Matt Pocock's skills
mattpocock/skills
Small, composable engineering skills for planning, specs, tickets, test-driven development and code review.
Matt Pocock's skills is a free, MIT-licensed collection of agent skills that Matt Pocock uses in his own work. The README documents 27 skills for engineering and general productivity, such as grill-me, tdd, to-spec and code-review, and the repo holds 37 skill files in total. It installs as a Claude Code plugin, or into Codex and other agents with the skills CLI.
Facts checked on against the sources listed at the end of this page.
- GitHub stars
- 274,546
- Skills in the pack
- 37
- Agents supported
- 2plus any agent the skills CLI installs to
- Instruction size
- 25.6k wordsacross all SKILL.md files
How to install Matt Pocock's skills
| Agent | Command | Copy |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | Or run /plugin install mattpocock-skills inside a session. This installs the whole set as a read-only bundle that updates when the maker ships. | |
| Codex and other agents | Copies editable skill files into your project. Pick the skills you want, and include setup-matt-pocock-skills. | |
| Every agent, after installing | Run it once per repo. It asks which issue tracker you use (GitHub, Linear or local files), your triage labels and where to save docs. |
Commands as given in the README on 2 October 2026.
What is inside Matt Pocock's skills
| Skill | What it makes the agent do |
|---|---|
| grill-me | Interviews you about a plan or design until every open branch is resolved. |
| grill-with-docs | The same interview, and it also builds the project's domain model by updating GLOSSARY.md and decision records as you go. |
| tdd | Test-driven development with a red, green, refactor loop, one vertical slice at a time. |
| diagnosing-bugs | A gated loop for hard bugs: build a failing check, minimize, hypothesize, instrument, fix and add a regression test. |
| improve-codebase-architecture | Surveys a codebase for modules worth deepening and presents the candidates as an HTML report. |
| to-spec | Turns the current conversation into a spec and publishes it to the issue tracker. |
| to-tickets | Breaks a plan or spec into tickets that each declare what blocks them. |
| implement | Builds the work a spec or tickets describe, using tdd and finishing with code-review before committing. |
| code-review | Reviews the diff on two axes, coding standards and the original spec, using parallel subagents. |
| handoff | Compacts the conversation into a document another agent can continue from. |
The README reference lists 20 engineering skills and 7 productivity skills. The repo also has 6 skills in an in-progress folder and 4 in a misc folder.
What Matt Pocock's skills runs on your machine
| Hooks | No hooks are installed by default. The optional git-guardrails-claude-code skill sets up a Claude Code hook that blocks commands such as git push and git reset --hard. |
|---|---|
| Bundled scripts | Yes. A few skills ship shell scripts: a loop template in diagnosing-bugs, a template in wizard and block-dangerous-git.sh in git-guardrails-claude-code. |
| Network calls | Yes, for some skills. to-spec and to-tickets publish to your issue tracker, and research investigates questions against primary sources. |
| API keys needed | None named in the README. |
These are facts read from the repo, not a security rating. Read the files before you install any skill.
How much context Matt Pocock's skills uses
| All 37 skills | 25,611 words across every SKILL.md file |
|---|---|
| Largest skill | wayfinder, 2,000 words |
| Loaded at start | Only each skill's name and description. The full text loads when a task needs that skill. |
Word counts are measured from the repo every day. Reference files a skill loads on demand are not counted.
How Matt Pocock's skills works
The skills target four failures the README describes: the agent did not build what you wanted, the agent is too verbose, the code does not work, and the codebase turns into a ball of mud. The fixes are a grilling session before work starts, a shared glossary, test-driven development and regular attention to module design.
Skills are split by who can call them. User-invoked skills such as grill-me run only when you type them. Model-invoked skills such as tdd and code-review can also be picked up by the agent when a task fits. The README describes the skills as small and easy to adapt, in contrast with frameworks that own the whole process.
A good fit for
- Developers who want to choose single skills and edit them
- Teams that plan in specs and tickets on GitHub or Linear
- Projects that want the agent to use a shared glossary and decision records
- Claude Code users who want a managed plugin that updates by itself
Skip it if
- People who want one fixed end-to-end process: these are separate skills you combine
- Repos where you skip the setup step, since the engineering skills expect an issue tracker and doc layout to be configured
- Codex users who want a native plugin: the README says it is still on the roadmap
Is Matt Pocock's skills still maintained?
| Last commit | , 3 days ago |
|---|---|
| Latest release | v1.2.3, 6 August 2026 |
| Stars gained in 7 days | Shown after 7 days of tracking |
| Stars gained in 30 days | Shown after 30 days of tracking |
| Open issues and pull requests | 544 |
| Forks | 23,050 |
Tools Matt Pocock's skills works with
Questions about Matt Pocock's skills
How do I install Matt Pocock's skills in Claude Code?
Run claude plugins install mattpocock-skills, or /plugin install mattpocock-skills inside a session. The README says it is in Claude Code's official marketplace, so there is nothing to add first.
Do Matt Pocock's skills work with Codex?
Yes. Run npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills and choose Codex in the installer. The README says a native Codex plugin is on the roadmap.
Should I install the plugin or use the skills CLI?
Pick one. The plugin is a read-only bundle that updates automatically. The skills CLI copies editable files into your repo that you update with npx skills update. The README warns that installing both gives you every skill twice.
What does grill-me do?
It makes the agent interview you about a plan or design until every open question is resolved. The README calls grill-me and grill-with-docs the most popular skills in the repo.
Are Matt Pocock's skills free?
Yes. The repo is open source under the MIT license.