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Author SHA1 Message Date
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 085d886fca feat(spawn): default to the running agent; herdr-first management, no nohup
Six agents (claude, codex, pi, cursor, opencode, copilot). claude keeps
its native --bg/agents management. Everything else spawns interactively
inside herdr when its server is up (list/read/send/attach); otherwise a
transient systemd --user unit gives status/logs/stop. Research confirmed
none of the five non-claude CLIs has a native background job manager.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-23 10:47:09 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 fc73c04a34 feat(spawn): generalise claude-handoff into agent-agnostic spawn skill
SKILL.md now only defines the handoff; per-agent launch mechanics
(claude --bg vs backgrounded codex exec) live in a bundled spawn.sh
the agent runs but never reads. Prompt arrives via heredoc/stdin so
long summaries with quotes survive.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-23 10:37:53 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 9c32629965 feat(prototype): logic branch produces a shareable HTML demo
Reshape the logic branch from a terminal app into a single
self-contained HTML file a non-developer can drive: a labelled
state panel, free-play buttons, and tabbed guided walkthroughs
(scenarios) with the ordered buttons to press underneath each.
The portable pure-logic module still lifts into the real code;
the HTML shell is the throwaway primary source.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 10:50:17 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 b8fd9afa42 feat(grilling): round-by-round frontier interview
Rework grilling from one-question-at-a-time to asking the whole
frontier each round, with background sub-agents for fact-finding so
research never blocks the round. Fold the batch-grill-me experiment
into grilling and delete it. Re-sync the docs page, including how to
opt back into one-at-a-time via global CLAUDE.md.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-16 13:12:55 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub 9603c1cc81 Merge pull request #586 from mattpocock/batch-grill-me-granular-facts
batch-grill-me: granular fact-finding, don't block the round
2026-07-16 10:03:12 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 fde4cd58cf feat(batch-grill-me): granular fact-finding, don't block the round
Fire fact-finding to a sub-agent and treat a running exploration as an
unsettled prerequisite, so only the downstream questions wait — the rest
of the frontier is asked now, instead of the whole next round blocking
behind one lookup. Phrase throughout in terms of the user.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-16 10:01:22 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 c70cb09193 Add batch-grill-me in-progress skill
A user-invoked interview that walks the design tree in rounds: each round
asks the whole frontier of decisions whose prerequisites are already
settled, then recomputes the frontier from the answers.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-16 09:41:35 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub e9fcdf95b4 Merge pull request #572 from mattpocock/to-questionnaire
Add to-questionnaire skill (in-progress)
2026-07-14 19:32:22 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 7f68c06dcb Cut no-op justification and template the questionnaire structure
Drop the sentence explaining why interrogating the subject fails — the
model already obeys it, so it was paying load to say nothing.

Replace the bulleted document structure with an XML-tagged
<questionnaire-template>, mirroring to-spec's <spec-template>: headings
with prose fill-in guidance and a nested <question-example>.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-14 19:31:22 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 bbce2f91d6 Add to-questionnaire skill (in-progress)
A user-invoked skill that turns a decision you can't fully answer into a
Markdown discovery questionnaire to hand to one person async, or fill out
over a meeting.

Its defining move: it grills you about the *send* (who it's going to, what
you need back), never the subject — sidestepping the "I don't know, I don't
know" spiral you'd hit if it interrogated you on the very knowledge you're
offloading. The written questions then target the gap between what the
recipient knows and what you need.

Landed in in-progress/ to shake out over a few real sends before promoting.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-14 19:28:20 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub 66898f60e8 Merge pull request #536 from mattpocock/task/claude-codex-plugin
feat: ship the skill set as a native Claude Code plugin (v1.2)
2026-07-13 14:36:01 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub 0ac3f3fbf1 Merge pull request #551 from mattpocock/codex-skill-metadata
feat: add Codex agents/openai.yaml metadata to every skill
2026-07-13 13:00:38 +01:00
697d4ce974 feat: add Codex agents/openai.yaml metadata to every skill
Adds an `agents/openai.yaml` beside each `SKILL.md` so the skills work in
Codex as well as Claude Code, without generated copies:

- `interface.display_name` + `interface.short_description` for the Codex
  skill picker, hand-written for all 39 skills.
- `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false` on the 22 user-invoked skills —
  the Codex analog of `disable-model-invocation: true`, so Codex excludes
  them from implicit invocation while explicit `$skill` still works.
- Document the dual-harness invocation model in `.agents/invocation.md`,
  `CLAUDE.md`, and the promoted-bucket READMEs.
- Add `AGENTS.md` as a symlink to `CLAUDE.md` so Codex reads the same
  instructions; note Codex as a `link-skills.sh` install target.

Slimmed-down rework of the approach prototyped in #522: keeps the essential
cross-harness metadata, drops the Ruby validator, the runtime-detector test,
per-skill `default_prompt`s, and the unrelated promotion changes.

Co-authored-by: gabimoncha <gabimoncha@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 12:57:18 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub 8f4952b6a3 Merge pull request #539 from mattpocock/fix/finish-promoted-wiring
fix: finish promoted-bucket wiring for resolving-merge-conflicts and implement
2026-07-13 12:42:15 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 d3275456a4 fix: finish promoted-bucket wiring for resolving-merge-conflicts and implement
Close a standing CLAUDE.md-invariant gap where two promoted skills were
not fully wired into the plugin manifest and READMEs.

- resolving-merge-conflicts (model-invoked): add to .claude-plugin/plugin.json,
  top-level README.md, and skills/engineering/README.md.
- implement (user-invoked): add the missing line to skills/engineering/README.md
  (already present in plugin.json and the top README).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 12:00:09 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub 04fee67571 Merge pull request #533 from mattpocock/yagni-scope-improve-architecture
improve-codebase-architecture: scope the scan to where change is landing (YAGNI)
2026-07-13 11:27:15 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub 33dfc9b28f Merge pull request #538 from mattpocock/wayfinder/research-subagents
wayfinder: burn research tickets down with subagents
2026-07-13 11:18:20 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub 8eb8f58f0f Merge pull request #532 from mattpocock/grill-me-general-use
grilling: reword the primitive for general use
2026-07-13 11:14:03 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 3bb587fa5c Rename "design tree" → "decision tree" across skills and docs
Align the remaining callers and docs pages with grilling's body, which now
says "decision tree".

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 11:13:55 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 170ad48655 grilling: reword the primitive for general use
Drop the software-plan scoping from grilling's description and body so the
interview reads as a stress-test of any plan, decision, or idea:
"this plan" → "this", "enact the plan" → "act on it", "codebase" →
"environment". The technique is unchanged, and grill-me is left as-is.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 11:11:58 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 2602257241 feat(wayfinder): burn research tickets down with subagents
Research stays a real ticket type — it's a shared blocker downstream
decisions hang on, which the frontier's blocking edges exist to render.
What changes is resolution: because research is AFK, charting doesn't
stop and read. After creating the tickets, the charting session fires a
/research subagent for each research ticket to burn it down in parallel,
capturing findings on a throwaway research/<name> branch with a context
pointer.

Charting's "fire the research subagents" step owns how research is
handled; the Ticket Types bullet just names the resolver, and the
one-ticket-per-session rule carries the research exception.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 11:10:46 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 45afd8074a improve-codebase-architecture: scope the scan to where change is landing (YAGNI)
Before scanning, decide where to look. If the user named a direction, take
it; otherwise read the last ~20 commit messages to bias exploration toward
actively-developed paths. A deepening opportunity in code nobody touches is a
refactor you'll never cash in — leverage only pays off where you keep editing.

Syncs the docs page and adds a changeset.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 11:01:18 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub 6704a52ac4 Merge pull request #534 from mattpocock/wayfinder-decision-tickets
Name the wayfinder unit a "decision ticket"
2026-07-13 10:51:13 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 7d694b7ae9 Name the wayfinder unit a "decision ticket"
People kept reading a wayfinder ticket as an ordinary implementation
ticket — a slice of a build to execute — when wayfinder uses them as
decision tickets: questions whose resolution is a decision.

Introduce "decision ticket" as a light leading word: the skill
description and its opening line name it (and say what makes it one),
and the ask-matt / engineering README blurbs and the docs page match,
while "ticket" stays the everyday word once the term is established.
Record "Decision ticket" in CONTEXT.md so the "avoid: ticket" domain
rule no longer contradicts wayfinder's deliberate use of the word.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 10:50:29 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub f15b4dca01 Merge pull request #535 from mattpocock/ask-matt-wayfinder-guidance
ask-matt: give /wayfinder real routing help
2026-07-13 10:26:40 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 e74fee89fe ask-matt: give wayfinder real routing help
Wayfinder is the heaviest, most cognitively demanding flow, and the
wiki shows people misusing it two ways: over-reaching for it on
well-scoped work (it's slower and denser than a single grill), and
losing the way at the handoff after the map (looping straight into
/implement and skipping /to-spec). Sharpen the router's wayfinder
on-ramp to steer both.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 10:25:30 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 42a5b70fca feat: ship the skill set as a native Claude Code plugin
Add a Claude Code plugin marketplace so the promoted skills can be
installed as a managed, read-only bundle (subscribe rather than fork),
alongside the existing skills.sh installer.

- Enrich .claude-plugin/plugin.json with marketplace metadata (version,
  description, author, license, keywords); keep the curated promoted-only
  skills array.
- Add .claude-plugin/marketplace.json making the repo its own
  single-plugin marketplace (mattpocock-skills@mattpocock).
- README: document /plugin install alongside skills.sh, and the
  subscribe-vs-fork tradeoff.
- CLAUDE.md: extend the promoted-set invariant to cover marketplace.json
  and plugin.json/package.json version sync.
- ADR 0002: record why Claude ships now and a native Codex plugin is
  deferred (Codex skills field is single-path + drops symlinks, which
  can't express a curated subset of a bucketed repo without a restructure).

Verified: 'claude plugin validate . --strict' passes, and marketplace
add -> install resolves all 21 promoted skills at v1.2.0.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 10:14:22 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub 391a2701dd Merge pull request #505 from mattpocock/add-setup-deep-modules-skill
Add setup-ts-deep-modules skill (in-progress)
2026-07-10 14:14:59 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub 2ee14df19c Merge pull request #488 from mattpocock/prototype-primary-secondary-source
prototype: keep the prototype as a primary source
2026-07-10 11:45:42 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 fa460cbf09 prototype: drop the vestigial "let it go"
Rule 4 is about skipping polish, not the prototype's fate; the trailing
"then let it go" was a leftover from the old delete-it framing and now
misreads as discard, contradicting capture-as-primary-source. Cut it,
and rename LOGIC step 7 off "let go".

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-10 11:35:29 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 3687fb4f38 Name lib/ + tests/ as the canonical package subfolders
The depth-based rules already treat any subfolder as private, so the
config needs no change. Document lib/ (implementation) and tests/ as the
conventional two-folder shape, with entry points at the root — a fixed
convention that never needs the config extended for a new folder.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-10 10:16:03 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 3ea30afc68 Rename to setup-ts-deep-modules; entry-points model over single barrel
- Rename skill to setup-ts-deep-modules (it's TypeScript-specific).
- A package's public surface is now its ENTRY POINTS — every file at the
  package root — not one designated index.ts. Implementation lives in
  subfolders and is private. This is depth-based and extension-agnostic.
- Packages can expose several small entry points instead of funnelling
  everything through one giant barrel index; barrels are discouraged, and
  the generated repo docs (step 7) say so explicitly.
- Rules renamed accordingly: entrypoint-boundary-from-app,
  entrypoint-boundary-across-packages, tests-through-entrypoints.
- Example package now hides impl in a lib/ subfolder.

Re-validated against dependency-cruiser 16: multiple entry points and
cross-package entry imports pass; deep imports into subfolders fail with
the expected rule from app code, other packages, and tests.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-10 10:10:02 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 f947f93b92 Put the convention README in the packages folder + point CLAUDE.md at it
Step 7 now writes <packages-root>/README.md next to the packages it
governs, and adds a context pointer from CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md so an agent
discovers the boundary rule.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-10 09:55:08 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 d80ff7a840 Reference codebase-design as /codebase-design, not a path
The install location isn't known at runtime, so a relative path breaks.
Use the literal skill invocation instead.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-10 09:53:56 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 0375c88bfb prototype: collapse the when-done section into rule 6
The "keep it as a primary source" section restated rule 6 and was
padded with no-ops. Fold the one extra bit (capture the answer) into
rule 6 and delete the section: capture the prototype as a primary
source on a throwaway branch, pointer on the issue.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-10 09:49:44 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 30a9c7447f Add setup-deep-modules skill (in-progress)
A user-invoked setup skill that wires dependency-cruiser into a
TypeScript repo so each package under the packages root is a deep
module: everything hidden behind its `index.ts` interface.

Ships a `.dependency-cruiser.cjs` template with four error-level rules —
index boundary from app code, index boundary across packages (with
intra-package freedom via $1 back-references), tests-through-the-index,
and no-circular — plus a commented layering stub. The skill installs the
tool, folds a `lint:boundaries` script into the repo's umbrella check,
scaffolds an example package, and self-verifies that a deep import fails.

Rules validated against a live dependency-cruiser 16 run.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-10 09:49:13 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub 89d370d181 Merge pull request #504 from mattpocock/fix/to-tickets-stray-content
fix(to-tickets): remove stray </content> tag
2026-07-10 09:46:06 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 19c50d50fd fix(to-tickets): remove stray </content> tag from skill and docs
The final line of to-tickets/SKILL.md carried a stray `</content>`
closing tag with no matching opening tag — a packaging/serialization
artifact from the planning-skills refactor (386d4ff), not valid skill
content. The same stray tag had leaked into the generated landing
docs for to-tickets and to-spec. Strip it from all three.

Fixes #495

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-10 09:45:20 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub e4722b8e65 Merge pull request #502 from mattpocock/setup-skill-friendlier
Friendlier setup flow + one-file-per-ticket local tracker
2026-07-10 09:40:15 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 371b9c9c94 prototype: capture the prototype, don't dispose of it
Reframe the artifact handling as capturing the prototype somewhere out
of main — a throwaway branch — with a context pointer to it left on the
implementation issue, instead of "disposing" of it. The main branch
still keeps only the validated decision.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-10 09:39:52 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 44eed54518 refactor: friendlier setup flow + one-file-per-ticket local tracker
Rework /setup-matt-pocock-skills to ask fewer, friendlier questions and
align the local-markdown issue tracker with the current spec.

- Triage labels: asked only when the `triage` skill is installed, and then
  as a single recommended-yes question ("keep the default triage labels?")
  instead of an override interrogation. When triage isn't installed, the
  section and docs/agents/triage-labels.md are skipped.
- External PRs as a request surface: no longer a setup question. The
  GitHub/GitLab templates still carry the flag, defaulted off; flip it in
  docs/agents/issue-tracker.md later.
- Domain docs: default to single-context without asking; multi-context is
  only offered when the repo shows monorepo signals.
- Local-markdown tickets: one file per ticket under
  .scratch/<feature>/issues/<NN>-<slug>.md, never a single combined
  tickets.md. /to-tickets, ask-matt, and the local template now agree, and
  the spec file is spec.md (not PRD.md) to match /to-spec.
- Re-sync docs pages for setup-matt-pocock-skills and to-tickets; changeset.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-10 09:37:25 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 cdec9f6eb2 prototype: simplify to single primary-source idea; dedup branch files
Drop the secondary-source label — the actionable distinction is just
that the prototype is a primary source to retain on a throwaway branch.
Collapse the re-descriptions in LOGIC/UI so they point to SKILL for the
disposal concept and add only branch-specific nuance.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-09 14:57:48 +01:00
Matt PocockandClaude Opus 4.8 d6274600ab prototype: reframe disposal around primary vs secondary source
Retain the prototype as a primary source on a throwaway branch linked
from the relevant issue, rather than deleting it, while the distilled
answer remains the secondary source. Keeps prototype scaffolding out of
the main branch without destroying the runnable evidence.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-09 14:53:43 +01:00
Matt PocockandGitHub d574778f94 Merge pull request #353 from mattpocock/changeset-release/main
chore: version skills
2026-07-08 14:20:40 +01:00
88 changed files with 857 additions and 165 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
# Ship the skill set as a native Claude Code plugin; defer a native Codex plugin
These skills have always been installable via [skills.sh](https://skills.sh/mattpocock/skills) (`npx skills add mattpocock/skills`), which copies editable skill files into a user's project across Claude Code, Codex, and other Agent-Skills-standard harnesses. A recurring request is a **plug-and-play** distribution: subscribe to the set as a read-only, always-current bundle you don't edit, rather than a fork you own. That is exactly what native plugin systems provide.
We ship a native **Claude Code plugin** and, for now, **defer** a native **Codex plugin**. The split is forced by how each ecosystem's plugin manifest selects skills, against this repo's bucketed layout.
## The constraint: bucketed skills vs. single-path selection
Skills live in bucket folders under `skills/``engineering/` and `productivity/` are **promoted** (shipped); `misc/`, `personal/`, `in-progress/`, and `deprecated/` are **not**. A plugin must expose only the promoted set, which spans two of those bucket folders.
- **Claude Code** — `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` accepts `skills` as an **array of explicit skill-directory paths**. We list the promoted skills one by one, exclude everything else with zero ambiguity, and add `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` so the repo is its own single-plugin marketplace. Verified end to end: `claude plugin validate . --strict` passes, and `marketplace add``install` resolves all promoted skills.
- **Codex** — `.codex-plugin/plugin.json` accepts `skills` only as a **single path string** (arrays are rejected with `missing or invalid plugin.json`), and Codex discovers `SKILL.md` files recursively under it. There is no way to name two bucket folders, or to curate a subset, from one path. Two escape hatches were tested and rejected:
- Pointing at `./skills/` would also ship `deprecated/`, `in-progress/`, `personal/`, and `misc/` — retired, draft, and personal skills we deliberately don't promote.
- A curated flat directory of **symlinks** into the buckets does not survive install: Codex copies the plugin tree into its cache and **drops symlinks**, so the skills arrive empty.
The only robust ways to give Codex a single promoted-only path are (a) **restructure** so `skills/` contains only promoted skills (moving the non-promoted buckets out — a large blast radius across `CLAUDE.md`, `scripts/link-skills.sh`, the bucket READMEs, and the local dev workflow that relies on `in-progress/` and `personal/`), or (b) **commit duplicate copies** of promoted skills into a flat directory (a sync burden and a second source of truth). Both are structural decisions, not something to bundle into shipping the Claude plugin. This is very likely the original, half-remembered reason a plugin wasn't shipped earlier: the manifest formats didn't cleanly express a curated subset of a bucketed repo.
## Decision
- Ship the **Claude Code plugin** now (`.claude-plugin/plugin.json` + `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`), curated to the promoted set, as the headline v1.2 deliverable.
- Keep **skills.sh** as the universal installer — it already serves Codex and other harnesses today, so no Codex user is left without an install path.
- **Defer** the native Codex plugin until we decide between restructuring `skills/` to promoted-only vs. committing a generated flat copy. Revisit when Codex either supports a `skills` array / include-list or preserves symlinks on install.
## Invariants this creates
- Every promoted skill has an entry in `.claude-plugin/plugin.json`'s `skills` array (this already stood as a `CLAUDE.md` rule; it now also gates the plugin's contents).
- `.claude-plugin/plugin.json`'s `version` tracks `package.json`'s version — bump both together on release. Claude uses the plugin `version` to decide when installed users see an update.
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Every `SKILL.md` in this repo is a skill. The one axis that splits them is **invocation** — who can reach it:
- **User-invoked** — reachable **only by the human typing its name**. Set `disable-model-invocation: true` in the frontmatter. The `description` is **human-facing**: a one-line summary read by a person browsing slash-commands. Strip trigger lists ("Use when the user says…").
- **Model-invoked** — reachable by **model or user**. The default: omit `disable-model-invocation`. The `description` is **model-facing** and keeps rich trigger phrasing ("Use when the user wants…, mentions…, asks for…") so auto-invocation fires. The test for whether a skill should stay model-invoked: _could the model usefully reach for this autonomously?_ (Reuse is the reason to extract a skill, not the test.)
- **User-invoked** — reachable **only by the human typing its name**. Set `disable-model-invocation: true` in the frontmatter (Claude Code) and `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false` in `agents/openai.yaml` (Codex). The `description` is **human-facing**: a one-line summary read by a person browsing slash-commands. Strip trigger lists ("Use when the user says…").
- **Model-invoked** — reachable by **model or user**. The default: omit `disable-model-invocation` and the `policy` block from `agents/openai.yaml`. The `description` is **model-facing** and keeps rich trigger phrasing ("Use when the user wants…, mentions…, asks for…") so auto-invocation fires. The test for whether a skill should stay model-invoked: _could the model usefully reach for this autonomously?_ (Reuse is the reason to extract a skill, not the test.)
Because a user-invoked skill has no description, nothing but the human can reach it — no other skill can fire it. So a user-invoked skill may invoke model-invoked skills, but it can never reach another user-invoked skill.
Each harness excludes a user-invoked skill from the model's reach in its own way, so nothing but the human can fire it — no other skill can. A user-invoked skill may invoke model-invoked skills, but it can never reach another user-invoked skill.
Every skill also carries an `agents/openai.yaml` beside its `SKILL.md`. It holds Codex UI metadata — `interface.display_name` and `interface.short_description` for the skill picker — and, for user-invoked skills, the `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false` that pairs with `disable-model-invocation`. Keep the two in sync: a skill is user-invoked in both harnesses or neither.
Bucket `README.md`s and the top-level `README.md` group entries into **User-invoked** and **Model-invoked**.
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@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
---
"mattpocock-skills": patch
---
Make `/ask-matt` clued-up about `/wayfinder` — the heaviest, most cognitively demanding flow.
The router now sharpens the two routing mistakes people most often make with wayfinder:
- **Over-reaching for it.** It's slower and denser than a single grill, so it's flagged as the heaviest flow and reserved for the idea that genuinely won't fit one session — a well-scoped feature belongs on `/grill-with-docs`, not here.
- **Losing the way at the handoff.** When the map clears, wayfinder hands off, it doesn't build: merge onto the main flow at `/to-spec` (which collapses the map's linked decisions into a buildable plan) rather than looping the map straight into `/implement`. Straight-to-`/implement` is only for efforts that turned out genuinely small.
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@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
---
"mattpocock-skills": minor
---
Add Codex metadata alongside each skill's Claude Code frontmatter so the set works in both harnesses without generated copies.
- Add an `agents/openai.yaml` beside every `SKILL.md` with Codex UI metadata (`interface.display_name`, `interface.short_description`).
- Mark every user-invoked skill with `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false`, the Codex analog of `disable-model-invocation: true`, so Codex excludes it from implicit invocation while explicit `$skill` invocation still works.
- Document the dual-harness invocation model in `.agents/invocation.md`, `CLAUDE.md`, and the promoted-bucket READMEs.
- Add `AGENTS.md` as a symlink to `CLAUDE.md` so Codex reads the same repo instructions.
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
---
"mattpocock-skills": patch
---
Make `/setup-matt-pocock-skills` friendlier and align the local-markdown tracker with the current spec.
- **Triage labels** are now asked about only when the `triage` skill is installed, and then as a single recommended-yes question ("keep the default triage labels?") instead of an override interrogation. When `triage` isn't installed, the section — and `docs/agents/triage-labels.md` — are skipped.
- **External PRs as a request surface** is no longer a setup question. The GitHub/GitLab templates still carry the flag, defaulted off; a user can flip it in `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md` later.
- **Domain docs** default to single-context without asking; multi-context is only offered when the repo shows monorepo signals.
- **Local-markdown tickets** are now one file per ticket under `.scratch/<feature>/issues/<NN>-<slug>.md` — never a single combined `tickets.md`. `/to-tickets` and the local issue-tracker template now agree, and the spec file is `spec.md` (not `PRD.md`) to match `/to-spec`.
Docs pages for `setup-matt-pocock-skills` and `to-tickets` re-synced.
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@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
---
"mattpocock-skills": patch
---
Reword **`grilling`** for general use. Its description and body no longer scope the interview to a software plan: "this plan" → "this", "enact the plan" → "act on it", and "exploring the codebase" → "exploring the environment". The technique is unchanged; it now reads as a stress-test of any plan, decision, or idea.
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@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
---
"mattpocock-skills": patch
---
Rework **`grilling`** from one-question-at-a-time to round-by-round. It now maps the decision tree and asks the whole **frontier** — every question whose prerequisites are already settled — in a single numbered round, then recomputes the frontier from the user's answers and asks the next round. Same 13 questions land in ~3 rounds instead of 13. Facts the environment can answer are dispatched to background sub-agents so research never blocks the round: only questions downstream of a running exploration wait for it. The session ends when the frontier is empty.
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
---
"mattpocock-skills": minor
---
Reshape the **`prototype`** skill's logic branch to produce a **single shareable HTML file** instead of a terminal app. The demo is one self-contained file (plain HTML/CSS/JS, no build, no server) a non-developer can open by double-click and drive in their own domain language: a labelled state panel, always-available free-play buttons, and a set of tabbed **guided walkthroughs** — each a scenario with the ordered buttons to press underneath it. The portable pure-logic module still lifts into the real code; the HTML shell is the throwaway primary source.
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@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
---
"mattpocock-skills": minor
---
Reword how the **`prototype`** skill handles its artifacts around a single idea: **the prototype is a primary source**. Rather than being deleted once it's answered its question, the prototype is captured as runnable evidence on a throwaway branch (`prototype/<name>`) out of main, with a context pointer to it left on the implementation issue — so the main branch keeps only the validated decision while the exploration stays findable. The answer (verdict + question) is still captured durably in an issue/ADR/commit.
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@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
---
"mattpocock-skills": minor
---
Ship the skill set as a native **Claude Code plugin**. The repo is now its own single-plugin marketplace, so you can subscribe to the promoted skills as a managed, read-only bundle instead of copying editable files:
```
/plugin marketplace add mattpocock/skills
/plugin install mattpocock-skills@mattpocock
```
`.claude-plugin/plugin.json` gains full marketplace metadata (version, description, author, license, keywords) and a sibling `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` lists the plugin. `skills.sh` remains the universal installer (and the path for Codex and other harnesses today); a native Codex plugin is deferred — see `.agents/adr/0002-ship-as-a-claude-code-plugin.md` for why.
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@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
---
"mattpocock-skills": patch
---
Name the `/wayfinder` unit a **decision ticket**.
People kept reading a wayfinder ticket as an ordinary *implementation* ticket — a slice of a build to execute — when wayfinder uses them as **decision tickets**: questions whose resolution is a decision. The skill description and its opening line now introduce "decision ticket" (and say what makes it one), and the `ask-matt` / engineering README wayfinder blurbs and the docs page match — while "ticket" stays the everyday word once the term is established. `CONTEXT.md` records **Decision ticket** as a domain term so the "avoid: ticket" guidance no longer contradicts wayfinder's deliberate use of the word.
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
---
"mattpocock-skills": minor
---
Wayfinder now burns research tickets down with subagents instead of leaving them parked for a separately-launched session.
Research stays a real ticket type — it's a genuine shared blocker that downstream decisions hang on, and that dependency is exactly what the frontier's blocking edges exist to render. What changes is how it's resolved: because research is AFK, charting doesn't stop and read it. After creating the tickets, the charting session fires a `/research` subagent for each research ticket to burn it down in parallel, capturing the findings on a throwaway `research/<name>` branch with a context pointer. Research tickets are the one exception to *one ticket per session*.
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
---
"mattpocock-skills": minor
---
Add a YAGNI scoping filter to the **`improve-codebase-architecture`** skill's Explore step. Instead of scanning the whole repo evenly, it now scopes to where change is actually landing: if you name a direction it takes it, otherwise it reads the last ~20 commit messages to bias exploration toward actively-developed paths. A deepening opportunity in code nobody touches is a refactor you'll never cash in — the leverage only pays off where you keep editing — so the report stops tidying dormant corners of the repo.
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@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
{
"name": "mattpocock",
"owner": {
"name": "Matt Pocock",
"url": "https://www.aihero.dev"
},
"description": "Matt Pocock's skills for real engineering, as an installable Claude Code plugin.",
"plugins": [
{
"name": "mattpocock-skills",
"source": "./",
"description": "Matt Pocock's agent skills for real engineering — grilling, spec/ticket flows, TDD, code review, domain modelling and more.",
"category": "engineering",
"keywords": [
"engineering",
"skills",
"tdd",
"code-review",
"grilling"
]
}
]
}
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@@ -1,5 +1,23 @@
{
"name": "mattpocock-skills",
"version": "1.2.0",
"description": "Matt Pocock's agent skills for real engineering — grilling, spec/ticket flows, TDD, code review, domain modelling and more. Plug-and-play, not vibe coding.",
"author": {
"name": "Matt Pocock",
"url": "https://www.aihero.dev"
},
"homepage": "https://www.aihero.dev/s/skills-newsletter",
"repository": "https://github.com/mattpocock/skills",
"license": "MIT",
"keywords": [
"engineering",
"skills",
"tdd",
"code-review",
"grilling",
"domain-modeling",
"productivity"
],
"skills": [
"./skills/engineering/ask-matt",
"./skills/engineering/diagnosing-bugs",
@@ -17,6 +35,7 @@
"./skills/engineering/domain-modeling",
"./skills/engineering/codebase-design",
"./skills/engineering/code-review",
"./skills/engineering/resolving-merge-conflicts",
"./skills/productivity/grill-me",
"./skills/productivity/grilling",
"./skills/productivity/handoff",
Symlink
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
CLAUDE.md
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@@ -7,7 +7,9 @@ Skills are organized into bucket folders under `skills/`:
- `in-progress/` — drafts not yet ready to ship
- `deprecated/` — no longer used
Every skill in `engineering/` or `productivity/` (the **promoted** buckets) must have a reference in the top-level `README.md` and an entry in `.claude-plugin/plugin.json`. Skills in `misc/`, `personal/`, `in-progress/`, and `deprecated/` must not appear in either.
Every skill in `engineering/` or `productivity/` (the **promoted** buckets) must have a reference in the top-level `README.md` and an entry in `.claude-plugin/plugin.json`'s `skills` array (the Claude Code plugin ships exactly the promoted set). Skills in `misc/`, `personal/`, `in-progress/`, and `deprecated/` must not appear in either.
The repo is also its own single-plugin Claude Code marketplace: `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` lists the one `mattpocock-skills` plugin. When bumping the release version, keep `.claude-plugin/plugin.json`'s `version` in sync with `package.json`'s — Claude uses the plugin `version` to decide when installed users see an update. Run `claude plugin validate . --strict` after touching either manifest. Why a Claude plugin but not (yet) a Codex one lives in [.agents/adr/0002-ship-as-a-claude-code-plugin.md](./.agents/adr/0002-ship-as-a-claude-code-plugin.md).
Each skill entry in the top-level `README.md` must link the skill name to its `SKILL.md`.
@@ -15,7 +17,7 @@ Each bucket folder has a `README.md` that lists every skill in the bucket with a
Skills in `engineering/` and `productivity/` also have a human-facing docs page at `docs/<bucket>/<skill-name>.md` (the docs tree mirrors those two bucket folders under `skills/`). The published URL is `https://aihero.dev/skills-<skill-name>` regardless of bucket — the docs path is repo organisation only. When you add, rename, or change the behaviour of a skill in `engineering/` or `productivity/`, create or re-sync its docs page following [.agents/writing-docs.md](./.agents/writing-docs.md). Skills in the non-promoted buckets (`misc/`, `personal/`, `in-progress/`, `deprecated/`) get **no** docs page.
Every `SKILL.md` is either user-invoked (`disable-model-invocation: true`, reachable only by the human) or model-invoked (model- or user-reachable). See [.agents/invocation.md](./.agents/invocation.md).
Every `SKILL.md` is either user-invoked (`disable-model-invocation: true` plus `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false` in `agents/openai.yaml`, reachable only by the human) or model-invoked (model- or user-reachable). See [.agents/invocation.md](./.agents/invocation.md).
[`ask-matt`](./skills/engineering/ask-matt/SKILL.md) is the router that maps every user-reachable skill and how they relate. The same trigger that re-syncs a docs page applies to it: whenever you add, rename, remove, or change how a user-reachable skill fits the flows, re-read `ask-matt`'s `SKILL.md` and update it so the map stays accurate — a new skill it never mentions, or a stale one it still routes to, is a router that lies.
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@@ -10,7 +10,10 @@ _Avoid_: backlog manager, backlog backend, issue host
**Issue**:
A single tracked unit of work inside an **Issue tracker** — a bug, task, spec, or slice produced by `to-tickets`.
_Avoid_: ticket (use only when quoting external systems that call them tickets)
_Avoid_: ticket (use only when quoting external systems that call them tickets, or for a **Decision ticket** — see below)
**Decision ticket**:
A `wayfinder` unit — a child **Issue** of a `wayfinder:map` holding a *question* whose resolution is a decision, not a slice of a build to execute. The **decision** qualifier is what keeps it distinct from an implementation ticket; `wayfinder` introduces the term, then uses "ticket".
**Triage role**:
A canonical state-machine label applied to an **Issue** during triage (e.g. `needs-triage`, `ready-for-afk`). Each role maps to a real label string in the **Issue tracker** via `docs/agents/triage-labels.md`.
@@ -19,6 +22,7 @@ A canonical state-machine label applied to an **Issue** during triage (e.g. `nee
- An **Issue tracker** holds many **Issues**
- An **Issue** carries one **Triage role** at a time
- A **Decision ticket** is an **Issue** (a child of a `wayfinder:map`)
## Flagged ambiguities
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@@ -39,6 +39,33 @@ npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills
4. Bam - you're ready to go.
## Install as a Claude Code plugin
Prefer a plug-and-play install you don't maintain by hand? These skills also ship as a native [Claude Code plugin](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugins). Instead of copying editable files into your repo, the plugin installs the whole skill set as a managed bundle that updates when I ship a new version — you subscribe rather than fork.
Inside Claude Code:
```
/plugin marketplace add mattpocock/skills
/plugin install mattpocock-skills@mattpocock
```
Or from your shell:
```bash
claude plugin marketplace add mattpocock/skills
claude plugin install mattpocock-skills@mattpocock
```
Then run `/setup-matt-pocock-skills` once per repo, exactly as in the quickstart above.
Two ways to install, two philosophies:
- **[skills.sh](https://skills.sh/mattpocock/skills)** copies the skills into your project so you can hack on them and make them your own.
- **The plugin** keeps them as a read-only, always-current bundle you don't edit — best when you just want my set to work and follow along as it evolves.
> Using Codex or another agent? The [skills.sh installer](https://skills.sh/mattpocock/skills) already installs these skills into Codex and other Agent-Skills-standard harnesses today. A native Codex plugin is on the roadmap — see [`.agents/adr/0002-ship-as-a-claude-code-plugin.md`](./.agents/adr/0002-ship-as-a-claude-code-plugin.md).
## Why These Skills Exist
I built these skills as a way to fix common failure modes I see with Claude Code, Codex, and other coding agents.
@@ -168,6 +195,7 @@ Skills I use daily for code work.
- **[domain-modeling](./skills/engineering/domain-modeling/SKILL.md)** — Actively build and sharpen a project's domain model — challenge terms against the glossary, stress-test with edge-case scenarios, and update `CONTEXT.md` and ADRs inline.
- **[codebase-design](./skills/engineering/codebase-design/SKILL.md)** — Shared discipline and vocabulary for designing deep modules: a lot of behaviour behind a small interface, placed at a clean seam, testable through that interface.
- **[code-review](./skills/engineering/code-review/SKILL.md)** — Two-axis review of the diff since a fixed point: **Standards** (does it follow the repo's coding standards, plus a Fowler smell baseline?) and **Spec** (does it faithfully implement the originating issue/PRD?), run as parallel sub-agents so neither pollutes the other.
- **[resolving-merge-conflicts](./skills/engineering/resolving-merge-conflicts/SKILL.md)** — Work through an in-progress git merge or rebase conflict hunk by hunk, resolving by intent traced to each side's primary source, then finish the operation — never `--abort`.
### Productivity
@@ -182,4 +210,4 @@ General workflow tools, not code-specific.
**Model-invoked**
- **[grilling](./skills/productivity/grilling/SKILL.md)** — Interview the user relentlessly about a plan or design until every branch of the decision tree is resolved. The reusable loop behind `grill-me` and `grill-with-docs`.
- **[grilling](./skills/productivity/grilling/SKILL.md)** — Interview the user relentlessly about a plan, decision, or idea until every branch of the decision tree is resolved. The reusable loop behind `grill-me` and `grill-with-docs`.
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@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ This skill is stateful — it writes into your repo as it grills. Resolved terms
## The grill
The engine is a **grill**: a relentless, one-question-at-a-time walk down the design tree, resolving dependencies between decisions before moving on, with a recommended answer offered for every question. Questions the codebase can answer are answered by reading the codebase, not by asking you.
The engine is a **grill**: a relentless, one-question-at-a-time walk down the decision tree, resolving dependencies between decisions before moving on, with a recommended answer offered for every question. Questions the codebase can answer are answered by reading the codebase, not by asking you.
What makes this variant its own skill is where the answers go. As the grill runs, fuzzy language gets sharpened into canonical terms and written to the glossary inline — not batched at the end. The glossary stays a glossary: pure vocabulary, no implementation details, no spec. ADRs are offered sparingly, only when a decision is hard to reverse, surprising without context, and the result of a real trade-off. Most sessions produce a sharper glossary and few or no ADRs, and that's the intended shape.
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ npx skills update improve-codebase-architecture
It does **not** hand you a flat list of refactors. Every candidate has to pass the **deletion test** — would removing this module *concentrate* complexity behind a smaller interface, or just move it around? Only the "concentrates" cases earn a card. That filter is what stops the report from becoming generic cleanup advice.
Unless you point it at a specific area, it also scopes itself to where development is actually landing — reading the recent commits to bias toward the code you're still changing. Deepening a module pays off by making future changes to it easier, so it puts extra weight on the parts of the repo that have recently changed.
## When to reach for it
You invoke this by typing `/improve-codebase-architecture` — the agent won't reach for it on its own.
@@ -36,4 +38,4 @@ Then it stops and asks which one you want to explore. Pick one and it runs the [
## Where it fits
`improve-codebase-architecture` is **periodic maintenance** — run it every few days, not as a step in a chain. 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 design tree once you've chosen a candidate, and [domain-modeling](https://aihero.dev/skills-domain-modeling), which keeps `CONTEXT.md` and the ADRs current as the redesign settles. When you're unsure which skill or flow fits, [ask-matt](https://aihero.dev/skills-ask-matt) routes you.
`improve-codebase-architecture` is **periodic maintenance** — run it every few days, not as a step in a chain. 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've chosen a candidate, and [domain-modeling](https://aihero.dev/skills-domain-modeling), which keeps `CONTEXT.md` and the ADRs current as the redesign settles. When you're unsure which skill or flow fits, [ask-matt](https://aihero.dev/skills-ask-matt) routes you.
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@@ -26,14 +26,16 @@ Reach for it when you have a design question that's hard to settle on paper —
The question decides the shape, and there are two shapes:
- **"Does this logic / state model feel right?"** — a tiny interactive terminal app that pushes the state machine through the awkward cases, printing the full state after every action so you can watch what changes.
- **"Does this logic / state model feel right?"** — a single shareable HTML file, free-play buttons plus tabbed guided walkthroughs, that pushes the state machine through the awkward cases and shows the full state after every click, so anyone — including a non-developer — can watch what changes.
- **"What should this look like?"** — several radically different UI variations on one route, switchable from a floating bar, so you compare real renders instead of imagining them.
Picking the wrong branch wastes the whole prototype, so the question comes first. Both branches keep state in memory, run from one command, and surface the full state on every step.
Picking the wrong branch wastes the whole prototype, so the question comes first. Both branches keep state in memory, are trivial to run, and surface the full state on every step.
## The answer is the artifact
## Keep the prototype as a primary source
The code is disposable; the **answer** is the only thing worth keeping. When the prototype has settled its question, capture the verdict somewhere durable — a commit message, an ADR, an issue, or a `NOTES.md` next to it — alongside the question it answered, then delete or absorb the code. A prototype left rotting in the repo has outlived its purpose.
A finished prototype leaves two things. The **answer** the verdict plus the question it settled — is what you capture durably (a commit message, an ADR, an issue). The **prototype itself is a primary source** — the runnable evidence the answer came from.
The prototype doesn't belong in the main branch: no tests, no error handling, nothing to maintain. But that's not a reason to destroy it. Once the answer is captured, fold any validated decision into the real code, then capture the prototype on a throwaway branch — out of main, never merged — and leave a context pointer to it on the implementation issue. The main branch stays clean; the raw exploration stays one click away for anyone who wants to re-run it. A prototype left rotting in the main branch has outlived its purpose — a prototype captured as a primary source on a side branch hasn't.
## Where it fits
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@@ -24,17 +24,17 @@ Reach for it **once per repo, before the first use of any other engineering skil
## The three decisions
It walks you through three choices, one at a time, each with a plain-language explainer (it assumes you don't already know the terms):
It leads each with a recommended answer you can accept in a word, and skips whatever it can already infer — so most runs are a couple of quick confirmations:
- **Issue tracker** — where work is tracked, so `triage`/`to-spec`/`to-tickets` know whether to call `gh`, `glab`, write markdown under `.scratch/`, or follow a workflow you describe. GitHub, GitLab, local markdown, or other.
- **Triage labels** — the strings behind the five canonical roles (`needs-triage`, `needs-info`, `ready-for-agent`, `ready-for-human`, `wontfix`), mapped to labels you've actually configured so `triage` applies real ones instead of creating duplicates.
- **Domain docs** — whether the repo has one `CONTEXT.md` or a multi-context map, so skills that read domain language look in the right place.
- **Issue tracker** — where work is tracked, so `triage`/`to-spec`/`to-tickets` know whether to call `gh`, `glab`, write markdown under `.scratch/`, or follow a workflow you describe. GitHub, GitLab, local markdown, or other. (It proposes the one that matches your `git remote`.)
- **Triage labels** — asked only if the `triage` skill is installed, and then just: keep the default labels (`needs-triage`, `needs-info`, `ready-for-agent`, `ready-for-human`, `wontfix`)? Say no only if your tracker already uses other names, so `triage` applies real ones instead of creating duplicates.
- **Domain docs** — assumed single-context (one `CONTEXT.md` + `docs/adr/` at the root), which fits almost every repo; it only raises a multi-context map when it spots monorepo signals.
The output is three files `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md`, `docs/agents/triage-labels.md`, `docs/agents/domain.md` — plus an `## Agent skills` block pointing to them in whichever of `CLAUDE.md` / `AGENTS.md` the repo already uses. Those files are the shared substrate the rest of the toolkit stands on.
The output is a set of files under `docs/agents/``issue-tracker.md`, `domain.md`, and `triage-labels.md` when `triage` is installed — plus an `## Agent skills` block pointing to them in whichever of `CLAUDE.md` / `AGENTS.md` the repo already uses. Those files are the shared substrate the rest of the toolkit stands on.
## It's working if
- Three files land under `docs/agents/`, and an `## Agent skills` section appears in your `CLAUDE.md` or `AGENTS.md`.
- `issue-tracker.md` and `domain.md` land under `docs/agents/` (plus `triage-labels.md` when `triage` is installed), and an `## Agent skills` section appears in your `CLAUDE.md` or `AGENTS.md`.
- The tracker it proposes matches your real `git remote`, and the labels match strings that already exist in your repo.
- Afterwards, `triage` and `to-tickets` act on the right place with the right labels instead of asking or guessing.
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@@ -57,4 +57,3 @@ grill-with-docs → to-spec → to-tickets → implement → code-review
```
Reach for it after the plan and domain language are resolved, and before you break the work into implementation tickets. Its key neighbours are [grill-with-docs](https://aihero.dev/skills-grill-with-docs), which sharpens the context so the spec is precise, and [to-tickets](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-tickets), which turns the spec into a set of tickets for [implement](https://aihero.dev/skills-implement) to build. When you're unsure which skill or flow fits, [ask-matt](https://aihero.dev/skills-ask-matt) routes you.
</content>
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@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ Reach for it once you have an agreed plan or a written spec and you want it spli
The blocking edges are the whole point. They make one set of tickets read two ways, depending on the tracker:
- **Local files** → a single `tickets.md` in the repo root, the edges written as text. You work it top-to-bottom, by hand, staying in the loop.
- **Local files** → one file per ticket under `.scratch/<feature>/issues/`, numbered blockers-first, the edges written as text. You work them top-to-bottom, by hand, staying in the loop.
- **A real tracker (GitHub, Linear)** → one issue per ticket, the edges as native blocking links (or sub-issues). Any ticket whose blockers are all done is on the **frontier** and can be grabbed — so several agents can run at once.
The edges live in the ticket regardless of medium; the medium only decides whether anything acts on them in parallel. `to-tickets` produces the artifact — how you run it (sequential by hand, or a parallel fleet) is up to you.
@@ -54,4 +54,3 @@ grill-with-docs → to-spec → to-tickets → implement → code-review
```
It sits between [to-spec](https://aihero.dev/skills-to-spec), which hands it a settled spec with user stories to slice against, and [implement](https://aihero.dev/skills-implement), which builds each ticket, driving [tdd](https://aihero.dev/skills-tdd) internally to write the tests test-first, before its [code-review](https://aihero.dev/skills-code-review) pass. Work the frontier one ticket per fresh context, clearing between them. When you're unsure which skill or flow fits, [ask-matt](https://aihero.dev/skills-ask-matt) routes you.
</content>
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@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ npx skills update wayfinder
## What it does
`wayfinder` takes an effort too big for one agent session — wrapped in fog, where the way from here to the goal isn't visible yet — and charts it as a **shared map** of investigation tickets on your issue tracker, then resolves them one at a time until the way is clear. It **plans, it doesn't do**: every ticket resolves a decision, and the map is done when nothing is left to decide before someone goes and builds the thing — so it produces decisions, not deliverables.
`wayfinder` takes an effort too big for one agent session — wrapped in fog, where the way from here to the goal isn't visible yet — and charts it as a **shared map** of **decision tickets** on your issue tracker, then resolves them one at a time until the way is clear. It **plans, it doesn't do**: every ticket resolves a decision — a question to settle, not a slice of a build to execute — and the map is done when nothing is left to decide before someone goes and builds the thing — so it produces decisions, not deliverables.
## When to reach for it
@@ -30,13 +30,13 @@ The **map** is a single `wayfinder:map` issue whose tickets are its child issues
Beyond the live tickets lies the **fog of war** — decisions you can tell are coming but can't yet pin down. The test for whether something is a ticket or still fog is whether you can *state the question precisely now*, not whether you can answer it. Resolving a ticket clears the fog ahead of it, **graduating** whatever's now specifiable into fresh tickets. The **frontier** is the open, unblocked, unclaimed tickets — the edge of the known — and it's what the tracker's native blocking renders visually, so you see what's takeable without opening the map. Fog only gathers *toward* the **destination**; work past it is ruled **out of scope**, closed, never graduating.
Every ticket is **HITL** (human in the loop — grilling, prototype) or **AFK** (agent alone — research); a HITL ticket only resolves through a live exchange, so the agent never answers its own questions.
Every ticket is **HITL** (human in the loop — grilling, prototype) or **AFK** (agent alone — research); a HITL ticket only resolves through a live exchange, so the agent never answers its own questions. Research stays a real ticket — a shared blocker downstream decisions hang on — but because it's AFK, a session doesn't stop and read: it fires a `/research` **subagent** to burn the ticket down in parallel, keeping the frontier fast, and captures the findings on a throwaway `research/<name>` branch.
## It's working if
- Naming the **destination** is the first act — before any ticket exists — because it fixes the scope every ticket is measured against.
- One map is one `wayfinder:map` issue; tickets are its child issues, referred to by **name**, never a bare `#42`.
- A session resolves **at most one ticket**, records the answer as a resolution comment, closes the ticket, and appends a one-line pointer to *Decisions so far*.
- A session resolves **at most one ticket** (research tickets excepted), records the answer as a resolution comment, closes the ticket, and appends a one-line pointer to *Decisions so far*.
- If the opening grill surfaces **no fog**, it stops and tells you the journey is small enough to skip the map.
## Where it fits
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@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ You invoke this by typing `/grill-me` — the agent won't reach for it on its ow
Reach for it before you build, when a plan feels roughly right but you can sense unresolved decisions hiding in it — the moment you want the soft spots found and forced into the open. If you want that same interrogation to also leave a paper trail of ADRs and a glossary behind, use [grill-with-docs](https://aihero.dev/skills-grill-with-docs) instead. And if the effort is too big to hold in one session and the route to the goal is still foggy — a greenfield project, a huge feature build — start further upstream with [wayfinder](https://aihero.dev/skills-wayfinder), which charts it as a map of decisions first and then merges back into this flow.
## The design tree
## The decision tree
The session walks the plan as a tree of decisions, resolving dependencies between them one by one — a parent decision settled before the choices that hang off it. The point is not to reach agreement quickly; it is to make every implicit call explicit, so nothing important is left silently assumed. You come out the other side with a plan whose branches have all been visited.
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@@ -12,9 +12,17 @@ npx skills update grilling
## What it does
`grilling` is the relentless interview that stress-tests a plan or design before you build it. It walks down the design tree branch by branch, resolving the dependencies between decisions one at a time until you and the agent share the same understanding.
`grilling` is the relentless interview that stress-tests a plan or design before you build it. It maps the plan as a **design tree** — every decision branches into the decisions that hang off it — and works that tree in **rounds** until you and the agent share the same understanding.
It asks **one question at a time** and waits for your answer before the next — never a bulk list, which is bewildering. Each question comes with the agent's own recommended answer, and any question the codebase can settle it explores instead of asking you. It won't start enacting the plan until you confirm the shared understanding has been reached.
Each round asks the whole **frontier**: every decision whose prerequisites are already settled — the questions it can put to you *now* without guessing at answers it hasn't heard yet. Your answers reshape the tree, pushing the frontier outward, and the next round asks whatever that unblocks. Thirteen questions land in a handful of rounds instead of thirteen. Every question comes with the agent's own recommended answer; any *fact* the environment can settle it dispatches to a background sub-agent rather than asking you — and it doesn't block on that research, only the questions downstream of it wait. It won't act on the plan until you confirm the shared understanding has been reached.
### Prefer one question at a time?
If the old one-at-a-time rhythm suited you better, keep it. Add a line to your global `CLAUDE.md`:
```
When grilling, ask one question at a time.
```
## When to reach for it
@@ -22,9 +30,9 @@ Type `/grilling`, or the agent reaches for it automatically when a task fits —
Reach for it when a plan or design still has soft spots and you want them surfaced before code is written. In practice you usually invoke it through one of its two wrappers rather than by name: for a plain grilling session use [grill-me](https://aihero.dev/skills-grill-me); to have the session also write ADRs and a glossary as it goes, use [grill-with-docs](https://aihero.dev/skills-grill-with-docs).
## The design tree
## The decision tree
The mental model is a **design tree**: every plan branches into decisions, and decisions depend on each other. `grilling` descends that tree one node at a time, so an early answer can reshape which questions come next. That is why the questions arrive singly and in dependency order — a firehose of parallel questions loses the structure that makes the interview converge on a shared understanding.
The mental model is a **design tree**: every plan branches into decisions, and decisions depend on each other. The **frontier** is the set of decisions whose prerequisites are all settled — the only questions that can be asked without guessing. `grilling` asks the whole frontier at once, then recomputes it from your answers, so a round is exactly the batch of questions that *don't* depend on each other. A question whose answer hinges on another still open this round waits for a later round. Asking in frontier-sized rounds keeps the dependency structure intact while sparing you a question-at-a-time drip.
## Pulled out on purpose
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@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ set -euo pipefail
# Links all skills in the repository into the local skill directories used by
# each agent harness:
# - ~/.claude/skills — Claude Code
# - ~/.agents/skills — pi and other Agent-Skills-standard harnesses
# - ~/.agents/skills — Codex and other Agent Skills-compatible harnesses
# Each entry is a symlink into this repo, so a `git pull` is all that's needed
# to keep installed skills up to date.
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Design an Interface"
short_description: "Explore alternative module interfaces"
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@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "QA"
short_description: "Conversational QA that files issues"
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Request Refactor Plan"
short_description: "Plan a safe incremental refactor"
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Ubiquitous Language"
short_description: "Build a shared domain glossary"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
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@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Skills I use daily for code work.
## User-invoked
Reachable only when you type them (`disable-model-invocation: true`).
Reachable only when you type them (Claude Code: `disable-model-invocation: true`; Codex: `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false` in `agents/openai.yaml`).
- **[ask-matt](./ask-matt/SKILL.md)** — Ask which skill or flow fits your situation. A router over the user-invoked skills in this repo.
- **[grill-with-docs](./grill-with-docs/SKILL.md)** — Grilling session that also builds your project's domain model, sharpening terminology and updating `CONTEXT.md` and ADRs inline.
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@ Reachable only when you type them (`disable-model-invocation: true`).
- **[setup-matt-pocock-skills](./setup-matt-pocock-skills/SKILL.md)** — Configure this repo for the engineering skills (issue tracker, triage labels, domain doc layout). Run once per repo.
- **[to-spec](./to-spec/SKILL.md)** — Turn the current conversation into a spec and publish it to the issue tracker.
- **[to-tickets](./to-tickets/SKILL.md)** — Break any plan, spec, or conversation into a set of tracer-bullet tickets, each declaring its blocking edges — text in a local file, or native blocking links on a real tracker.
- **[wayfinder](./wayfinder/SKILL.md)** — Plan a huge chunk of work — more than one agent session can hold — as a shared map of investigation tickets on the issue tracker, resolved one at a time until the way to the destination is clear.
- **[implement](./implement/SKILL.md)** — Build the work described by a spec or set of tickets, driving `/tdd` at pre-agreed seams and closing out with `/code-review` before committing.
- **[wayfinder](./wayfinder/SKILL.md)** — Plan a huge chunk of work — more than one agent session can hold — as a shared map of decision tickets on the issue tracker, resolved one at a time until the way to the destination is clear.
## Model-invoked
@@ -27,3 +28,4 @@ Model- or user-reachable (rich trigger phrasing so the model can reach for them)
- **[domain-modeling](./domain-modeling/SKILL.md)** — Actively build and sharpen a project's domain model — challenge terms, stress-test with scenarios, update `CONTEXT.md` and ADRs inline.
- **[codebase-design](./codebase-design/SKILL.md)** — Shared discipline and vocabulary for designing deep modules: small interfaces, clean seams, testable through the interface.
- **[code-review](./code-review/SKILL.md)** — Two-axis review of the diff since a fixed point: **Standards** (does it follow the repo's coding standards, plus a Fowler smell baseline?) and **Spec** (does it faithfully implement the originating issue/PRD?), run as parallel sub-agents.
- **[resolving-merge-conflicts](./resolving-merge-conflicts/SKILL.md)** — Work through an in-progress git merge or rebase conflict hunk by hunk, resolving by intent traced to each side's primary source, then finish the operation — never `--abort`.
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@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ The route most work travels. You have an idea and want it built.
- **`/prototype`** to answer the question with throwaway code,
- **`/handoff`** back what you learned, and reference it from the original idea thread.
3. **Branch — is this a multi-session build?**
- **Yes** → **`/to-spec`** (turn the thread into a spec), then **`/to-tickets`** to split it into tracer-bullet tickets, each declaring its **blocking edges**. On a local tracker that's an ordered `tickets.md` you work by hand; on a real tracker the edges become native blocking links, so any ticket whose blockers are done can be grabbed — kick off **`/implement`** per ticket, **clearing context between each one**.
- **Yes** → **`/to-spec`** (turn the thread into a spec), then **`/to-tickets`** to split it into tracer-bullet tickets, each declaring its **blocking edges**. On a local tracker that's one file per ticket under `.scratch/<feature>/issues/`, worked blockers-first by hand; on a real tracker the edges become native blocking links, so any ticket whose blockers are done can be grabbed — kick off **`/implement`** per ticket, **clearing context between each one**.
- **No** → **`/implement`** right here, in the same context window.
Either way, **`/implement`** builds each issue by driving **`/tdd`** internally — one red-green slice at a time — then closes out by running **`/code-review`**, a two-axis review (Standards + Spec) of the diff, before committing. Reach for **`/tdd`** on its own when you just want to build a concrete behaviour test-first without a full spec, and **`/code-review`** on its own whenever you want to review a branch or PR against a fixed point.
@@ -41,7 +41,9 @@ A starting situation that generates work, then merges onto the main flow.
- **Something's broken** → **`/diagnosing-bugs`**. For the hard ones: the bug that resists a first glance, the intermittent flake, the regression that crept in between two known-good states. It refuses to theorise until it has a **tight feedback loop** — one command that already goes red on *this* bug — then fixes with a regression test. Its post-mortem hands off to **`/improve-codebase-architecture`** when the real finding is that there's no good seam to lock the bug down.
- **A huge, foggy effort — a greenfield project or a huge feature build, too big for one session** → **`/wayfinder`**. When the way from here to the destination isn't visible yet, it charts a **shared map** of investigation tickets on the issue tracker and resolves them one at a time — producing **decisions, not deliverables** — until the fog is pushed back and the way is clear. Then it merges onto the main flow at **`/to-spec`** (or, if the effort turned out small enough, straight to **`/implement`**). Where **`/grill-with-docs`** sharpens an idea you can hold in one session, wayfinder is for the idea you can't.
- **A huge, foggy effort — a greenfield project or a huge feature build, too big for one session** → **`/wayfinder`**, the most cognitively demanding flow here. When the way from here to the destination isn't visible yet, it charts a **shared map** of **decision tickets** on the issue tracker and resolves them one at a time — producing **decisions, not deliverables** — until the fog is pushed back and the way is clear. Where **`/grill-with-docs`** sharpens an idea you can hold in one session, wayfinder is for the idea you can't — and it's slower and denser, so save it for exactly that, never a well-scoped feature.
When the map clears, **it hands off, it doesn't build**: merge onto the main flow at **`/to-spec`**, which collapses the map's linked decisions into a buildable plan, then `/to-tickets` and `/implement` as usual. Looping the map straight into `/implement` skips that collapse and throws the linked detail away — go straight to `/implement` only when the effort turned out genuinely small.
## Codebase health
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Ask Matt"
short_description: "Find the right skill or workflow"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Code Review"
short_description: "Review a diff on standards and spec"
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Codebase Design"
short_description: "Vocabulary for deep-module design"
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Diagnosing Bugs"
short_description: "Diagnose hard bugs and regressions"
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Domain Modeling"
short_description: "Build and sharpen a domain model"
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Grill with Docs"
short_description: "Grill a design and write its docs"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Implement"
short_description: "Build work from a spec or tickets"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -17,6 +17,11 @@ This command is _informed_ by the project's domain model and built on a shared d
### 1. Explore
**Scope before you scan — YAGNI.** Deepening a module pays off by making future changes to it easier, so put extra weight on the parts of the codebase that have recently changed. Decide *where* to look before you look:
- If the user named a direction — a module, a subsystem, a pain point — take it, and skip the inference below.
- Otherwise, walk back a good stretch of the commit history (`git log --oneline`) to find the codebase's hot spots — the files and areas that keep coming up — and let those paths pull your attention first. If the changes are scattered with no clear hot spot, widen the net.
Read the project's domain glossary (`CONTEXT.md`) and any ADRs in the area you're touching first.
Then use the Agent tool with `subagent_type=Explore` to walk the codebase. Don't follow rigid heuristics — explore organically and note where you experience friction:
@@ -56,7 +61,7 @@ Do NOT propose interfaces yet. After the file is written, ask the user: "Which o
### 3. Grilling loop
Once the user picks a candidate, run the `/grilling` skill to walk the design tree with them — constraints, dependencies, the shape of the deepened module, what sits behind the seam, what tests survive.
Once the user picks a candidate, run the `/grilling` skill to walk the decision tree with them — constraints, dependencies, the shape of the deepened module, what sits behind the seam, what tests survive.
Side effects happen inline as decisions crystallize — run the `/domain-modeling` skill to keep the domain model current as you go:
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Improve Codebase Architecture"
short_description: "Find and grill architecture improvements"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
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@@ -1,13 +1,15 @@
# Logic Prototype
A tiny interactive terminal app that lets the user drive a state model by hand. Use this when the question is about **business logic, state transitions, or data shape** — the kind of thing that looks reasonable on paper but only feels wrong once you push it through real cases.
A single, self-contained HTML file — a **shareable demo** that lets anyone drive a state model by clicking buttons. Use this when the question is about **business logic, state transitions, or data shape** — the kind of thing that looks reasonable on paper but only feels wrong once you push it through real cases.
Because it's one file with nothing to install, you can hand it to a non-developer — a designer, a PM, a domain expert — and let them feel the model for themselves. So it speaks their language, not the code's.
## When this is the right shape
- "I'm not sure if this state machine handles the edge case where X then Y."
- "Does this data model actually let me represent the case where..."
- "I want to feel out what the API should look like before writing it."
- Anything where the user wants to **press buttons and watch state change**.
- Anything where someone wants to **press buttons and watch state change**.
If the question is "what should this look like" — wrong branch. Use [UI.md](UI.md).
@@ -15,17 +17,11 @@ If the question is "what should this look like" — wrong branch. Use [UI.md](UI
### 1. State the question
Before writing code, write down what state model and what question you're prototyping. One paragraph, in the prototype's README or a comment at the top of the file. A logic prototype that answers the wrong question is pure waste — make the question explicit so it can be checked later, whether the user is watching now or returning to it AFK.
Before writing code, write down what state model and what question you're prototyping. One paragraph, at the top of the demo (in a visible intro, not just a comment). A logic prototype that answers the wrong question is pure waste — make the question explicit so it can be checked later, whether the user is watching now or returning to it AFK.
### 2. Pick the language
### 2. Isolate the logic in a portable module
Use whatever the host project uses. If the project has no obvious runtime (e.g. a docs repo), ask.
Match the project's existing conventions for tooling — don't add a new package manager or runtime just for the prototype.
### 3. Isolate the logic in a portable module
Put the actual logic — the bit that's answering the question — behind a small, pure interface that could be lifted out and dropped into the real codebase later. The TUI around it is throwaway; the logic module shouldn't be.
Put the actual logic — the bit that's answering the question — in a single `<script>` block written as a small, pure module that could be lifted out and dropped into the real codebase later. The page around it is throwaway; this module isn't.
The right shape depends on the question:
@@ -34,46 +30,38 @@ The right shape depends on the question:
- **A small set of pure functions** over a plain data type. Good when there's no implicit current state — just transformations.
- **A class or module with a clear method surface** when the logic genuinely owns ongoing internal state.
Pick whichever shape best fits the question being asked, *not* whichever is easiest to wire to a TUI. Keep it pure: no I/O, no terminal code, no `console.log` for control flow. The TUI imports it and calls into it; nothing flows the other direction.
Pick whichever shape best fits the question being asked, *not* whichever is easiest to wire to a page. Keep it pure: no DOM, no `document`, no button handlers reaching inside it. The page calls into it; nothing flows the other direction. This is what makes the prototype useful past its own lifetime: once the question's answered, the validated reducer / machine / function set lifts into the real module on its own.
This is what makes the prototype useful past its own lifetime. When the question's been answered, the validated reducer / machine / function set can be lifted into the real module — the TUI shell gets deleted.
### 3. Build the shareable HTML file
### 4. Build the smallest TUI that exposes the state
One file, plain HTML/CSS/JS — no framework, no bundler, no server, everything inline so it opens by double-click and survives being emailed around. Anyone should be able to run it by opening it.
Build it as a **lightweight TUI** — on every tick, clear the screen (`console.clear()` / `print("\033[2J\033[H")` / equivalent) and re-render the whole frame. The user should always see one stable view, not an ever-growing scrollback.
Write it for a non-developer. Every label is in **domain language**, not code — buttons and state read like the business, not the reducer. Explain in plain words what's happening.
Each frame has two parts, in this order:
Lay it out with a clean hierarchy, top to bottom:
1. **Current state**, pretty-printed and diff-friendly (one field per line, or formatted JSON). Use **bold** for field names or section headers and **dim** for less important context (timestamps, IDs, derived values). Native ANSI escape codes are fine — `\x1b[1m` bold, `\x1b[2m` dim, `\x1b[0m` reset. No need to pull in a styling library unless one is already in the project.
2. **Keyboard shortcuts**, listed at the bottom: `[a] add user [d] delete user [t] tick clock [q] quit`. Bold the key, dim the description, or vice-versa — whatever reads cleanly.
1. **Title and one-line explanation** of what this demo lets you explore (the question from step 1).
2. **Current state** — the full relevant state, rendered as a readable panel (labelled fields, not a raw JSON dump), re-rendered after every click so the change is visible. Where it helps a non-developer follow, call out what just changed.
3. **Free-play buttons** — one button per action, always available, so anyone can poke at the model in any order. Each click dispatches its action and re-renders the state.
4. **Guided walkthroughs** — a set of **scenarios**, one per tab. Each tab holds a short plain-language description of the scenario — the situation it sets up and what to watch for — and underneath it, the ordered **buttons to press** for that scenario. Each step is a real button: clicking it performs that action and moves to the next step. Starting a walkthrough resets to a known initial state so the scenario runs the same way every time.
Behaviour:
Choose scenarios that demonstrate the awkward cases — the happy path, a tricky edge case, an attempt at something that should be illegal — the ones hard to reason about on paper.
1. **Initialise state** — a single in-memory object/struct. Render the first frame on start.
2. **Read one keystroke (or one line)** at a time, dispatch to a handler that mutates state.
3. **Re-render** the full frame after every action — don't append, replace.
4. **Loop until quit.**
Keep it beautiful but restrained: clean typography, generous spacing, one accent colour. No animations, no gimmicks — nothing that competes with the state and the buttons.
The whole frame should fit on one screen.
### 4. Hand it over
### 5. Make it runnable in one command
Send them the file, or open it for them. They'll click through the walkthroughs and free-play whenever they get to it; the interesting moments are when they say "wait, that shouldn't be possible" or "huh, I assumed X would be different" — those are the bugs in the _idea_, which is the whole point. If they want new actions or a new scenario, add them. Prototypes evolve.
Add a script to the project's existing task runner (`package.json` scripts, `Makefile`, `justfile`, `pyproject.toml`). The user should run `pnpm run <prototype-name>` or equivalent — never need to remember a path.
### 5. Capture the answer and the prototype
If the host project has no task runner, just put the command at the top of the prototype's README.
### 6. Hand it over
Give the user the run command. They'll drive it themselves; the interesting moments are when they say "wait, that shouldn't be possible" or "huh, I assumed X would be different" — those are the bugs in the _idea_, which is the whole point. If they want new actions added, add them. Prototypes evolve.
### 7. Capture the answer
When the prototype has done its job, the answer to the question is the only thing worth keeping. If the user is around, ask what it taught them. If not, leave a `NOTES.md` next to the prototype so the answer can be filled in (or filled in by you, if you've watched the session) before the prototype gets deleted.
Once the prototype has answered its question, capture the answer, then capture the prototype the way the [SKILL](SKILL.md) describes. The logic-specific mapping: the validated reducer / machine / function set lifts into the real module (the decision, absorbed); the HTML shell rides along to the throwaway branch that keeps the prototype as a primary source — and being one self-contained file, it stays trivially re-runnable there.
## Anti-patterns
- **Don't add tests.** A prototype that needs tests is no longer a prototype.
- **Don't wire it to the real database.** Use an in-memory store unless the question is specifically about persistence.
- **Don't wire it to the real database.** Use in-memory state unless the question is specifically about persistence.
- **Don't generalise.** No "what if we wanted to support X later." The prototype answers one question.
- **Don't blur the logic and the TUI together.** If the reducer / state machine references `console.log`, prompts, or terminal escape codes, it's no longer portable. Keep the TUI as a thin shell over a pure module.
- **Don't ship the TUI shell into production.** The shell is optimised for being driven by hand from a terminal. The logic module behind it is the bit worth keeping.
- **Don't blur the logic and the page together.** If the pure module references the DOM, `document`, or button handlers, it's no longer liftable. Keep the page as a thin shell over a pure module.
- **Don't reach for a framework, bundler, or server.** One file the recipient double-clicks; a React app or a dev server defeats "shareable".
- **Don't ship the HTML shell into production.** The page is optimised for being clicked through by hand. The logic module behind it is the bit worth keeping.
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@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ A prototype is **throwaway code that answers a question**. The question decides
Identify which question is being answered — from the user's prompt, the surrounding code, or by asking if the user is around:
- **"Does this logic / state model feel right?"** → [LOGIC.md](LOGIC.md). Build a tiny interactive terminal app that pushes the state machine through cases that are hard to reason about on paper.
- **"Does this logic / state model feel right?"** → [LOGIC.md](LOGIC.md). Build a single shareable HTML file — free-play buttons plus tabbed guided walkthroughs — that pushes the state machine through cases that are hard to reason about on paper, and that a non-developer can drive.
- **"What should this look like?"** → [UI.md](UI.md). Generate several radically different UI variations on a single route, switchable via a URL search param and a floating bottom bar.
The two branches produce very different artifacts — getting this wrong wastes the whole prototype. If the question is genuinely ambiguous and the user isn't reachable, default to whichever branch better matches the surrounding code (a backend module → logic; a page or component → UI) and state the assumption at the top of the prototype.
@@ -19,12 +19,8 @@ The two branches produce very different artifacts — getting this wrong wastes
## Rules that apply to both
1. **Throwaway from day one, and clearly marked as such.** Locate the prototype code close to where it will actually be used (next to the module or page it's prototyping for) so context is obvious — but name it so a casual reader can see it's a prototype, not production. For throwaway UI routes, obey whatever routing convention the project already uses; don't invent a new top-level structure.
2. **One command to run.** Whatever the project's existing task runner supports `pnpm <name>`, `python <path>`, `bun <path>`, etc. The user must be able to start it without thinking.
2. **Trivial to run.** A UI prototype starts from one command in the project's task runner — `pnpm <name>`, `python <path>`, `bun <path>`, etc. A logic demo is a single HTML file the user double-clicks. Either way, no thinking required to start it.
3. **No persistence by default.** State lives in memory. Persistence is the thing the prototype is _checking_, not something it should depend on. If the question explicitly involves a database, hit a scratch DB or a local file with a clear "PROTOTYPE — wipe me" name.
4. **Skip the polish.** No tests, no error handling beyond what makes the prototype _runnable_, no abstractions. The point is to learn something fast and then delete it.
4. **Skip the polish.** No tests, no error handling beyond what makes the prototype _runnable_, no abstractions. The point is to learn something fast.
5. **Surface the state.** After every action (logic) or on every variant switch (UI), print or render the full relevant state so the user can see what changed.
6. **Delete or absorb when done.** When the prototype has answered its question, either delete it or fold the validated decision into the real code — don't leave it rotting in the repo.
## When done
The _answer_ is the only thing worth keeping from a prototype. Capture it somewhere durable (commit message, ADR, issue, or a `NOTES.md` next to the prototype) along with the question it was answering. If the user is around, that capture is a quick conversation; if not, leave the placeholder so they (or you, on the next pass) can fill in the verdict before deleting the prototype.
6. **Capture it when done.** Fold any validated decision into the real code, then capture the prototype itself as a **primary source**: commit it to a throwaway branch, out of main, and leave a context pointer to that branch on the implementation issue. Capture the answer too — the verdict and the question it settled — in the issue or a commit. The main branch keeps only the validated decision.
+4 -4
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@@ -97,12 +97,12 @@ Surface the URL (and the `?variant=` keys). The user will flip through whenever
### 6. Capture the answer and clean up
Once a variant has won, write down which one and why (commit message, ADR, issue, or a `NOTES.md` next to the prototype if running AFK and the user hasn't responded yet). Then:
Once a variant has won, capture the answer — which variant and why — then capture the prototype the way the [SKILL](SKILL.md) describes. Fold the winner into the real code and move the rest onto the throwaway branch, not into main:
- **Sub-shape A** — delete the losing variants and the switcher; fold the winner into the existing page.
- **Sub-shape B** — promote the winning variant to a real route, delete the throwaway route and the switcher.
- **Sub-shape A** — fold the winner into the existing page; drop the losing variants and the switcher from main.
- **Sub-shape B** — promote the winning variant to a real route; drop the throwaway route and the switcher from main.
Don't leave variant components or the switcher lying around. They rot fast and confuse the next reader.
The full set of variants is the primary source, so it lands on the throwaway branch, not the bin — variant components and the switcher left in the main branch rot fast and confuse the next reader.
## Anti-patterns
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Prototype"
short_description: "Prototype to answer a design question"
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Research"
short_description: "Research from high-trust sources"
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Resolving Merge Conflicts"
short_description: "Resolve merge and rebase conflicts"
@@ -26,12 +26,14 @@ Look at the current repo to understand its starting state. Read whatever exists;
- `docs/adr/` and any `src/*/docs/adr/` directories
- `docs/agents/` — does this skill's prior output already exist?
- `.scratch/` — sign that a local-markdown issue tracker convention is already in use
- Is the `triage` skill installed? (a `triage` skill folder alongside this one, or `triage` in your available skills.) This decides whether Section B runs at all.
- Monorepo signals — a `pnpm-workspace.yaml`, a `workspaces` field in `package.json`, or a populated `packages/*` with its own `src/`. Present only in a genuinely large multi-package repo; their absence means single-context, which is almost every repo.
### 2. Present findings and ask
Summarise what's present and what's missing. Then walk the user through the three decisions **one at a time** — present a section, get the user's answer, then move to the next. Don't dump all three at once.
Summarise what's present and what's missing. Then take the sections in order — one section, one answer, then the next.
Assume the user does not know what these terms mean. Each section starts with a short explainer (what it is, why these skills need it, what changes if they pick differently). Then show the choices and the default.
Lead each section with the recommended answer so the user can accept it in a word. Give a one-line explainer only when the choice genuinely branches; skip the section entirely when exploration already settled it (Section B when `triage` isn't installed, Section C when there's no monorepo).
**Section A — Issue tracker.**
@@ -44,41 +46,26 @@ Default posture: these skills were designed for GitHub. If a `git remote` points
- **Local markdown** — issues live as files under `.scratch/<feature>/` in this repo (good for solo projects or repos without a remote)
- **Other** (Jira, Linear, etc.) — ask the user to describe the workflow in one paragraph; the skill will record it as freeform prose
If — and only if — the user picked **GitHub** or **GitLab**, ask one follow-up:
Record the choice in `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md`. The GitHub and GitLab templates carry a "PRs as a request surface" flag, defaulted **off** — leave it off and don't raise it; a user who wants external PRs in the triage queue can flip the flag in the file later.
> Explainer: Open-source repos often receive feature requests as pull requests, not just issues — a PR is an issue with attached code. If you turn this on, `/triage` pulls *external* PRs into the same queue and runs them through the same labels and states as issues (collaborators' in-flight PRs are left alone). Leave it off if PRs aren't a request surface for you.
**Section B — Triage label vocabulary.** Skip this section entirely if the `triage` skill isn't installed (exploration told you) — an uninstalled skill needs no labels.
- **PRs as a request surface** — yes / no (default: no). Record the answer in `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md`. For local-markdown and other trackers, skip this question — there are no PRs.
If it is installed, ask exactly one question:
**Section B — Triage label vocabulary.**
> Do you want to keep the default triage labels? (recommended: **yes**)
> Explainer: When the `triage` skill processes an incoming issue, it moves it through a state machine — needs evaluation, waiting on reporter, ready for an AFK agent to pick up, ready for a human, or won't fix. To do that, it needs to apply labels (or the equivalent in your issue tracker) that match strings *you've actually configured*. If your repo already uses different label names (e.g. `bug:triage` instead of `needs-triage`), map them here so the skill applies the right ones instead of creating duplicates.
The defaults are the five canonical roles, each label string equal to its name: `needs-triage`, `needs-info`, `ready-for-agent`, `ready-for-human`, `wontfix`. On **yes**, write them as-is. Only if the user says no — usually because their tracker already uses other names (e.g. `bug:triage` for `needs-triage`) — collect the overrides so `triage` applies existing labels instead of creating duplicates.
The five canonical roles:
**Section C — Domain docs.** Default to **single-context** — one `CONTEXT.md` + `docs/adr/` at the repo root. This fits almost every repo; write it without asking.
- `needs-triage` — maintainer needs to evaluate
- `needs-info` — waiting on reporter
- `ready-for-agent` — fully specified, AFK-ready (an agent can pick it up with no human context)
- `ready-for-human` — needs human implementation
- `wontfix` — will not be actioned
Default: each role's string equals its name. Ask the user if they want to override any. If their issue tracker has no existing labels, the defaults are fine.
**Section C — Domain docs.**
> Explainer: Some skills (`improve-codebase-architecture`, `diagnosing-bugs`, `tdd`) read a `CONTEXT.md` file to learn the project's domain language, and `docs/adr/` for past architectural decisions. They need to know whether the repo has one global context or multiple (e.g. a monorepo with separate frontend/backend contexts) so they look in the right place.
Confirm the layout:
- **Single-context** — one `CONTEXT.md` + `docs/adr/` at the repo root. Most repos are this.
- **Multi-context** — `CONTEXT-MAP.md` at the root pointing to per-context `CONTEXT.md` files (typically a monorepo).
Offer **multi-context** — a root `CONTEXT-MAP.md` pointing to per-context `CONTEXT.md` files — only when exploration found monorepo signals. Then confirm which layout they want.
### 3. Confirm and edit
Show the user a draft of:
- The `## Agent skills` block to add to whichever of `CLAUDE.md` / `AGENTS.md` is being edited (see step 4 for selection rules)
- The contents of `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md`, `docs/agents/triage-labels.md`, `docs/agents/domain.md`
- The contents of `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md`, `docs/agents/domain.md`, and `docs/agents/triage-labels.md` (the last only when `triage` is installed)
Let them edit before writing.
@@ -101,7 +88,7 @@ The block:
### Issue tracker
[one-line summary of where issues are tracked, plus whether external PRs are a triage surface]. See `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md`.
[one-line summary of where issues are tracked]. See `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md`.
### Triage labels
@@ -112,12 +99,14 @@ The block:
[one-line summary of layout — "single-context" or "multi-context"]. See `docs/agents/domain.md`.
```
Then write the three docs files using the seed templates in this skill folder as a starting point:
Include the `### Triage labels` sub-block, and write `docs/agents/triage-labels.md`, only when `triage` is installed and Section B ran. When it isn't, both are omitted.
Then write the docs files using the seed templates in this skill folder as a starting point:
- [issue-tracker-github.md](./issue-tracker-github.md) — GitHub issue tracker
- [issue-tracker-gitlab.md](./issue-tracker-gitlab.md) — GitLab issue tracker
- [issue-tracker-local.md](./issue-tracker-local.md) — local-markdown issue tracker
- [triage-labels.md](./triage-labels.md) — label mapping
- [triage-labels.md](./triage-labels.md) — label mapping (only if `triage` is installed)
- [domain.md](./domain.md) — domain doc consumer rules + layout
For "other" issue trackers, write `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md` from scratch using the user's description.
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Setup Matt Pocock Skills"
short_description: "Configure a repo for the skills"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
# Issue tracker: Local Markdown
Issues and PRDs for this repo live as markdown files in `.scratch/`.
Issues and specs (you may know a spec as a PRD) for this repo live as markdown files in `.scratch/`.
## Conventions
- One feature per directory: `.scratch/<feature-slug>/`
- The PRD is `.scratch/<feature-slug>/PRD.md`
- Implementation issues are `.scratch/<feature-slug>/issues/<NN>-<slug>.md`, numbered from `01`
- The spec is `.scratch/<feature-slug>/spec.md`
- Implementation issues are one file per ticket at `.scratch/<feature-slug>/issues/<NN>-<slug>.md`, numbered from `01` — never a single combined tickets file
- Triage state is recorded as a `Status:` line near the top of each issue file (see `triage-labels.md` for the role strings)
- Comments and conversation history append to the bottom of the file under a `## Comments` heading
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "TDD"
short_description: "Test-driven red-green-refactor"
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "To Spec"
short_description: "Turn a conversation into a spec"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
+11 -18
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@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
---
name: to-tickets
description: Break a plan, spec, or the current conversation into a set of tracer-bullet tickets, each declaring its blocking edges, published to the configured tracker — edges as text in a local file, or native blocking links on a real tracker.
description: Break a plan, spec, or the current conversation into a set of tracer-bullet tickets, each declaring its blocking edges, published to the configured tracker — edges as text in one file per ticket locally, or native blocking links on a real tracker.
disable-model-invocation: true
---
@@ -59,33 +59,27 @@ Iterate until the user approves the breakdown.
Publish the approved tickets. **How** depends on the tracker `/setup-matt-pocock-skills` configured — the tickets are the same either way, only the shape of the blocking edges changes:
- **Local files** → write one `tickets.md` in the repo root, all tickets in dependency order (blockers first), each with its "Blocked by" listing the titles it depends on. Use the file template below.
- **Local files** → write one file per ticket under `.scratch/<feature-slug>/issues/<NN>-<slug>.md`, numbered from `01` in dependency order (blockers first). Each file's "Blocked by" lists the numbers/titles it depends on. Use the per-ticket file template below — one ticket per file, never a single combined file.
- **A real issue tracker (GitHub, Linear, …)** → publish one issue per ticket in dependency order (blockers first) so each ticket's blocking edges can reference real identifiers. Use the platform's native blocking / sub-issue relationship where it has one; otherwise set each ticket's "Blocked by" to the blocking issues. Apply the `ready-for-agent` triage label unless instructed otherwise — the tickets are agent-grabbable by construction.
Do NOT close or modify any parent issue.
<tickets-file-template>
# Tickets: <short name of the work>
A one-line summary of what these tickets build. Reference the source spec if there is one.
Work the **frontier**: any ticket whose blockers are all done. For a purely linear chain that means top to bottom.
## <Ticket title>
Do NOT close or modify any parent issue.
<local-ticket-template>
# <NN> — <Ticket title>
**What to build:** the end-to-end behaviour this ticket makes work, from the user's perspective — not a layer-by-layer implementation list.
**Blocked by:** the titles of the tickets that gate this one, or "None — can start immediately".
**Blocked by:** the numbers/titles of the tickets that gate this one, or "None — can start immediately".
**Status:** ready-for-agent
- [ ] Acceptance criterion 1
- [ ] Acceptance criterion 2
## <Ticket title>
...
</tickets-file-template>
</local-ticket-template>
<issue-template>
@@ -111,4 +105,3 @@ The end-to-end behaviour this ticket makes work, from the user's perspective —
In either form, avoid specific file paths or code snippets — they go stale fast. Exception: if a prototype produced a snippet that encodes a decision more precisely than prose can (state machine, reducer, schema, type shape), inline it and note briefly that it came from a prototype. Trim to the decision-rich parts — not a working demo, just the important bits.
Work the frontier one ticket at a time with `/implement`, clearing context between tickets.
</content>
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "To Tickets"
short_description: "Split a plan into tracer-bullet tickets"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Triage"
short_description: "Move issues through triage roles"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
+6 -5
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@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
---
name: wayfinder
description: Plan a huge chunk of work — more than one agent session can hold — as a shared map of investigation tickets on your issue tracker, and resolve them one at a time until the way to the destination is clear.
description: Plan a huge chunk of work — more than one agent session can hold — as a shared map of decision tickets on your issue tracker, and resolve them one at a time until the way to the destination is clear.
disable-model-invocation: true
---
A loose idea has arrived — too big for one agent session, and wrapped in fog: the way from here to the **destination** isn't visible yet. Wayfinding is about finding that way, not charging at the destination. This skill charts the way as a **shared map** on the repo's issue tracker, then works its tickets one at a time until the route is clear.
A loose idea has arrived — too big for one agent session, and wrapped in fog: the way from here to the **destination** isn't visible yet. Wayfinding is about finding that way, not charging at the destination. This skill charts the way as a **shared map** on the repo's issue tracker, then works its **decision tickets** — questions whose resolution is a decision, not slices of a build to execute — one at a time until the route is clear.
The destination varies per effort, and naming it is the first act of charting — it shapes every ticket. It might be a spec to hand off and iterate on, a decision to lock before planning starts, or a change made in place like a data-structure migration. The map is domain-agnostic — engineering work, course content, whatever fits the shape.
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ The answer isn't part of the body — it's recorded on resolution (see [Work thr
Every ticket is either **HITL** — human in the loop, worked *with* a human who speaks for themselves — or **AFK**, driven by the agent alone. A HITL ticket only resolves through that live exchange; the agent never stands in for the human's side of it (a grilling agent that answers its own questions has broken this).
- **Research** (AFK): Reading documentation, third-party APIs, or local resources like knowledge bases. Creates a markdown summary as a linked asset. Use when knowledge outside the current working directory is required.
- **Research** (AFK): Reading documentation, third-party APIs, or local resources like knowledge bases to surface a fact a decision waits on. Resolved by a `/research` **subagent**. Use when knowledge outside the current working directory is required.
- **Prototype** (HITL): Raise the fidelity of the discussion by making a cheap, rough, concrete artifact to react to — an outline, a rough take, a stub, or UI/logic code via the /prototype skill. Links the prototype as an asset. Use when "how should it look" or "how should it behave" is the key question.
- **Grilling** (HITL): Conversation via the /grilling and /domain-modeling skills, one question at a time. The default case.
- **Task** (HITL or AFK): Manual work that must happen before a *decision* can be made — nothing to decide, prototype, or research, but the discussion is blocked until it's done. Signing up for a service so its API can be judged, provisioning access, moving data so its shape can be seen. This is the one type that *does* rather than decides — and it earns its place by unblocking a decision, not by delivering the destination. The agent drives it alone where it can (AFK); otherwise it hands the human a precise checklist (HITL). Resolved when the work is done; the answer records what was done and any resulting facts (credentials location, new URLs, row counts) later tickets depend on.
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ Ruling something out of scope is a scoping act, not a step on the route. When a
## Invocation
Two modes. Either way, **never resolve more than one ticket per session.**
Two modes. Either way, **never resolve more than one ticket per session** — with the exception of research tickets.
### Chart the map
@@ -112,7 +112,8 @@ User invokes with a loose idea.
2. **Map the frontier.** Grill again, **breadth-first** this time: fan out across the whole space rather than deep on any one thread, surfacing the open decisions and the first steps takeable now. **If this surfaces no fog** — the way to the destination is already clear, the whole journey small enough for one session — you don't need a map. Stop and ask the user how they'd like to proceed.
3. **Create the map** (label `wayfinder:map`): Destination and Notes filled in, Decisions-so-far empty, the fog sketched into **Not yet specified**.
4. **Create the tickets you can specify now** as child issues of the map — then wire blocking edges in a **second pass** (issues need ids before they can reference each other). Wiring sorts them into the frontier and the blocked; everything you can't yet specify stays in the fog — the **Not yet specified** section.
5. Stop — charting the map is one session's work; do not also resolve tickets.
5. **Fire the research subagents.** For each `research` ticket you just created, spin up a `/research` subagent to resolve it in parallel, capturing its findings on a throwaway `research/<name>` branch with a context pointer from the ticket.
6. Stop — charting is one session's work; it hand-resolves nothing.
### Work through the map
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Wayfinder"
short_description: "Map a large effort as decision tickets"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
+2
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@@ -8,3 +8,5 @@ Skills that are still being developed. They're not ready to ship — expect roug
- **[writing-fragments](./writing-fragments/SKILL.md)** — Grilling session that mines you for fragments — heterogeneous nuggets of writing — and appends them to a single document as raw material for a future article.
- **[writing-shape](./writing-shape/SKILL.md)** — Take a markdown file of raw material and shape it into an article paragraph by paragraph, arguing format choices at each step.
- **[claude-handoff](./claude-handoff/SKILL.md)** — Hand the current conversation off to a fresh background agent that picks up the work immediately, seeded with a handoff summary via `claude --bg`. User-invoked.
- **[setup-ts-deep-modules](./setup-ts-deep-modules/SKILL.md)** — Wire dependency-cruiser into a TypeScript repo so each package is a deep module — implementation hidden in subfolders, reachable only through its entry-point files, tests exercising it through those. User-invoked.
- **[to-questionnaire](./to-questionnaire/SKILL.md)** — Turn a decision you can't fully answer into a Markdown questionnaire for someone else to fill in async, or over a meeting. It grills you about the send (who it's for, what you need back), not the subject. User-invoked.
@@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
---
name: claude-handoff
description: Hand the current conversation off to a fresh background agent that picks up the work immediately.
argument-hint: "What will the next session be used for?"
disable-model-invocation: true
---
Write a handoff summary of the current conversation so a fresh agent can continue the work. Instead of saving it, launch a background agent seeded with the summary as its prompt: `claude --bg --name "<descriptive name>" "<handoff summary>"`. It starts in the current working directory and returns immediately; the user manages it with `claude agents`.
Always pass `-n`/`--name` with a descriptive name (e.g. `--name "Fix login bug"`) — it sets the display name shown in the job list, session picker, and terminal title.
Include a "suggested skills" section in the summary, which suggests skills that the agent should invoke.
Do not duplicate content already captured in other artifacts (PRDs, plans, ADRs, issues, commits, diffs). Reference them by path or URL instead.
Redact any sensitive information, such as API keys, passwords, or personally identifiable information — the summary becomes the agent's prompt.
If the user passed arguments, treat them as a description of what the next session will focus on and tailor the summary accordingly.
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Loop Me"
short_description: "Spec the workflows you want to build"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
---
name: setup-ts-deep-modules
description: Wire dependency-cruiser into a TypeScript repo so each package is a deep module — implementation hidden in subfolders, reachable only through its entry-point files. User-invoked.
disable-model-invocation: true
---
# Setup TS Deep Modules
Make every package in this repo a **deep module**: a lot of behaviour behind a small interface. A package's public surface is its **entry points** — the files at the package root — and everything in its subfolders is hidden. This skill installs [dependency-cruiser](https://github.com/sverweij/dependency-cruiser) and the rules that make the entry points the only way in, then proves the rules bite.
For the vocabulary (deep module, interface, seam, depth), run the `/codebase-design` skill — use its language throughout.
## The shape this enforces
```
src/packages/
<name>/
index.ts ← an entry point (public). Import this from outside.
client.ts ← another entry point. Packages may expose SEVERAL.
lib/ ← implementation: hidden from outside, free to import each other.
tests/ ← co-located tests + fixtures (a subfolder, so private).
```
The public surface is the package's **root files** — not one designated `index.ts`. By convention implementation lives in `lib/` and tests in `tests/`, giving every package the same two-folder shape. The rule itself is general, though: *anything* in *any* subfolder is private, so you never extend the config to add a folder.
Four rules, all `error`:
1. **Entry-point boundary** — code outside a package (app code or another package) may import only that package's entry points (its root files), never anything in its subfolders.
2. **Intra-package freedom** — a package's own files import each other freely.
3. **Tests through the entry points** — files under `<pkg>/tests/` may import any package's entry points and their own `tests/` fixtures, but never any package's subfolder internals (not even their own). Integration tests across packages are fine; deep imports are not.
4. **No cycles** — no dependency cycles.
**Entry points, not a barrel.** Because the public surface is *every* root file, a package can expose several small entry points (`index.ts`, `client.ts`, `server.ts`) instead of funnelling everything through one giant `index.ts`. Barrel files that re-export a whole subtree are discouraged — keep entry points small and hide implementation in subfolders.
Layering (which packages may depend on which) is a *different* concern and is left as a commented stub in the config for this repo to fill in.
## Steps
### 1. Detect the environment
- **Package manager** — `pnpm-lock.yaml` → pnpm, `yarn.lock` → yarn, `bun.lockb` → bun, else npm. Use it for every command below (`pnpm`/`yarn`/`npm run`/`bunx`).
- **Packages root** — if `src/` exists use `src/packages`, else `packages`. Confirm the choice with the user if the repo already has a different obvious convention.
- **Existing config** — check for a `.dependency-cruiser.*` file. If one exists, do **not** overwrite it: merge the four rules and the options in, and tell the user what you added.
**Done when:** package manager, packages root, and existing-config status are all known.
### 2. Install dependency-cruiser
Install `dependency-cruiser` as a devDependency with the detected package manager.
**Done when:** `dependency-cruiser` is in `devDependencies`.
### 3. Write the config
Copy [`dependency-cruiser.config.cjs`](./dependency-cruiser.config.cjs) to the repo root as `.dependency-cruiser.cjs`. Set `PACKAGES_ROOT` to the root detected in step 1. The rules are path-depth based and extension-agnostic, so nothing else needs adapting.
**Done when:** `.dependency-cruiser.cjs` exists with the correct `PACKAGES_ROOT`, and the four forbidden rules are present.
### 4. Wire it into the checks
- Add a `lint:boundaries` script: `depcruise <packages-root>` (or `depcruise src`).
- Fold it into the repo's umbrella check command — the one that already runs typecheck (e.g. a `check` / `ci` / `validate` script). Do **not** touch `tsconfig` or add path aliases.
- If there is no umbrella script, add `lint:boundaries` and tell the user to include it in CI.
**Done when:** `lint:boundaries` exists and runs as part of the same command as typecheck.
### 5. Scaffold the example package
Create a committed `<packages-root>/example/` as a copy-me template:
- `index.ts` — an entry point. Export one function that delegates to an internal file (so the package is visibly *deep*, not a pass-through).
- `lib/impl.ts` — an internal file in a **subfolder**, imported by `index.ts`, not reachable from outside.
- `tests/example.test.ts` — imports **only** `../index` (an entry point), and asserts against the public function.
Tell the user this is a starter template to copy or delete.
**Done when:** the example package exists, exposes its behaviour through a root entry point, and hides `impl` in a subfolder.
### 6. Prove the rules bite
This is the completion criterion for the whole skill — a config that doesn't fail on a violation is worthless.
1. Run `lint:boundaries`. It must **pass** on the clean example.
2. Temporarily add a deep import to `tests/example.test.ts` (e.g. `import { thing } from "../lib/impl"`). Run `lint:boundaries` again — it must **fail** with `tests-through-entrypoints`.
3. Revert the deep import. Run once more — it must **pass**.
**Done when:** you have observed a pass, then a fail on the deep import, then a pass again. If step 2 does not fail, the rules are not wired correctly — fix before finishing.
### 7. Document the convention
Write a `README.md` **in the packages folder** (`<packages-root>/README.md`) — next to the packages it governs — covering: the `src/packages/<name>/` layout (entry points at the root, `lib/` for implementation, `tests/` for tests), "import only through a package's entry points (its root files)", and how to run `lint:boundaries`. **Discourage barrel files** explicitly — expose several small entry points instead of re-exporting a whole subtree through one index. Keep it to the copy-me snippet plus the four rules in one paragraph each.
Then add a **context pointer** to it from the repo's agent-instructions file — `CLAUDE.md` if present, else `AGENTS.md` (create `AGENTS.md` if neither exists). One line is enough, e.g. `Packages are deep modules — see [src/packages/README.md](./src/packages/README.md) before adding or importing one.` This is what makes an agent discover the boundary rule instead of tripping over it.
**Done when:** `<packages-root>/README.md` exists and discourages barrels, and the repo's `CLAUDE.md`/`AGENTS.md` links to it.
## Notes
- The config's `$1` back-references (dependency-cruiser's group matching) are what let a package reach its own internals while outsiders can't — don't flatten them into separate per-package rules.
- Public vs private is decided by **depth**: a package's root files are entry points; anything in a subfolder is private. The conventional subfolders are `lib/` (implementation) and `tests/`, but the rule doesn't hardcode them — any subfolder is private, so a new folder never needs a config change. Adding an entry point is just adding a root file — no barrel.
- Packages are **flat**: one tier of immediate children under the root. A package's internals may nest as deep as you like; a package may not contain another package.
- Use `.cjs` (not `.js`) so the config's `module.exports` works even in `"type": "module"` repos.
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Setup TS Deep Modules"
short_description: "Enforce deep TypeScript modules"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
// @ts-check
// Deep-module enforcement for dependency-cruiser.
//
// Each package under the packages root is a DEEP MODULE: a lot of behaviour
// behind a small interface. A package's PUBLIC SURFACE is its ENTRY POINTS —
// the files at the package root. Implementation lives in SUBFOLDERS and is
// private — by convention `lib/` for implementation and `tests/` for tests,
// though any subfolder is private. A package may expose several small entry
// points (index.ts, client.ts, server.ts, …) — prefer that over one giant
// barrel index.
//
// The only thing you should ever need to edit here is PACKAGES_ROOT.
/** Where packages live. One immediate child dir per package (flat, no nesting). */
const PACKAGES_ROOT = "src/packages";
// --- derived patterns (no need to edit) -------------------------------------
const R = PACKAGES_ROOT;
/**
* A package's private internals: anything nested inside a package subfolder.
* The package's root files are its entry points and are NOT matched here —
* they stay importable from outside.
*/
const PACKAGE_INTERNALS = `^${R}/[^/]+/[^/]+/`;
/** @type {import('dependency-cruiser').IConfiguration} */
module.exports = {
forbidden: [
{
name: "entrypoint-boundary-from-app",
comment:
"App/root code may import a package's entry points (its root files), but nothing inside its subfolders.",
severity: "error",
from: { pathNot: `^${R}/` }, // importer is NOT inside any package
to: { path: PACKAGE_INTERNALS },
},
{
name: "entrypoint-boundary-across-packages",
comment:
"A package's own files import each other freely, but may reach OTHER packages only through their entry points — never their internals.",
severity: "error",
// importer is inside a package ($1), but is not a test file
from: { path: `^${R}/([^/]+)/`, pathNot: `^${R}/[^/]+/tests/` },
to: {
path: PACKAGE_INTERNALS,
pathNot: `^${R}/$1/`, // same package → intra-package freedom
},
},
{
name: "tests-through-entrypoints",
comment:
"A package's tests exercise it through its entry points like everyone else: they may import any package's entry points and their own tests/ fixtures, but never any package's internals — not even their own.",
severity: "error",
from: { path: `^${R}/([^/]+)/tests/` }, // a test file, in package $1
to: {
path: PACKAGE_INTERNALS,
pathNot: `^${R}/$1/tests/`, // own tests/ fixtures → allowed
},
},
{
name: "tests-folder-is-private",
comment:
"A package's tests/ folder is reachable only from tests — nothing else may import fixtures.",
severity: "error",
from: { pathNot: `^${R}/[^/]+/tests/` }, // importer is not itself a test
to: { path: `^${R}/[^/]+/tests/` },
},
{
name: "no-circular",
comment: "No dependency cycles. Scope to `^${R}/` if you want to allow cycles outside packages.",
severity: "error",
from: {},
to: { circular: true },
},
// --- Layering (optional, off by default) ----------------------------------
// Interface-hiding controls HOW you import (through the entry points).
// Layering controls WHICH packages may depend on which. Add your own rules
// here, e.g.:
//
// {
// name: "ui-may-not-depend-on-billing",
// severity: "error",
// from: { path: `^${R}/ui/` },
// to: { path: `^${R}/billing/` },
// },
],
options: {
doNotFollow: { path: "node_modules" },
tsConfig: { fileName: "tsconfig.json" },
enhancedResolveOptions: {
extensions: [".ts", ".tsx", ".js", ".jsx", ".json"],
},
},
};
+23
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@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
---
name: spawn
description: Hand the current conversation off to a fresh background agent that picks up the work immediately.
argument-hint: "[agent] What will the next session be used for?"
disable-model-invocation: true
---
Write a handoff summary of the current conversation so a fresh agent can continue the work, then spawn the agent with it via the bundled [spawn.sh](spawn.sh) — run it, never read it:
```bash
bash <this skill's base directory>/spawn.sh <agent> "<descriptive session name>" - <<'PROMPT'
<handoff summary>
PROMPT
```
`<agent>` is one of `claude | codex | pi | cursor | opencode | copilot`. Spawn the agent you are running as, unless the user named another. The agent starts in the current working directory; the script prints how the user monitors and manages the session — relay that.
The handoff summary:
- Include a "suggested skills" section naming skills the agent should invoke.
- Reference artifacts (PRDs, plans, ADRs, issues, commits, diffs) by path or URL instead of duplicating them.
- Redact sensitive information (API keys, passwords, PII) — the summary becomes the agent's prompt.
- If the user passed arguments beyond the agent choice, treat them as what the next session will focus on and tailor the summary accordingly.
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Spawn"
short_description: "Hand off to a background agent (claude or codex)"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
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@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# spawn.sh <agent> <name> [prompt|-]
# Launches a background agent session seeded with the prompt.
# Prompt is read from stdin when the third argument is omitted or '-'.
#
# claude has native managed background jobs (claude --bg / claude agents).
# Every other agent is spawned interactively inside herdr when its server is
# running (list/read/send/attach management); otherwise as a supervised
# one-shot under the user's systemd session (status/logs/stop management).
set -euo pipefail
usage() {
echo "usage: spawn.sh <claude|codex|pi|cursor|opencode|copilot> <name> [prompt|-]" >&2
echo " prompt is read from stdin when omitted or '-'" >&2
exit 2
}
agent="${1:-}"
name="${2:-}"
prompt="${3:--}"
[ -n "$agent" ] && [ -n "$name" ] || usage
if [ "$prompt" = "-" ]; then
prompt="$(cat)"
fi
[ -n "$prompt" ] || { echo "spawn.sh: empty prompt" >&2; exit 2; }
if [ "$agent" = "claude" ]; then
claude --bg --name "$name" "$prompt"
echo "Spawned claude session '$name'. Manage it with: claude agents"
exit 0
fi
# Interactive invocation, seeded with the prompt — used inside herdr panes.
case "$agent" in
codex) interactive=(codex "$prompt") ;;
pi) interactive=(pi "$prompt") ;;
cursor) interactive=(cursor-agent "$prompt") ;;
opencode) interactive=(opencode --prompt "$prompt") ;;
copilot) interactive=(copilot -i "$prompt") ;;
*) usage ;;
esac
if herdr agent list >/dev/null 2>&1; then
herdr agent start "$name" --cwd "$PWD" --no-focus -- "${interactive[@]}"
echo "Spawned $agent session '$name' in herdr."
echo " list: herdr agent list"
echo " read: herdr agent read '$name'"
echo " steer: herdr agent send '$name' '<text>'"
echo " attach: herdr agent attach '$name'"
exit 0
fi
command -v systemd-run >/dev/null 2>&1 || {
echo "spawn.sh: no herdr server running and systemd-run unavailable — launch herdr and retry" >&2
exit 1
}
# Non-interactive one-shot — flags keep the run from blocking on approvals.
case "$agent" in
codex) oneshot=(codex exec --sandbox workspace-write --skip-git-repo-check "$prompt") ;;
pi) oneshot=(pi -p "$prompt") ;;
cursor) oneshot=(cursor-agent -p --force --output-format text "$prompt") ;;
opencode) oneshot=(opencode run --title "$name" "$prompt") ;;
copilot) oneshot=(copilot -p "$prompt" --allow-all-tools) ;;
esac
# The systemd user manager doesn't inherit this shell's PATH; resolve the
# binary now and pass PATH through for any children it spawns.
bin="$(command -v "${oneshot[0]}")" || {
echo "spawn.sh: ${oneshot[0]} is not installed" >&2
exit 1
}
oneshot[0]="$bin"
slug="$(printf '%s' "$name" | tr '[:upper:] ' '[:lower:]-' | tr -cd 'a-z0-9-')"
unit="spawn-${slug:-session}-$(date +%H%M%S)"
systemd-run --user --unit "$unit" --working-directory="$PWD" \
--setenv=PATH="$PATH" --setenv=HOME="$HOME" "${oneshot[@]}" >/dev/null 2>&1
echo "Spawned $agent session '$name' as user unit $unit (no herdr server running)."
echo " status: systemctl --user status $unit"
echo " logs: journalctl --user -u $unit -f"
echo " stop: systemctl --user stop $unit"
case "$agent" in
codex) echo " resume: codex exec resume <session id from logs>" ;;
pi) echo " resume: pi -c (from this directory)" ;;
cursor) echo " resume: cursor-agent resume" ;;
opencode) echo " resume: opencode run -c (or: opencode session list)" ;;
copilot) echo " resume: copilot --resume" ;;
esac
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
---
name: to-questionnaire
description: Turn a decision you can't fully answer into a questionnaire for someone else to fill in.
disable-model-invocation: true
---
Turn something the user can't answer alone into a **questionnaire** — a Markdown document they hand to one person to fill in async, or fill out together over a meeting. The recipient holds knowledge the user lacks; the questionnaire pulls it out of them.
**Grill the send, not the subject.** Interview the user only about the _send_, which they can always answer: who it goes to, and what they need back. The questions in the document then target the **gap** between what the recipient knows and what the user needs.
1. **Who is it going to?** Ask, in one exchange, the recipient's role, expertise, and relationship to the user. This fixes the questionnaire's tone and how much context it must carry. Done when you know who the recipient is and what they know that the user doesn't.
2. **What do you need back?** Ask, in one exchange, the specific decisions or facts the user can't resolve alone and needs from this person. Done when you have a concrete list of what the user must walk away able to do or decide.
3. **Write the questionnaire.** Draft questions aimed at the gap from steps 12, following the Document structure below. Write it to `to-questionnaire-<slug>.md` in the current directory (slug from the topic) and report the path. Done when the file exists and every item the user named in step 2 is covered by a question.
## Document structure
Frame the document as a **discovery questionnaire**: the user lacks context, the recipient holds it. Order questions most-important-first — async means you may only get one pass — and group them under `##` headings by theme once there are more than a handful. Write it using the template below.
<questionnaire-template>
# <Questionnaire title>
**Purpose:** why this questionnaire exists and the decision riding on it.
**From:** <the user> — **To:** <the recipient> — **How your answers will be used:** <where they go>
## Context
One paragraph orienting a recipient who wasn't in the user's head. Enough to answer well, not a page.
## How to answer
Deadline and rough effort. Partial answers and "I don't know" are useful — flag anything you're unsure of rather than skipping it.
## <Theme heading>
One `##` section per theme. Under each, its questions, most-important-first. Every question is one idea — never compound — with an answer stub directly beneath, and a one-line _why this matters_ only where the question could be misread or invite a throwaway answer.
<question-example>
### What load is the system expected to handle at launch?
_Why this matters: it decides whether we provision for burst traffic now or defer it._
>
</question-example>
## Anything else?
A closing catch-all: anything we didn't ask that we should know?
</questionnaire-template>
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "To Questionnaire"
short_description: "Front-load questions into a doc for someone to answer"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Wizard"
short_description: "Generate an interactive setup wizard"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Writing Beats"
short_description: "Assemble raw material into beats"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Writing Fragments"
short_description: "Mine raw writing fragments"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Writing Shape"
short_description: "Shape raw material into an article"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Git Guardrails for Claude Code"
short_description: "Block dangerous git commands"
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Migrate to Shoehorn"
short_description: "Replace test assertions with shoehorn"
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Scaffold Exercises"
short_description: "Scaffold lint-ready course exercises"
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Setup Pre-Commit"
short_description: "Add pre-commit quality checks"
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Edit Article"
short_description: "Restructure and tighten a draft"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Obsidian Vault"
short_description: "Manage linked notes in Obsidian"
+2 -2
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@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ General workflow tools, not code-specific.
## User-invoked
Reachable only when you type them (`disable-model-invocation: true`).
Reachable only when you type them (Claude Code: `disable-model-invocation: true`; Codex: `policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false` in `agents/openai.yaml`).
- **[grill-me](./grill-me/SKILL.md)** — Get relentlessly interviewed about a plan or design until every branch of the decision tree is resolved.
- **[handoff](./handoff/SKILL.md)** — Compact the current conversation into a handoff document so another agent can continue the work.
@@ -15,4 +15,4 @@ Reachable only when you type them (`disable-model-invocation: true`).
Model- or user-reachable (rich trigger phrasing so the model can reach for them).
- **[grilling](./grilling/SKILL.md)** — Interview the user relentlessly about a plan or design until every branch of the decision tree is resolved.
- **[grilling](./grilling/SKILL.md)** — Interview the user relentlessly about a plan, decision, or idea until every branch of the decision tree is resolved.
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Grill Me"
short_description: "Sharpen a plan through interview"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
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@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
---
name: grilling
description: Grill the user relentlessly about a plan or design. Use when the user wants to stress-test a plan before building, or uses any 'grill' trigger phrases.
description: Grill the user relentlessly about a plan, decision, or idea. Use when the user wants to stress-test their thinking, or uses any 'grill' trigger phrases.
---
Interview me relentlessly about every aspect of this plan until we reach a shared understanding. Walk down each branch of the design tree, resolving dependencies between decisions one-by-one. For each question, provide your recommended answer.
Interview the user relentlessly until you reach a shared understanding. Map this as a **design tree**: every decision branches into the decisions that hang off it.
Ask the questions one at a time, waiting for feedback on each question before continuing. Asking multiple questions at once is bewildering.
Work the tree in **rounds**. The **frontier** is every decision whose prerequisites are already settled — the questions you can ask _now_ without guessing at answers you haven't heard yet. Ask the whole frontier in one round: number each question and give your recommended answer. Then wait for the user's answers before the next round.
If a *fact* can be found by exploring the codebase, look it up rather than asking me. The *decisions*, though, are mine — put each one to me and wait for my answer.
Each round the user answers reshapes the tree — settled decisions push the frontier outward and unblock questions that depended on them. Recompute the frontier and ask the next round. A question whose answer depends on another question still open in this round belongs to a _later_ round, not this one.
Do not enact the plan until I confirm we have reached a shared understanding.
Finding _facts_ is your job, never the user's. When a frontier question needs a fact from the environment (filesystem, tools, etc.), dispatch a sub-agent to find it — don't ask the user for anything you could look up yourself. Don't block on it: a running exploration is an unsettled prerequisite, so only the questions downstream of it wait for the sub-agent to report — ask the rest of the frontier now. The _decisions_ are the user's — put each to them and wait.
The session is done when the frontier is empty: every branch of the design tree visited, nothing left silently assumed. Do not act on it until the user confirms you have reached a shared understanding.
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
interface:
display_name: "Grilling"
short_description: "Stress-test thinking one question at a time"
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Handoff"
short_description: "Compact a conversation into a handoff"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Teach"
short_description: "Learn a concept in a guided workspace"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
interface:
display_name: "Writing Great Skills"
short_description: "Principles for predictable skills"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false