Matt Pocock’s skills

mattpocock/skills describes itself this way:

“my agent skills that I use every day to do real engineering - not vibe coding.”

The README says the skills are “designed to be small, easy to adapt, and composable,” and work with any model. It invites you to hack around with them and make them your own. README

The README organizes them around four failure modes. When an agent misses your intent, it prescribes a question-and-answer session to clarify intent: grill-me for non-code work and grill-with-docs.

grill-with-docs also builds a shared language in GLOSSARY.md and architecture decision records (ADRs).

For code that doesn’t work it points to feedback loops, with tdd and diagnosing-bugs. For code with tangled responsibilities it points to improve-codebase-architecture.

The reference section splits the skills by whether the user or agent starts them. User-invoked skills run only when you type them. The agent can also select model-invoked skills automatically. It lists engineering and productivity groups, including to-spec, to-tickets, implement, triage, handoff, and writing-for-agents.

There are two ways to install. The Claude Code plugin installs the set as a managed, read-only bundle that updates when Matt ships. The npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills installer copies editable files into your project. The README says to pick one.

Run /setup-matt-pocock-skills once per repo to set the issue tracker, triage labels, and doc locations.

Related: Lauren Tan’s skills6.

Sources

  1. GitHub - mattpocock/skills: Skills for Real Engineers. Straight from my .agents directory. · GitHub. GitHub mattpocock/skills. Skills repository; used for the public engineering and productivity skill collection. Accessed 2026-10-01.
  2. skills/README.md at d81f3a183412e71a5b1e84ca21bc1a35eea03a60 · mattpocock/skills · GitHub. GitHub mattpocock/skills. Pinned README; used for failure modes, composition, and installation choices. Accessed 2026-10-01.

Last changed 2026-10-07 in f1a00f2. Source on GitHub. Change log.

Linked from

  1. Agent guide. An Effect stack so pure (aspirational) Kit Langton will blush.

    Matt Pocock’s skills — Matt Pocock’s skills repo packages the agent skills he says he uses every day, built to be small, adaptable, and composable.

  2. Change log. What changed in the files served here, newest first.

    Matt Pocock’s skills — edited: feat(learn): teach cards 43 to 62 with plain lines, diagrams and snippets

  3. Dependency injection is the reason to choose Effect. Effect tracks service requirements in types and supplies replaceable implementations through Layers.

    Matt Pocock puts dependency injection first:¶

  4. Full agent guide. An Effect stack so pure (aspirational) Kit Langton will blush.
  5. Lauren Tan's skills. Lauren Tan (poteto) publishes skills in several repos: brainmaxxing for memory and skill improvement, noodle for skill-based orchestration, how for explaining a codebase, and a verification-skill example.

    Related: Matt Pocock’s skills.¶

  6. Rat Stack lore | rat-stack. Short, source-grounded notes on the ideas and decisions behind rat-stack.

    Matt Pocock’s skills — Matt Pocock’s skills repo packages the agent skills he says he uses every day, built to be small, adaptable, and composable.

  7. Source change history (log.md). The generated change log as Markdown.

    Matt Pocock’s skills — edited: feat(learn): teach cards 43 to 62 with plain lines, diagrams and snippets