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mattpocock/skills

A collection of small, composable agent skills for real engineering, covering grilling sessions, TDD, bug diagnosis, specs, tickets and architecture review.

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View on GitHub (opens in a new tab) Setup guide
claude plugin install mattpocock-skills@claude-plugins-official
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What it is

mattpocock/skills is the author's set of agent skills, taken from his daily workflow, for use with coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex and others. The skills are meant to be small, easy to adapt and composable, and they work with any model. Unlike process-owning approaches (GSD, BMAD, Spec-Kit), they aim to leave you in control. They are split into Engineering and Productivity groups, and into user-invoked and model-invoked skills.

Who it's for

  • Developers using coding agents who want to do real engineering rather than vibe coding
  • Users who want small, editable skills they can adapt instead of a framework that owns the process
  • Teams that want shared domain language, TDD and design-focused review in their agent workflow

Requirements

Requirements

  • A supported coding agent: Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot (CLI or VS Code), Gemini CLI, or another agent (cursor, opencode, devin, windsurf, amp, pi) via the skills installer
  • npx, if installing through the skills installer
  • Run /setup-matt-pocock-skills once per repo, which asks for your issue tracker, triage labels and docs location

Setup

  1. Install for Claude Code

    Installs as a plugin that updates itself by default.

    bash
    claude plugin install mattpocock-skills@claude-plugins-official

  2. Install for Codex

    Installs as a plugin that updates itself at startup.

    bash
    codex plugin marketplace add mattpocock/skills
codex plugin add mattpocock-skills@mattpocock

  3. Install for GitHub Copilot

    Run these commands, then once add the marketplace entry (with autoUpdate) to ~/.copilot/settings.json under extraKnownMarketplaces. In VS Code, you can instead run Chat: Install Plugin From Source and enter https://github.com/mattpocock/skills. It updates daily.

    bash
    copilot plugin marketplace add mattpocock/skills
copilot plugin install mattpocock-skills@mattpocock

  4. Install for Gemini CLI

    Updates are manual: re-run both commands to update.

    bash
    gemini skills install https://github.com/mattpocock/skills.git --path skills/engineering
gemini skills install https://github.com/mattpocock/skills.git --path skills/productivity

  5. Install for any other agent (editable files)

    When the installer asks which skills to take, include setup-matt-pocock-skills. To update, run npx skills@latest update, and re-run add to pick up new skills. Pick either a plugin or this installer per agent, because installing both gives every skill twice.

    bash
    npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills -a <agent>  # cursor, opencode, devin, windsurf, amp, pi; omit -a to choose

  6. Run the setup skill

    In your agent, run /setup-matt-pocock-skills once per repo. It asks which issue tracker you use (GitHub, GitLab, local files, or anything else you describe), what labels you apply when triaging tickets, and where to save any docs.

Examples

Align with the agent before building

Prompt
prompt
/grill-with-docs

Expected output: A grilling session where the agent asks detailed questions about what you're building. It also builds a shared language and updates GLOSSARY.md and ADRs inline. Use /grill-me for non-code uses.

Build with red-green-refactor

Prompt
prompt
/tdd

Expected output: Runs test-driven development with a red-green-refactor loop, building features or fixing bugs one vertical slice at a time.

Diagnose a hard bug

Prompt
prompt
/diagnosing-bugs

Expected output: A disciplined loop for hard bugs and performance regressions: build a feedback loop that goes red on the bug, minimise, hypothesise, instrument, fix, then regression-test.

Survey the codebase for design improvements

Prompt
prompt
/improve-codebase-architecture

Expected output: Scans a codebase for deepening opportunities and presents them as a visual HTML report, then grills you through the one you pick. The author suggests running it every few days.

Pros & cons

Pros

  • Pro:Skills are small, composable and adaptable, and work with any model, so you keep control of the process
  • Pro:Grilling skills (/grill-me, /grill-with-docs) address misalignment, and a shared glossary reduces agent verbosity
  • Pro:Includes feedback-loop skills (/tdd, /diagnosing-bugs) and design-focused skills (/to-spec, /improve-codebase-architecture)
  • Pro:Claude Code, Codex and Copilot installs update automatically

Cons

  • Con:Installing both a plugin and the skills.sh installer for the same agent gives you every skill twice
  • Con:Gemini CLI and the skills installer require manual updates
  • Con:/improve-codebase-architecture is a survey, not a rescue, and won't untangle a genuinely old codebase

Images

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mattpocock/skills preview image · mattpocock/skills on GitHub
mattpocock/skills preview image