Matt Pocock Skills
Clarify the problem. Make the change with evidence.
Composable engineering skills for clarifying requirements, writing specs, splitting tickets, test-first development, debugging and architecture reviews. Bring a real project and start with one task.
Clients listed by the author
- Claude Code
- Codex
- GitHub Copilot
- Gemini CLI
- GitHub stars
- 305,085
- Version
- 1.3.1
- Checked
- Categories
- EngineeringProduct & Project
Start with one change you have not fully worked out.
If the request is still fuzzy, choose “Clarify needs.” If the discussion is settled, write the spec, then split it into tickets. Use “Test first” when you are ready to build, or “Debug a bug” for a concrete failure. Complete one task in a real project before combining more skills.
Pick a task and get started
Choose the stage you are at. Install the collection once; switching tasks updates the purpose, prompt, result checks and source link below.
You have a feature idea, but its goals, boundaries or tradeoffs are unresolved. Have the assistant investigate the project and ask focused questions while recording agreed terms and decisions.
Install and initialize the project
The terminal command below installs the collection in Claude Code once; switching tasks does not require reinstalling it. Then run /setup-matt-pocock-skills in your project conversation to configure issue tracking and document locations. For Codex, Copilot, Gemini CLI or editable files, follow the matching instructions below. Use one installation method per client.
Read the author’s setup guideclaude plugin install mattpocock-skills@claude-plugins-officialGive your AI this first task
After initialization, send this in your AI conversation with the repository open. These examples use “export filtered results”; replace that scenario with your feature or bug and attach the real materials.
/grill-with-docs I want to add “export the currently filtered results” to this admin app. Read the relevant code, then ask about users, data scope, permissions, large exports and failure handling. Investigate existing behavior where possible and give concrete options when a decision needs me. Record agreed project terms and important tradeoffs in the configured documents. Focus on clarifying the request in this session.
Check what you receive
- Clear user scenarios, constraints and important tradeoffs, with any unresolved decisions listed separately.
- Updated GLOSSARY.md or the configured glossary, plus records of decisions that need to be retained.
More about this skill
Matt Pocock separates everyday engineering work into skills you can invoke independently. For a new feature, grill-with-docs helps discuss goals, constraints and tradeoffs while recording project terms in GLOSSARY.md and important decisions in ADRs. Once the discussion is settled, to-spec captures it as a specification, and to-tickets breaks it into independently verifiable work with explicit dependencies.
During implementation, tdd helps agree on observable behavior and work through a failing test, minimal implementation and a passing test, one step at a time. For difficult bugs, diagnosing-bugs establishes a check that catches the actual failure, narrows the reproduction and tests possible causes. improve-codebase-architecture identifies areas that are hard to understand, change or test, then presents candidates for you to choose from.
These skills run inside an AI coding assistant with access to your project. Tasks such as grill-with-docs and to-spec need an explicit invocation; reusable disciplines such as tdd and diagnosing-bugs can also be selected by the assistant when appropriate. The project still needs its own build and test environment. The six starting points below follow common stages of real work.
Sources and verification
Sources checked
Usage notes are based on author documentation. We have not tested every skill’s generated output.