nevertheless, a user opening the user dashboard does not notice any difference: in CodeReady Workspaces 2.2, a list of stacks is still present to choose from as a starting point to create a workspace.