rename CONTEXT.md/CONTEXT-MAP.md convention to GLOSSARY.md/GLOSSARY-MAP.md

The prior commit renamed only this repo's own root glossary. This
commit does the thing actually asked for: repoint every skill and doc
that reads/writes the domain-doc convention in consumer repos —
domain-modeling, grill-with-docs, improve-codebase-architecture,
setup-matt-pocock-skills, triage, tdd, diagnosing-bugs, ask-matt,
codebase-design, wait-what — plus their docs pages, .agents/ notes,
and the top-level README. CONTEXT-FORMAT.md is renamed to
GLOSSARY-FORMAT.md alongside it.

Left untouched on purpose: CHANGELOG.md and the one still-unreleased
CONTEXT.md-era changeset, both historical records of what shipped
under the old name; and the README's pinned course-video-manager
link, which points at a real file that is still literally named
CONTEXT.md at that commit in another repo.

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Claude
2026-08-16 11:14:41 +00:00
committed by Matt Pocock
parent c04842041f
commit eeab9cdae4
28 changed files with 102 additions and 100 deletions
+14 -14
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@@ -2,11 +2,11 @@
`domain-modeling` builds and sharpens a project's **ubiquitous language** while you are designing — challenging a term that conflicts with the glossary, forcing a precise word where you used a vague one, and stress-testing a relationship with a concrete scenario until the boundaries are exact.
It is the **active** discipline, not the passive one. Reading `CONTEXT.md` to borrow its vocabulary is a one-line habit any skill can do; this skill is for when you are *changing* the model. That is what makes it interrupt. It writes a resolved term into `CONTEXT.md` at the moment it is resolved, in the middle of the conversation, rather than producing a tidy glossary at the end — because the batched version is a summary of a [session](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/session), and the inline version is the session's actual output.
It is the **active** discipline, not the passive one. Reading `GLOSSARY.md` to borrow its vocabulary is a one-line habit any skill can do; this skill is for when you are *changing* the model. That is what makes it interrupt. It writes a resolved term into `GLOSSARY.md` at the moment it is resolved, in the middle of the conversation, rather than producing a tidy glossary at the end — because the batched version is a summary of a [session](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/session), and the inline version is the session's actual output.
## When to reach for it
Type `/domain-modeling`, or the agent reaches for it automatically when a task fits. In practice, automatic invocation is the weakest part of the skill: when `grill-with-docs` or `wayfinder` say to load it, [models](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/model) frequently load `grilling` and skip this one. If a [grilling](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/grilling) session runs and `CONTEXT.md` is untouched at the end, that is what happened — invoke it by name alongside the other skill.
Type `/domain-modeling`, or the agent reaches for it automatically when a task fits. In practice, automatic invocation is the weakest part of the skill: when `grill-with-docs` or `wayfinder` say to load it, [models](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/model) frequently load `grilling` and skip this one. If a [grilling](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/grilling) session runs and `GLOSSARY.md` is untouched at the end, that is what happened — invoke it by name alongside the other skill.
Reach for it when the *words* are the problem:
@@ -17,13 +17,13 @@ Reach for it when the *words* are the problem:
| You just made a hard-to-reverse architectural choice | `domain-modeling` — it offers an ADR, if the choice clears the bar |
| The module's *shape* is the problem — where the seam goes, how deep the interface is | [codebase-design](https://aihero.dev/skills-codebase-design) |
| You want the whole plan interrogated before you build | [grill-with-docs](https://aihero.dev/skills-grill-with-docs), which drives this skill underneath |
| You want a term looked up, not changed | Nothing. Read `CONTEXT.md`. It is a file. |
| You want a term looked up, not changed | Nothing. Read `GLOSSARY.md`. It is a file. |
## Prerequisites
None up front. The skill writes into two places and creates both lazily:
- **`CONTEXT.md`** at the repo root, created by the first resolved term. In a repo with a `CONTEXT-MAP.md` at the root, terms go into the per-context `CONTEXT.md` the map points at instead.
- **`GLOSSARY.md`** at the repo root, created by the first resolved term. In a repo with a `GLOSSARY-MAP.md` at the root, terms go into the per-context `GLOSSARY.md` the map points at instead.
- **`docs/adr/`**, created by the first ADR that clears the bar.
Nothing needs to exist before you start, and nothing is created speculatively.
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Nothing needs to exist before you start, and nothing is created speculatively.
The glossary and the ADR are held to different standards, and conflating them is where most of the trouble in this skill comes from.
| | `CONTEXT.md` | `docs/adr/NNNN-slug.md` |
| | `GLOSSARY.md` | `docs/adr/NNNN-slug.md` |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Holds | Terms. What a thing **is**, in one or two sentences, with rejected synonyms under `_Avoid_` | One decision, in one to three sentences: context, choice, reason |
| Bar to write | A vague term became canonical | **All three**: hard to reverse, surprising without context, the result of a real trade-off |
@@ -41,27 +41,27 @@ The glossary and the ADR are held to different standards, and conflating them is
Miss any one of the ADR's three tests and there is no ADR. An easily-reversed decision will just get reversed; an unsurprising one is nobody's question; one with no real alternative records that you did the obvious thing.
The `CONTEXT.md` rule is the one to actually hold onto, because it is the one that breaks in the field. **It is a glossary and nothing else.** Left unchecked, models treat "write to `CONTEXT.md`" as permission to persist every answer you give, and the file turns into a running spec — this is the most-reported problem with the skill, across several models.
The `GLOSSARY.md` rule is the one to actually hold onto, because it is the one that breaks in the field. **It is a glossary and nothing else.** Left unchecked, models treat "write to `GLOSSARY.md`" as permission to persist every answer you give, and the file turns into a running spec — this is the most-reported problem with the skill, across several models.
## Cross-referencing, and where it stops
The move that makes the skill click: when you state how something works, it checks the code and surfaces the contradiction. *"Your code cancels entire Orders, but you just said partial cancellation is possible — which is right?"* The language and the code are made to agree, out loud, before either is changed.
The limit is worth knowing. It cross-references **code** and the committed `CONTEXT.md`/ADRs, and nothing else. It does not search your issue tracker, so a naming collision that was argued out and deliberately settled in a closed issue months ago gets surfaced as if it were new. There is [an open request](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/issues/717) to fix this; until then, the workaround is to put the instruction in your own `docs/agents/domain.md`, which the skills already read.
The limit is worth knowing. It cross-references **code** and the committed `GLOSSARY.md`/ADRs, and nothing else. It does not search your issue tracker, so a naming collision that was argued out and deliberately settled in a closed issue months ago gets surfaced as if it were new. There is [an open request](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/issues/717) to fix this; until then, the workaround is to put the instruction in your own `docs/agents/domain.md`, which the skills already read.
## Common questions
**My `CONTEXT.md` is 500 lines. 1,000. 3,000. What do I do?**
The size is a symptom, not the disease — the file has absorbed implementation detail and decisions that were never glossary material. The fix is a direct instruction: `/grill-with-docs make my CONTEXT.md more concise and remove any implementation details from it`. Run it against a bloated file and most of it goes. Only reach for a `CONTEXT-MAP.md` split once the file is genuinely lean and still covers two domains that a reader would not want to hold at once; splitting a bloated file just gives you several bloated files. The skill's guidance here is not yet strong enough to prevent the growth in the first place, and the issue tracking that is still open.
**My `GLOSSARY.md` is 500 lines. 1,000. 3,000. What do I do?**
The size is a symptom, not the disease — the file has absorbed implementation detail and decisions that were never glossary material. The fix is a direct instruction: `/grill-with-docs make my GLOSSARY.md more concise and remove any implementation details from it`. Run it against a bloated file and most of it goes. Only reach for a `GLOSSARY-MAP.md` split once the file is genuinely lean and still covers two domains that a reader would not want to hold at once; splitting a bloated file just gives you several bloated files. The skill's guidance here is not yet strong enough to prevent the growth in the first place, and the issue tracking that is still open.
**Why is it `CONTEXT.md` and not `GLOSSARY.md`?**
This is the most-argued naming question in the whole skill set and it has no settled answer. The case against the current name is good: if it is "a glossary and nothing else", `GLOSSARY.md` says so, and — as one reader put it — "with ai agents everything is [context](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/context)". The case for it is the map: `CONTEXT-MAP.md` pointing at several `CONTEXT.md` files reads naturally in a way `GLOSSARY-MAP.md` does not, and `context` is the standing DDD word for a bounded area of the model. At least one person maintains a local fork purely to rename the file. You can do the same, but every other skill in the set looks for `CONTEXT.md`, so a rename means patching all of them.
**Why is it `GLOSSARY.md` and not `CONTEXT.md`?**
It used to be `CONTEXT.md`, and this was the most-argued naming question in the whole skill set. The case against the old name was good: if it is "a glossary and nothing else", `GLOSSARY.md` says so, and — as one reader put it — "with ai agents everything is [context](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/context)". The case for `CONTEXT.md` was the map: `CONTEXT-MAP.md` pointing at several `CONTEXT.md` files read naturally in a way `GLOSSARY-MAP.md`/`GLOSSARY.md` doesn't quite, and `context` is the standing DDD word for a bounded area of the model. The naming case eventually won out over the map's cadence, and every skill in the set that reads or writes the file was repointed to `GLOSSARY.md`/`GLOSSARY-MAP.md` in the same change. If you have an older repo with a `CONTEXT.md` from before the rename, `git mv` it to `GLOSSARY.md` (and `CONTEXT-MAP.md` to `GLOSSARY-MAP.md`, if present) — the skills only look for the new names.
**Where did `/ubiquitous-language` go?**
It was removed, and it was not deprecated. Its job moved into `domain-modeling`, which maintains the whole model continuously rather than dumping a glossary out of one conversation. Vocabulary enforcement got more load-bearing, not less — it now runs underneath grilling, triage and mapping rather than as a separate pass you remember to do.
**How do I get a glossary for a codebase that has none?**
Ask for it explicitly rather than waiting for it to accumulate. `/grill-with-docs help me scaffold my existing repo with a CONTEXT.md` is the documented route; expect a long interrogation — one user reported 50+ questions before the file was in shape. Incidental use builds the glossary far too slowly on a brownfield repo.
Ask for it explicitly rather than waiting for it to accumulate. `/grill-with-docs help me scaffold my existing repo with a GLOSSARY.md` is the documented route; expect a long interrogation — one user reported 50+ questions before the file was in shape. Incidental use builds the glossary far too slowly on a brownfield repo.
**Can I keep the domain model and use my own ADR format?**
Not cleanly today. The glossary half and the ADR half ship in one skill, so a team with an established ADR convention — different template, different location, different naming — gets instructions that conflict with its house style. The current options are to copy the skill locally and edit it, or to override the ADR conventions in your repo's own agent docs. Splitting the two apart is [an open request](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/issues/557).
@@ -75,11 +75,11 @@ No, and there is no plan for a skill that does. A domain language you do not und
## It's working if
- It stops you mid-sentence to ask which of two things you meant, instead of picking one and moving on.
- `CONTEXT.md` changes **during** the conversation, not in a burst at the end.
- `GLOSSARY.md` changes **during** the conversation, not in a burst at the end.
- It refuses to write an ADR for something you could undo tomorrow — and says which of the three tests failed.
- New entries define what a thing *is* in one or two sentences and name the words you are giving up under `_Avoid_`.
- It quotes your code back at you when your code and your sentence disagree.
- `CONTEXT.md` gets shorter as often as it gets longer.
- `GLOSSARY.md` gets shorter as often as it gets longer.
## Where it fits
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`grill-with-docs` interviews you about a plan or design until you and the [agent](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/agent) share one understanding of it, and writes the vocabulary and the hard decisions into your repo while it does. It is the same interview [grill-me](https://aihero.dev/skills-grill-me) runs — a round of questions, then wait, then the next round — pointed at a codebase.
It is **[stateful](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/stateful)**. Every other grilling skill leaves the [session](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/session) in your head; this one leaves files on disk. A term gets resolved and it lands in `CONTEXT.md` the moment it resolves, not batched at the end. A decision passes three gates and it lands as an ADR. That is the whole difference, and it is also the source of most of the trouble people have with the skill: the artifacts are real files in a real repo, so they can be absent when you expected them, and they can drift when more than one person is writing them.
It is **[stateful](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/stateful)**. Every other grilling skill leaves the [session](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/session) in your head; this one leaves files on disk. A term gets resolved and it lands in `GLOSSARY.md` the moment it resolves, not batched at the end. A decision passes three gates and it lands as an ADR. That is the whole difference, and it is also the source of most of the trouble people have with the skill: the artifacts are real files in a real repo, so they can be absent when you expected them, and they can drift when more than one person is writing them.
## When to reach for it
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ The wayfinder split comes down to session count: `/grill-with-docs` for single-s
## Prerequisites
The skill writes into your repo, so you need to be somewhere it is safe to write. Resolved terms go to a `CONTEXT.md` glossary at the root — or to the relevant context's `CONTEXT.md`, if a `CONTEXT-MAP.md` at the root marks the repo as multi-context. Decisions go to `docs/adr/`. Both are created lazily; nothing exists until the first term or decision crystallises, so there is nothing to scaffold up front.
The skill writes into your repo, so you need to be somewhere it is safe to write. Resolved terms go to a `GLOSSARY.md` glossary at the root — or to the relevant context's `GLOSSARY.md`, if a `GLOSSARY-MAP.md` at the root marks the repo as multi-context. Decisions go to `docs/adr/`. Both are created lazily; nothing exists until the first term or decision crystallises, so there is nothing to scaffold up front.
It also needs two other skills present, because its own `SKILL.md` is one line that delegates to them: [grilling](https://aihero.dev/skills-grilling) supplies the interview, [domain-modeling](https://aihero.dev/skills-domain-modeling) supplies the writing. Installing `grill-with-docs` alone gets you a skill that does not work.
@@ -32,11 +32,11 @@ Three things come out of a session, and they are not equal.
| What resolved | Where it lands |
| --- | --- |
| A term — the project's own word for a thing | `CONTEXT.md`, inline, the moment it resolves |
| A term — the project's own word for a thing | `GLOSSARY.md`, inline, the moment it resolves |
| A decision that is hard to reverse, surprising without context, and a real trade-off | An ADR under `docs/adr/` |
| Everything else you decided | The conversation, and nowhere else |
That third row is the one that catches people out. `CONTEXT.md` is a glossary and is deliberately kept as one — no implementation details, no [spec](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/spec), no scratch notes. ADRs are gated on all three conditions at once, so most decisions do not qualify and most sessions produce none. A session that yields a sharper glossary and zero ADRs is working as designed, but it means the bulk of what you agreed exists only in the [context window](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/context-window) you agreed it in. Hand that same conversation to [to-spec](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-spec) rather than [clearing](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/clearing) it.
That third row is the one that catches people out. `GLOSSARY.md` is a glossary and is deliberately kept as one — no implementation details, no [spec](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/spec), no scratch notes. ADRs are gated on all three conditions at once, so most decisions do not qualify and most sessions produce none. A session that yields a sharper glossary and zero ADRs is working as designed, but it means the bulk of what you agreed exists only in the [context window](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/context-window) you agreed it in. Hand that same conversation to [to-spec](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-spec) rather than [clearing](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/clearing) it.
The glossary is the point. Domain language is the thing this skill is actually building — the project's own words, agreed once, so you, the agent and your colleagues stop paying to re-derive them. It is worth saying that not everyone agrees this buys you agent performance: the sharpest public pushback is that a term and its plain-English expansion get the same result from the [model](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/model), and that the vocabulary really compresses communication between the humans who share it. That reading still leaves the glossary valuable; it just moves the value.
@@ -51,17 +51,17 @@ Related: running the skill repeatedly across unrelated changes in one repo tends
**Should I use this or `/wayfinder`?**
Scope decides it. Use this for anything you can settle in one session; use [wayfinder](https://aihero.dev/skills-wayfinder) when the effort is too big to hold in one, and it charts the work as a map of decision [tickets](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/ticket) first. Wayfinder is slower and denser, and reaching for it on a well-scoped feature is the common mistake. It does not replace this skill — it can drop into a grilling session for the parts of the map that suit one.
**It ran, but no `CONTEXT.md` and no ADRs appeared.**
**It ran, but no `GLOSSARY.md` and no ADRs appeared.**
Two known causes. The mundane one: nothing qualified. ADRs need all three gates, and a session about a change with no new vocabulary genuinely has nothing to write. The real bug: when the skill runs inside another orchestration layer — a spec-driven-development wrapper, a multi-agent framework, a rule that invokes it as a step in someone else's pipeline — the file-writing half is reported to silently not happen, while the interview still runs. This is filed and unfixed. If you are in that setup, check the working directory before you trust the session's output.
**It asked everything at once, with no recommendations, and never mentioned `CONTEXT.md`.**
**It asked everything at once, with no recommendations, and never mentioned `GLOSSARY.md`.**
That is the skill failing to load its two dependencies. Because `SKILL.md` is a one-line delegation, an agent that does not pick up [grilling](https://aihero.dev/skills-grilling) and [domain-modeling](https://aihero.dev/skills-domain-modeling) guesses at what grilling means, and you get an undifferentiated question dump. Partial loading is the more confusing case — `grilling` loads, `domain-modeling` does not, and you get a good interview with no paper trail. It correlates with model and [effort](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/effort) level, and it is the most reported problem with this skill. If you suspect it, ask the agent directly which skills it loaded.
**Where did all my other decisions go?**
Into the conversation only. This is the most substantive open complaint about the skill: the glossary is not a spec, most answers do not earn an ADR, and there is no ledger tying each resolved answer through to a spec, a ticket and a test. Precise answers — ordering guarantees, negative requirements, numeric defaults — get softened into weaker prose downstream, and the result can look complete while missing the thing you actually decided. The mitigation available today is to keep the session and feed it straight to [to-spec](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-spec), and to re-read the spec against your own answers rather than assuming it captured them.
**Can I point it at an existing repo that has no docs at all?**
Yes. This is the right skill for a codebase with no ADRs, no domain language and no design principles — invoke it and say "help me document my repo". The community pattern pairs it with [improve-codebase-architecture](https://aihero.dev/skills-improve-codebase-architecture) for building or repairing a `CONTEXT.md`. Expect to steer it: it will read code and ask you about what it finds, and you are the one who says which of the words already in the codebase are the right ones.
Yes. This is the right skill for a codebase with no ADRs, no domain language and no design principles — invoke it and say "help me document my repo". The community pattern pairs it with [improve-codebase-architecture](https://aihero.dev/skills-improve-codebase-architecture) for building or repairing a `GLOSSARY.md`. Expect to steer it: it will read code and ask you about what it finds, and you are the one who says which of the words already in the codebase are the right ones.
**What should I do when the session ends?**
The skill's closing message tends to be open-ended, which is a known rough edge. In the main flow the answer is [to-spec](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-spec), in the same conversation. If the change is small enough to build immediately, go straight to [implement](https://aihero.dev/skills-implement) instead.
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ Nobody is happy with the name. There is an open suggestion to rename it `grill-d
## It's working if
- `CONTEXT.md` changes *during* the session, term by term, rather than appearing in one lump at the end.
- `GLOSSARY.md` changes *during* the session, term by term, rather than appearing in one lump at the end.
- The glossary reads as pure vocabulary — your project's words with tight definitions — and contains no implementation detail or spec-like prose.
- Questions the codebase can answer get answered by reading the codebase, not asked of you.
- You get few or no ADRs, and the ones you get are decisions you would be annoyed to have to re-litigate.
@@ -27,9 +27,9 @@ Where it is confusable with siblings:
## Prerequisites
None to run it. It reads `CONTEXT.md` and any ADRs in `docs/adr/` if they exist, and speaks in your domain's own nouns when they do — a candidate reads as "deepen the Order intake module," not "refactor the FooBarHandler."
None to run it. It reads `GLOSSARY.md` and any ADRs in `docs/adr/` if they exist, and speaks in your domain's own nouns when they do — a candidate reads as "deepen the Order intake module," not "refactor the FooBarHandler."
It writes in two places. The report goes to `<tmpdir>/architecture-review-<timestamp>.html`, outside the repo. During the grilling loop it will add or sharpen terms in `CONTEXT.md`, creating that file if it does not exist, and offer to record a rejected candidate as an ADR so a future run does not re-suggest it.
It writes in two places. The report goes to `<tmpdir>/architecture-review-<timestamp>.html`, outside the repo. During the grilling loop it will add or sharpen terms in `GLOSSARY.md`, creating that file if it does not exist, and offer to record a rejected candidate as an ADR so a future run does not re-suggest it.
## Depth, and the report that hunts for it
@@ -98,4 +98,4 @@ There is no good answer shipped with the skill. The recurring request is for a `
## Where it fits
`improve-codebase-architecture` is **periodic maintenance** — run it every few days, outside any chain, to queue up work rather than to do it. Its neighbours are [codebase-design](https://aihero.dev/skills-codebase-design), which owns the depth-and-seam vocabulary every candidate is written in, [grilling](https://aihero.dev/skills-grilling), which walks the decision tree once you have chosen a candidate, and [domain-modeling](https://aihero.dev/skills-domain-modeling), which keeps `CONTEXT.md` and the ADRs current as the decision settles. What it produces is an idea, which re-enters the main build flow at [grill-with-docs](https://aihero.dev/skills-grill-with-docs) or [to-spec](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-spec). For which skill fits a situation, [ask-matt](https://aihero.dev/skills-ask-matt) is the router over the whole set.
`improve-codebase-architecture` is **periodic maintenance** — run it every few days, outside any chain, to queue up work rather than to do it. Its neighbours are [codebase-design](https://aihero.dev/skills-codebase-design), which owns the depth-and-seam vocabulary every candidate is written in, [grilling](https://aihero.dev/skills-grilling), which walks the decision tree once you have chosen a candidate, and [domain-modeling](https://aihero.dev/skills-domain-modeling), which keeps `GLOSSARY.md` and the ADRs current as the decision settles. What it produces is an idea, which re-enters the main build flow at [grill-with-docs](https://aihero.dev/skills-grill-with-docs) or [to-spec](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-spec). For which skill fits a situation, [ask-matt](https://aihero.dev/skills-ask-matt) is the router over the whole set.
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@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ Reach for it when the next step is *finding something out* from outside the work
| --- | --- |
| An external fact a decision is waiting on | `research` |
| A decision made *with* you, by interview | [grilling](https://aihero.dev/skills-grilling) |
| A durable architecture decision, written into `CONTEXT.md` and ADRs | [grill-with-docs](https://aihero.dev/skills-grill-with-docs) |
| A durable architecture decision, written into `GLOSSARY.md` and ADRs | [grill-with-docs](https://aihero.dev/skills-grill-with-docs) |
| To find out whether an approach works in your codebase | [prototype](https://aihero.dev/skills-prototype) |
| A plan too big to hold in one session | [wayfinder](https://aihero.dev/skills-wayfinder) |
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@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
Those files are the only thing that varies between repos. The skills themselves are identical everywhere; they read `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md` at run time and do what it says. That is why the set is not tied to GitHub, and why no skill file ever needs editing to point it somewhere else. Invoking it with "link the skills to a custom issue tracker" works with anything you can connect to programmatically, with zero changes to the skills.
It is a prompt-driven skill, not a deterministic script. It reads your `git remote`, your existing `CLAUDE.md`, your existing `CONTEXT.md`, proposes what it found, and waits for you to confirm before writing anything.
It is a prompt-driven skill, not a deterministic script. It reads your `git remote`, your existing `CLAUDE.md`, your existing `GLOSSARY.md`, proposes what it found, and waits for you to confirm before writing anything.
## When to reach for it
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ It leads each section with the recommended answer, and skips whatever exploratio
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Issue tracker** | the one matching your `git remote` | always — this is the one real choice |
| **Triage labels** | keep the five canonical names (`needs-triage`, `needs-info`, `ready-for-agent`, `ready-for-human`, `wontfix`) | only if the `triage` skill is installed |
| **Domain docs** | single-context: one `CONTEXT.md` plus `docs/adr/` at the root | only if it spots monorepo signals, and then it offers a multi-context `CONTEXT-MAP.md` |
| **Domain docs** | single-context: one `GLOSSARY.md` plus `docs/adr/` at the root | only if it spots monorepo signals, and then it offers a multi-context `GLOSSARY-MAP.md` |
The tracker options:
@@ -91,4 +91,4 @@ One long-standing complaint says yes, in these words: *"having a skill to set up
## Where it fits
`setup-matt-pocock-skills` is the **run-once setup** for the engineering flow, the precondition everything else assumes rather than a step in the chain. Its neighbours are its readers: [triage](https://aihero.dev/skills-triage), which applies the label vocabulary written here; [to-spec](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-spec) and [to-tickets](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-tickets), which publish into the tracker named here; and [wayfinder](https://aihero.dev/skills-wayfinder), which reads the "Wayfinding operations" section of the same tracker file to know how maps and child [tickets](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/ticket) are stored. The domain-doc layout it records is the one [domain-modeling](https://aihero.dev/skills-domain-modeling) fills in later — it creates `CONTEXT.md` and ADRs lazily, when a term or decision actually gets resolved, so an empty repo after setup is the expected state. For which skill to reach for next, [ask-matt](https://aihero.dev/skills-ask-matt) routes the whole set.
`setup-matt-pocock-skills` is the **run-once setup** for the engineering flow, the precondition everything else assumes rather than a step in the chain. Its neighbours are its readers: [triage](https://aihero.dev/skills-triage), which applies the label vocabulary written here; [to-spec](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-spec) and [to-tickets](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-tickets), which publish into the tracker named here; and [wayfinder](https://aihero.dev/skills-wayfinder), which reads the "Wayfinding operations" section of the same tracker file to know how maps and child [tickets](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/ticket) are stored. The domain-doc layout it records is the one [domain-modeling](https://aihero.dev/skills-domain-modeling) fills in later — it creates `GLOSSARY.md` and ADRs lazily, when a term or decision actually gets resolved, so an empty repo after setup is the expected state. For which skill to reach for next, [ask-matt](https://aihero.dev/skills-ask-matt) routes the whole set.
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`to-spec` turns the conversation you have just had into a **[spec](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/spec)**, and publishes it to your issue tracker as a single issue.
It does not interview you. By the time you reach for it the deciding is already done, so it synthesises what is known — from the thread, from the codebase, from your `CONTEXT.md` and ADRs — rather than opening a fresh round of questions. The spec is a record of decisions already made, not a place where new ones get made.
It does not interview you. By the time you reach for it the deciding is already done, so it synthesises what is known — from the thread, from the codebase, from your `GLOSSARY.md` and ADRs — rather than opening a fresh round of questions. The spec is a record of decisions already made, not a place where new ones get made.
## When to reach for it
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ The main map issue — `/to-spec #<map_issue>`, not the individual decision tick
Mostly for the agent, and it reads that way — complete, dense, reference-heavy. The parts worth your eyes are the seams and the out-of-scope section, because those are the two places a wrong decision is cheapest to catch and most expensive to discover later. Reading the whole thing end to end is a real complaint people have, and there is no summary mode: the honest answer is that if the spec surprises you, the grilling was too shallow, not the spec too long.
**Do I keep the spec frozen once tickets start, or let the agent rewrite it?**
Nothing keeps it in sync, so in practice it is a snapshot of what you knew at that moment, and it goes stale the first time implementation teaches you something. Treat it as throwaway once the work ships. The artifacts meant to outlive it are your `CONTEXT.md` and your ADRs — if something learned during implementation deserves to last, it belongs there, not in an edited spec.
Nothing keeps it in sync, so in practice it is a snapshot of what you knew at that moment, and it goes stale the first time implementation teaches you something. Treat it as throwaway once the work ships. The artifacts meant to outlive it are your `GLOSSARY.md` and your ADRs — if something learned during implementation deserves to last, it belongs there, not in an edited spec.
**My work is a refactor or a module boundary, not a feature. Does the template fit?**
Less well, and this is a known limitation. The template leans hard on user stories, which is the wrong shape for architectural work — you end up writing stories nobody asked for around decisions that are really about interfaces and invariants. Lean on the implementation-decisions and testing-decisions sections instead, and let the durable architectural calls land as ADRs via [grill-with-docs](https://aihero.dev/skills-grill-with-docs) rather than trying to make the spec carry them.
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@@ -96,4 +96,4 @@ Yes — the tracker is config, not a hard-coded assumption, and people run it ag
## Where it fits
`triage` is an **on-ramp**, not a step in the main chain. The main flow runs from an idea you had — grill, spec, tickets, implement, review — and `triage` is the parallel lane for work that arrived instead. It merges at the same place: an issue labelled `ready-for-agent` with a brief on it, which [implement](https://aihero.dev/skills-implement) picks up exactly as it would a ticket from [to-tickets](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-tickets). When a request needs sharpening before it can be briefed, `triage` runs [grilling](https://aihero.dev/skills-grilling) and [domain-modeling](https://aihero.dev/skills-domain-modeling) together, a round of questions at a time, so decisions land in `CONTEXT.md` and the ADRs as they're made. When you're not sure which lane you are in, [ask-matt](https://aihero.dev/skills-ask-matt) routes you.
`triage` is an **on-ramp**, not a step in the main chain. The main flow runs from an idea you had — grill, spec, tickets, implement, review — and `triage` is the parallel lane for work that arrived instead. It merges at the same place: an issue labelled `ready-for-agent` with a brief on it, which [implement](https://aihero.dev/skills-implement) picks up exactly as it would a ticket from [to-tickets](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-tickets). When a request needs sharpening before it can be briefed, `triage` runs [grilling](https://aihero.dev/skills-grilling) and [domain-modeling](https://aihero.dev/skills-domain-modeling) together, a round of questions at a time, so decisions land in `GLOSSARY.md` and the ADRs as they're made. When you're not sure which lane you are in, [ask-matt](https://aihero.dev/skills-ask-matt) routes you.