refactor(plugin): self-maintaining directory form for plugin skills

Replace the hand-listed 22 skill directories in
.claude-plugin/plugin.json with the two promoted buckets
(./skills/engineering, ./skills/productivity). Claude Code
discovers skills one level down, so newly promoted skills are
picked up automatically and the manifest can't drift out of sync
with the tree. Resolves the same enumeration gap that once left
resolving-merge-conflicts off the list.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

.agents/adr/0002-ship-as-a-claude-code-plugin.md

@@ -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.

.changeset/plugin-skills-directory-form.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"mattpocock-skills": patch
+---
+
+Switch the plugin manifest's `skills` field to self-maintaining directory form. Instead of hand-listing all 22 skill directories, `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` now points at the two promoted buckets (`./skills/engineering`, `./skills/productivity`) and lets Claude Code discover the skills one level down. New promoted skills are picked up automatically, and the manifest can no longer drift out of sync with the tree.

.changeset/ship-as-claude-plugin.md

@@ -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.

.claude-plugin/marketplace.json

@@ -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"
+      ]
+    }
+  ]
+}

.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,26 +1,25 @@
 {
   "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",
-    "./skills/engineering/grill-with-docs",
-    "./skills/engineering/triage",
-    "./skills/engineering/improve-codebase-architecture",
-    "./skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills",
-    "./skills/engineering/tdd",
-    "./skills/engineering/to-spec",
-    "./skills/engineering/to-tickets",
-    "./skills/engineering/wayfinder",
-    "./skills/engineering/implement",
-    "./skills/engineering/prototype",
-    "./skills/engineering/research",
-    "./skills/engineering/domain-modeling",
-    "./skills/engineering/codebase-design",
-    "./skills/engineering/code-review",
-    "./skills/productivity/grill-me",
-    "./skills/productivity/grilling",
-    "./skills/productivity/handoff",
-    "./skills/productivity/teach",
-    "./skills/productivity/writing-great-skills"
+    "./skills/engineering",
+    "./skills/productivity"
   ]
 }

CLAUDE.md

@@ -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`.
 

README.md

@@ -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
 

skills/engineering/README.md

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ Reachable only when you type them (Claude Code: `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.
+- **[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`.