Skills Productivity Guiding Development Workflows with AI Skills

Guiding Development Workflows with AI Skills

v20260620
ask-matt
This skill acts as a central router, helping users determine the correct specialized skill or workflow to tackle development challenges. It guides the entire software development lifecycle, from initial idea refinement (Idea -> Ship) and prototype testing, to managing complex multi-session builds and handling incoming bugs via triage. It is essential for navigating the vast ecosystem of AI coding agents.
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Overview

Ask Matt

When to Use

Use when this workflow matches the user request: Ask which skill or flow fits your situation. A router over the user-invoked skills in this repo.

Source: mattpocock/skills (MIT).

You don't remember every skill, so ask.

A flow is a path through the skills. Most paths run along one main flow, and two on-ramps merge onto it. Everything else is standalone.

The main flow: idea → ship

The route most work travels. You have an idea and want it built.

  1. /grill-with-docs — sharpen the idea by interview. Start here when you have a codebase: it's stateful, retaining what it learns in CONTEXT.md and ADRs. (No codebase? Use /grill-me — see Standalone.)
  2. Branch — can you settle every question in conversation? If a question needs a runnable answer (state, business logic, a UI you have to see), detour through a prototype, bridged by /handoff in both directions (see Crossing sessions):
    • /handoff out, then open a fresh session against that file,
    • /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-prd (turn the thread into a PRD) → /to-issues (split the PRD into independently-grabbable issues). Because the issues are independent, clear context between each one: start a fresh session per issue and kick off /implement by passing it the PRD and the single issue to work on.
    • No/implement right here, in the same context window.

Context hygiene

Keep steps 1–3 in one unbroken context window — don't compact or clear until after /to-issues — so the grilling, PRD, and issues all build on the same thinking. Each /implement then starts fresh, working from the issue.

The limit on this is the smart zone: the window (~120k tokens on state-of-the-art models) within which the model still reasons sharply. If a session approaches it before /to-issues, don't push on degraded — /handoff and continue in a fresh thread.

On-ramps

A starting situation that generates work, then merges onto the main flow.

  • Bugs and requests piling up/triage. It moves issues through triage roles and produces agent-ready issues, which /implement later picks up.

    Triage is only for issues you didn't create — bug reports, incoming feature requests, anything that arrives raw. Issues that /to-issues produced are already agent-ready, so don't triage them.

Codebase health

Not feature work — upkeep.

  • /improve-codebase-architecture — run whenever you have a spare moment to keep the codebase good for agents to operate in. It surfaces deepening opportunities; picking one generates an idea you can take into the main flow at /grill-with-docs.

Crossing sessions

  • /handoff — when a thread is full or you need to branch off (e.g. into a /prototype session), this compacts the conversation into a markdown file. You don't continue in place — you open a new session and reference that file to carry the context across. It's the bridge between context windows, in either direction. Use it when you want a fresh session but need the current conversation preserved.
  • /compact (built-in) — stay in the same conversation, letting the earlier turns be summarized. Use it at intentional breaks between phases, when you don't mind losing the verbatim history. Don't compact mid-phase — the agent can lose its way. /handoff forks; /compact continues.

Standalone

Off the main flow entirely.

  • /grill-me — the same relentless interview as /grill-with-docs, but for when you have no codebase. Stateless: it saves nothing locally, builds no CONTEXT.md. Reach for it to sharpen any plan or design that doesn't live in a repo.
  • /teach — learn a concept over multiple sessions, using the current directory as a stateful workspace.
  • /writing-great-skills — reference for writing and editing skills well.

Precondition

/setup-matt-pocock-skills — run before your first engineering flow to configure the issue tracker, triage labels, and doc layout the other skills assume. Custom issue trackers also work.

Limitations

  • Requires the upstream tool, account, API key, or local setup when the workflow names one.
  • Does not authorize destructive, production, paid, or external-message actions without explicit user approval.
  • Validate generated artifacts or recommendations against the user's real sources before treating them as final.
Info
Category Productivity
Name ask-matt
Version v20260620
Size 5.19KB
Updated At 2026-06-21
Language