Introduction#

Matt Pocock’s skills collection turns familiar engineering practices into reusable instructions for coding agents. It covers requirements interviews, domain modeling, debugging, test-driven development, code review, issue triage, handoffs, and long-running plans.

Pick a workflow that matches the task. A small bug does not need a spec, tickets, and a multi-session plan. A fuzzy feature may need an interview before anyone touches code. Start with the skills you need for your current project and add others as the work calls for them.

This guide covers the 38 skills exposed by the installer on September 22, 2026: 25 promoted engineering and productivity skills, plus 13 beta or specialized skills. The catalog changes, so list it again before installing.

Choose the workflow first#

Start with the smallest workflow that matches the uncertainty in the task.

grilling is the interview primitive behind grill-me, grill-with-docs, and wayfinder. It asks the decisions that are ready to answer in rounds, then waits for confirmation. Use it when the cost of building the wrong thing exceeds the cost of a longer conversation.

How the skills work#

Each skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file. The file describes when to use the skill and what to do when it runs. The installer can add skills to one project or make them available across projects. Project scope works well for this collection: the engineering workflows use each repository’s tracker, terminology, architecture decisions, and test commands.

Matt’s main catalog separates skills you invoke yourself from disciplines an agent can select when a task matches. The reference tables call these manual and automatic. Your coding agent’s skill selector and automatic invocation rules may differ, so check its interface when you use an explicit skill name.

Install a project-level starter set#

Run these commands from the Git repository that should own the skills. The installer uses project scope by default and may detect your coding agent automatically. Check its installation summary for the selected agent and paths.

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bunx skills add mattpocock/skills --list

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bunx skills add mattpocock/skills \
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  --skill setup-matt-pocock-skills grilling grill-me \
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  domain-modeling grill-with-docs diagnosing-bugs tdd code-review

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bunx skills list --json
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git status --short

Configure each repository once#

Invoke the setup skill in your coding agent. For example, ask it:

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Use the setup-matt-pocock-skills skill for this repository.

The skill inspects the repository, proposes an issue tracker and domain-document layout, shows the files it wants to write, and waits for confirmation. It may add an Agent skills section to an existing AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md and create configuration under docs/agents/.

The tracker choices include GitHub, GitLab, local Markdown, and Other. If your project uses BACKLOG.md, choose Other and describe it as the source of work. The .scratch/<feature>/ layout is Matt’s default for the built-in local Markdown tracker. It is not required when you configure another tracker.

Setup does not create remote issues merely because the repository has a GitHub remote. It records the confirmed tracker choice so skills such as to-spec, to-tickets, and triage know where work belongs.

Compose skills without missing dependencies#

Several short orchestrator skills call other skills by name. Install the whole row when you use one of these workflows.

ask-matt can suggest a flow, but it cannot install a skill that is absent. Treat its answer as routing advice and compare the proposed names with your installed list.

Practical workflow examples#

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Use the grill-me skill to decide how account deletion should behave. Limit the
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interview to the API contract, data retention, and recovery.

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Use the grill-with-docs skill to design the boundary between billing and
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entitlements. Update the glossary and record decisions after I confirm them.

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Use the diagnosing-bugs skill to investigate checkout latency. Establish a
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failing feedback loop and identify the cause before changing production code.

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Use the handoff skill so another session can continue the checkout investigation.

Complete catalog#

The first two tables contain the 25 promoted skills documented in the repository’s main README. The last table contains nine in-progress skills and four miscellaneous skills that the installer also discovers. Beta skills can change or disappear without notice.

Maintenance#

Project-level copies do not update behind your back. Inspect upstream changes before accepting them:

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bunx skills update -p
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git status --short
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git diff -- skills-lock.json

Re-run the catalog listing when a workflow refers to a skill you do not have. Install that skill and its companions explicitly with the space-separated --skill form.

References#