Skills

Skills For Real Engineers

My agent skills that I use every day to do real engineering - not vibe coding. Small, easy to adapt, and composable skills based on decades of engineering experience.

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Why These Skills Exist

1

The Agent Didn't Do What I Want

The most common failure mode is misalignment. You think the dev knows what you want, then you see what they've built and realize it didn't understand you at all.

The Fix:

Use /grill-me for non-code uses and /grill-with-docs for comprehensive grilling sessions that help you align with the agent before starting.

2

The Agent Is Way Too Verbose

At the start of a project, agents are dropped in and asked to figure out the jargon as they go. They use 20 words where 1 will do.

The Fix:

Create a shared language with /grill-with-docs. It builds a CONTEXT.md that helps agents decode project jargon, reducing verbosity and improving code quality.

3

The Code Doesn't Work

Without feedback on how the code actually runs, agents will be flying blind and producing unreliable results.

The Fix:

Use /tdd for test-driven development with red-green-refactor loops, and /diagnose for disciplined debugging practices.

4

We Built A Ball Of Mud

Agents accelerate software entropy. Codebases get complex at an unprecedented rate, making them hard to change.

The Fix:

Skills like /improve-codebase-architecture and /zoom-out help maintain system design and prevent codebase decay.

Quickstart (30-second setup)

1
Run the installer
Execute the skills.sh installer to get started
npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills
2
Pick your skills
Choose the skills you want and which coding agents to install them on. Make sure to select /setup-matt-pocock-skills.
3
Configure your setup
The setup will ask about your issue tracker, triage labels, and documentation preferences.
4
Bam - you're ready!
You're all set to start using the skills for real engineering.

Key Engineering Skills

/diagnose
Disciplined diagnosis loop for hard bugs and performance regressions: reproduce → minimise → hypothesise → instrument → fix → regression-test.
/grill-with-docs
Grilling session that challenges your plan against the existing domain model, sharpens terminology, and updates CONTEXT.md and ADRs inline.
/triage
Triage issues through a state machine of triage roles for better issue management.
/improve-codebase-architecture
Find deepening opportunities in a codebase, informed by the domain language and architectural decisions.
/tdd
Test-driven development with a red-green-refactor loop. Builds features or fixes bugs one vertical slice at a time.
/to-prd
Turn the current conversation context into a PRD and submit it as a GitHub issue. No interview needed.