What is mattpocock/skills for Claude Code?

It is Matt Pocock's own repository of Claude Code skills, indexed by Flowy under the display title Engineering Discipline. All 29 components are skills, and together they cover a full engineering process: turning an idea into a spec and tickets, implementing and testing it, reviewing the result, diagnosing bugs, and handing off a conversation to the next agent or session.

What is the difference between grilling, grill-me, and grill-with-docs?

All three run a relentless interview meant to stress-test a plan, decision, or design. `grilling` and `grill-me` cover much the same interrogation, with `grilling` described as firing on specific trigger phrases. `grill-with-docs` adds a second output on top of the interview: it writes an ADR and a glossary entry as it goes, so the reasoning survives past the conversation itself and not just the sharpened plan.

Does mattpocock/skills include code review, and what does it check?

Yes, through the `code-review` skill. It reviews the changes since a fixed point, a commit, branch, tag, or merge base, along two axes at once, run in parallel: whether the code follows the repository's own documented coding standards, and whether it matches what the originating issue or spec actually asked for.

Is there a way to plan work that is too large for one agent session?

Yes, that is what `wayfinder` is for. It lays out a large piece of work as a shared map of decision tickets on your issue tracker, rather than one plan, and resolves them one at a time until the path to the destination is clear. For a smaller spec, `to-tickets` breaks a plan or the current conversation into tracer-bullet tickets instead.

How do I install mattpocock/skills, and does Flowy host the code?

Flowy indexes what `mattpocock/skills` ships so you can see the real skills before installing anything; it does not own, bundle, or host the repository. Install it from the listing page linked at the top of this guide, and consider running the plugin's own `setup-matt-pocock-skills` skill first, since it configures the issue tracker and label vocabulary that several other skills assume already exist.

The mattpocock/skills plugin for Claude Code: idea to handoff

By Flowy · Updated 2026-08-28

mattpocock/skills is a Claude Code plugin indexing 29 skills built around engineering process rather than one task. It turns an idea into a spec and tickets, builds it test-first, reviews the result along two axes, diagnoses hard bugs, and hands off a conversation cleanly. A separate family of skills interviews and pressure-tests a plan before you commit to it.

What mattpocock/skills ships

Flowy lists this plugin under the display title Engineering Discipline, and the name fits. mattpocock/skills is Matt Pocock's own repository of Claude Code skills, filed under the Development category, and Flowy indexes 29 components here, every one a skill. The 29 line up behind one idea: a change moves from a raw issue through a sharpened understanding of the problem, a test-first build, a diagnosed fix, and a clean handoff.

From an idea to a finished, reviewed change

Intake starts with to-questionnaire, turning a decision you cannot fully answer into a questionnaire for someone else, and prototype, a throwaway build testing whether a state model or UI actually feels right before it reaches the real codebase. to-spec turns a conversation already had into a written spec and publishes it to your issue tracker, no fresh interview needed. to-tickets breaks a spec, plan, or conversation into tracer-bullet tickets declaring what blocks them; wayfinder scales that up, mapping a big piece of work as decision tickets on the tracker, resolved one at a time.

implement builds from a spec or ticket set, and tdd is the test-first version for red-green-refactor or integration-test requests. code-review checks a finished change along two axes in parallel: repository coding standards, and whether it matches what the originating issue or spec asked for. diagnosing-bugs is a separate loop for something already broken, throwing, failing, or slow. resolving-merge-conflicts handles a git merge or rebase that will not resolve cleanly, and handoff compacts a conversation into a document for the next agent or session.

What the grill skills add

Three skills share a relentless-interview idea, and the output is what separates them. grill-me runs the interview and stops, a stress test with nothing written down. grilling fires on the same idea, triggering when the user wants their thinking pressure-tested or names it directly. grill-with-docs adds a second job: it writes an ADR and a glossary entry as it goes, so the reasoning survives past the conversation. None of the three replaces to-questionnaire, which is for a decision nobody present can actually answer. wait-what is smaller and sharper: when the last explanation did not land, it stops and re-pitches the point.

Understanding a codebase, not just changing it

codebase-design is a shared vocabulary for designing deep modules: where a seam belongs, and what makes an interface testable or agent-navigable. domain-modeling builds and sharpens a project's domain model, for settling terminology, writing a CONTEXT.md file, or recording an ADR. improve-codebase-architecture scans a codebase for deepening opportunities, presents them as a visual HTML report, then grills through whichever you pick. writing-for-agents covers the documents that steer an agent's behavior: a skill, an AGENTS.md file, or a CLAUDE.md file. research investigates a question against high-trust primary sources and writes the findings to a Markdown file, built to run as a background agent. teach is the outlier: it teaches the user, not the codebase, a new skill or concept within the workspace.

Setup, safety, and the narrower tools

setup-matt-pocock-skills configures a repo's issue tracker, triage label vocabulary, and domain doc layout, and its own description says to run it before any other engineering skill. setup-pre-commit sets up Husky pre-commit hooks with lint-staged for Prettier, plus type checking and tests. git-guardrails-claude-code installs Claude Code hooks that block dangerous git commands, such as a forced push, a hard reset, or a forced branch delete.

Three are narrower still. migrate-to-shoehorn moves test files off type-assertion casts and onto shoehorn, a small library for partial test data. scaffold-exercises creates a directory structure of sections, problems, solutions, and explainers for course material rather than a product feature. wizard generates an interactive bash script for steps only a human can perform, such as provisioning infrastructure or walking an unfamiliar dashboard.

Routing and triage

ask-matt is the router: ask it which skill or flow fits your situation. triage covers external issues and pull requests, moving each through a state machine of roles: categorising, verifying, grilling if needed, and writing an agent-ready brief.

Should you install it

This fits someone who wants a full, opinionated process enforced by name: a spec before code, tickets before a build, a review before a merge, a real handoff instead of a conversation that just ends. It fits less well if you want one piece alone, since installing all 29 skills for tdd or code-review by itself is more than most people need; the listing page linked at the top of this guide shows the full set first.

Flowy indexes what mattpocock/skills ships; it does not own, bundle, or host the repository, and updates stay on the author's own release cadence. Run setup-matt-pocock-skills first if you plan to use more than one or two of the others, since several assume that tracker and vocabulary already exist.

Common questions

What is mattpocock/skills for Claude Code?: It is Matt Pocock's own repository of Claude Code skills, indexed by Flowy under the display title Engineering Discipline. All 29 components are skills, and together they cover a full engineering process: turning an idea into a spec and tickets, implementing and testing it, reviewing the result, diagnosing bugs, and handing off a conversation to the next agent or session.
What is the difference between grilling, grill-me, and grill-with-docs?: All three run a relentless interview meant to stress-test a plan, decision, or design. `grilling` and `grill-me` cover much the same interrogation, with `grilling` described as firing on specific trigger phrases. `grill-with-docs` adds a second output on top of the interview: it writes an ADR and a glossary entry as it goes, so the reasoning survives past the conversation itself and not just the sharpened plan.
Does mattpocock/skills include code review, and what does it check?: Yes, through the `code-review` skill. It reviews the changes since a fixed point, a commit, branch, tag, or merge base, along two axes at once, run in parallel: whether the code follows the repository's own documented coding standards, and whether it matches what the originating issue or spec actually asked for.
Is there a way to plan work that is too large for one agent session?: Yes, that is what `wayfinder` is for. It lays out a large piece of work as a shared map of decision tickets on your issue tracker, rather than one plan, and resolves them one at a time until the path to the destination is clear. For a smaller spec, `to-tickets` breaks a plan or the current conversation into tracer-bullet tickets instead.
How do I install mattpocock/skills, and does Flowy host the code?: Flowy indexes what `mattpocock/skills` ships so you can see the real skills before installing anything; it does not own, bundle, or host the repository. Install it from the listing page linked at the top of this guide, and consider running the plugin's own `setup-matt-pocock-skills` skill first, since it configures the issue tracker and label vocabulary that several other skills assume already exist.

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