Add setup-matt-pocock-skills; rename github-triage to triage; migrate engineering skills to vague prose

Engineering skills no longer hard-code GitHub or specific label strings.
A new setup skill scaffolds an `## Agent skills` block in
AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md plus `docs/agents/` so each repo can declare its own
backlog backend, triage label vocabulary, and domain doc layout. Skills
that need the mapping (to-issues, to-prd, triage) point at the setup
skill; skills that only soften with it (diagnose, tdd,
improve-codebase-architecture, zoom-out) stay vague. ADR-0001 records
the split.

Closes #88, #89.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Matt Pocock
2026-04-28 16:33:37 +01:00
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# Writing Agent Briefs
An agent brief is a structured comment posted on a GitHub issue when it moves to `ready-for-agent`. It is the authoritative specification that an AFK agent will work from. The original issue body and discussion are context — the agent brief is the contract.
## Principles
### Durability over precision
The issue may sit in `ready-for-agent` for days or weeks. The codebase will change in the meantime. Write the brief so it stays useful even as files are renamed, moved, or refactored.
- **Do** describe interfaces, types, and behavioral contracts
- **Do** name specific types, function signatures, or config shapes that the agent should look for or modify
- **Don't** reference file paths — they go stale
- **Don't** reference line numbers
- **Don't** assume the current implementation structure will remain the same
### Behavioral, not procedural
Describe **what** the system should do, not **how** to implement it. The agent will explore the codebase fresh and make its own implementation decisions.
- **Good:** "The `SkillConfig` type should accept an optional `schedule` field of type `CronExpression`"
- **Bad:** "Open src/types/skill.ts and add a schedule field on line 42"
- **Good:** "When a user runs `/triage` with no arguments, they should see a summary of issues needing attention"
- **Bad:** "Add a switch statement in the main handler function"
### Complete acceptance criteria
The agent needs to know when it's done. Every agent brief must have concrete, testable acceptance criteria. Each criterion should be independently verifiable.
- **Good:** "Running `gh issue list --label needs-triage` returns issues that have been through initial classification"
- **Bad:** "Triage should work correctly"
### Explicit scope boundaries
State what is out of scope. This prevents the agent from gold-plating or making assumptions about adjacent features.
## Template
```markdown
## Agent Brief
**Category:** bug / enhancement
**Summary:** one-line description of what needs to happen
**Current behavior:**
Describe what happens now. For bugs, this is the broken behavior.
For enhancements, this is the status quo the feature builds on.
**Desired behavior:**
Describe what should happen after the agent's work is complete.
Be specific about edge cases and error conditions.
**Key interfaces:**
- `TypeName` — what needs to change and why
- `functionName()` return type — what it currently returns vs what it should return
- Config shape — any new configuration options needed
**Acceptance criteria:**
- [ ] Specific, testable criterion 1
- [ ] Specific, testable criterion 2
- [ ] Specific, testable criterion 3
**Out of scope:**
- Thing that should NOT be changed or addressed in this issue
- Adjacent feature that might seem related but is separate
```
## Examples
### Good agent brief (bug)
```markdown
## Agent Brief
**Category:** bug
**Summary:** Skill description truncation drops mid-word, producing broken output
**Current behavior:**
When a skill description exceeds 1024 characters, it is truncated at exactly
1024 characters regardless of word boundaries. This produces descriptions
that end mid-word (e.g. "Use when the user wants to confi").
**Desired behavior:**
Truncation should break at the last word boundary before 1024 characters
and append "..." to indicate truncation.
**Key interfaces:**
- The `SkillMetadata` type's `description` field — no type change needed,
but the validation/processing logic that populates it needs to respect
word boundaries
- Any function that reads SKILL.md frontmatter and extracts the description
**Acceptance criteria:**
- [ ] Descriptions under 1024 chars are unchanged
- [ ] Descriptions over 1024 chars are truncated at the last word boundary
before 1024 chars
- [ ] Truncated descriptions end with "..."
- [ ] The total length including "..." does not exceed 1024 chars
**Out of scope:**
- Changing the 1024 char limit itself
- Multi-line description support
```
### Good agent brief (enhancement)
```markdown
## Agent Brief
**Category:** enhancement
**Summary:** Add `.out-of-scope/` directory support for tracking rejected feature requests
**Current behavior:**
When a feature request is rejected, the issue is closed with a `wontfix` label
and a comment. There is no persistent record of the decision or reasoning.
Future similar requests require the maintainer to recall or search for the
prior discussion.
**Desired behavior:**
Rejected feature requests should be documented in `.out-of-scope/<concept>.md`
files that capture the decision, reasoning, and links to all issues that
requested the feature. When triaging new issues, these files should be
checked for matches.
**Key interfaces:**
- Markdown file format in `.out-of-scope/` — each file should have a
`# Concept Name` heading, a `**Decision:**` line, a `**Reason:**` line,
and a `**Prior requests:**` list with issue links
- The triage workflow should read all `.out-of-scope/*.md` files early
and match incoming issues against them by concept similarity
**Acceptance criteria:**
- [ ] Closing a feature as wontfix creates/updates a file in `.out-of-scope/`
- [ ] The file includes the decision, reasoning, and link to the closed issue
- [ ] If a matching `.out-of-scope/` file already exists, the new issue is
appended to its "Prior requests" list rather than creating a duplicate
- [ ] During triage, existing `.out-of-scope/` files are checked and surfaced
when a new issue matches a prior rejection
**Out of scope:**
- Automated matching (human confirms the match)
- Reopening previously rejected features
- Bug reports (only enhancement rejections go to `.out-of-scope/`)
```
### Bad agent brief
```markdown
## Agent Brief
**Summary:** Fix the triage bug
**What to do:**
The triage thing is broken. Look at the main file and fix it.
The function around line 150 has the issue.
**Files to change:**
- src/triage/handler.ts (line 150)
- src/types.ts (line 42)
```
This is bad because:
- No category
- Vague description ("the triage thing is broken")
- References file paths and line numbers that will go stale
- No acceptance criteria
- No scope boundaries
- No description of current vs desired behavior