# skills

> Small, editable agent skills for planning, testing and reviewing code with AI

- Repository: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills
- Category: Agent skills & plugins
- Stars: 300,991 · Forks: 25,298 · Language: Shell · License: MIT
- Experience: Some experience
- Page: https://ir.adyog.com/repos/mattpocock/skills/

Coding agents often build the wrong thing, talk too much, write code that doesn't run, or pile up messy design. This repo is the author's answer: a set of skill files, each one a short instruction set the agent follows when you type a command like /grill-me or /tdd.

The skills tackle those four problems in turn. Grilling skills have the agent question you before it builds, and keep a shared glossary and decision records so it uses your project's terms. Others push a red-green-refactor test loop, a gated bug-diagnosis routine, and regular reviews of code design.

The README contrasts it with GSD, BMAD and Spec-Kit, which it says own the whole process. These skills are meant to be small and composable, to work with any model, and to be edited. Some can only be invoked by you; others the agent can reach for on its own.

## What it does

- **Grilling sessions**: /grill-me and /grill-with-docs make the agent ask detailed questions before building. The docs version also updates a glossary and architecture decision records as you go.
- **Test-driven development**: /tdd guides the agent through red-green-refactor, one vertical slice at a time, with guidance on good and bad tests.
- **Bug diagnosis loop**: /diagnosing-bugs builds a failing feedback loop, then minimises, hypothesises, instruments, fixes and adds a regression test.
- **Spec to tickets to code**: /to-spec, /to-tickets, /implement and /implement-spec turn a conversation into a spec and tickets on GitHub, Linear or local files, then build them.
- **Architecture and review**: /improve-codebase-architecture surveys a codebase for design improvements, and /code-review checks a diff against your standards and your spec using parallel sub-agents.

## What you could build

- Align with a coding agent on a feature by letting it grill you before any code is written.
- Build a feature test-first by running the /tdd skill in an existing project.
- Track down a hard bug or performance regression with a gated diagnosis loop.
- Break a large plan into tickets with blocking links on GitHub, Linear or local files.
- Review a diff against your repo's coding standards and the original spec.

## Who it's for

Developers who already use a coding agent such as Claude Code or Codex and want more discipline in how it works; you should be comfortable with git, issue trackers and testing basics.

## Get started

Install as a Claude Code plugin for a managed bundle, or use the npx installer to copy editable skill files into your repo. Then run /setup-matt-pocock-skills once per repo to choose your issue tracker, triage labels and docs location.

```
claude plugins install mattpocock-skills
```
```
npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills
```

Tags: agent-skills, claude-code, tdd, code-review, workflow