Dev workflow

Matt Pocock skills

Q: How do I install Matt Pocock’s skills in Claude Code?

Run claude plugin install mattpocock-skills@claude-plugins-official in the terminal, then run /setup-matt-pocock-skills once in each repo where you want the engineering skills.

Q: Which skill should I start with?

The README calls /grill-me and /grill-with-docs its most popular skills and suggests using them every time you want to make a change. If you are unsure which flow fits, /ask-matt routes you to one.

Grilling, spec and ticket flows, TDD, bug diagnosis, code review, domain modeling and handoff skills, user- or model-invoked.

Install

Claude Code

(updates itself by default)

claude plugin install mattpocock-skills@claude-plugins-official

Codex

(updates itself at startup)

codex plugin marketplace add mattpocock/skills
codex plugin add mattpocock-skills@mattpocock

GitHub Copilot

(CLI and VS Code)

copilot plugin marketplace add mattpocock/skills
copilot plugin install mattpocock-skills@mattpocock

Then, once, add to ~/.copilot/settings.json:

{
  "extraKnownMarketplaces": {
    "mattpocock": { "source": { "source": "github", "repo": "mattpocock/skills" }, "autoUpdate": true }
  }
}

In VS Code, run Chat: Install Plugin From Source and enter https://github.com/mattpocock/skills. It updates daily.

Gemini CLI

(manual updates; re-run both commands to update)

gemini skills install https://github.com/mattpocock/skills.git --path skills/engineering
gemini skills install https://github.com/mattpocock/skills.git --path skills/productivity

Any other agent, or editable files

(manual updates)

npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills -a <agent>  # cursor, opencode, devin, windsurf, amp, pi; omit -a to choose

When the installer asks which skills to take, include setup-matt-pocock-skills. To update, run npx skills@latest update, and re-run add to pick up new skills.

Then, once per repo

, run /setup-matt-pocock-skills in your agent. It asks which issue tracker you use (GitHub, GitLab, local files or anything else you describe), which labels you apply when you triage tickets, and where to save the docs the skills create.

Commands as given in the repository README. The README says a plugin updates itself, while skills.sh copies editable files that you update by hand, and to pick one per agent, “because installing both gives you every skill twice.”

Matt Pocock skills are small, composable agent skills for grilling, specs, tickets, TDD, debugging and code review.

Matt Pocock skills are the collection in the mattpocock/skills repository, which its README titles “Skills For Real Engineers”: small, composable skills meant to fix common failure modes with Claude Code, Codex and other coding agents, built to be adapted rather than to own your process (README). The README gives install steps for Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot CLI and VS Code, Gemini CLI, and other agents through skills.sh.

The repository is under the MIT license, and its plugin.json is at version 1.3.1. The plugin is also listed as mattpocock-skills in Anthropic’s claude-plugins-official marketplace. The commit history shows commits on October 19, 2026.

The README splits the skills by who invokes them. User-invoked skills run only when you type them, such as /grill-me, and orchestrate the work; model-invoked skills can also be picked up by the agent when the task fits, and hold the reusable discipline. A user-invoked skill may call model-invoked ones, never another user-invoked one (README reference).

The engineering set includes grill-with-docs (a grilling session that also updates GLOSSARY.md and ADRs), to-spec, to-tickets, implement and implement-spec, triage, wayfinder, retro and improve-codebase-architecture, plus the model-invoked tdd (a red-green-refactor loop), diagnosing-bugs, code-review (a standards review and a spec review run as parallel sub-agents), domain-modeling, codebase-design, prototype, research, pr and wizard. The productivity set adds grill-me, handoff, teach, to-questionnaire, wait-what, grilling and writing-for-agents. ask-matt routes you to the skill that fits.

Questions

Are Matt Pocock’s skills official?

They are not from an agent vendor. Matt Pocock publishes them in his own GitHub repository under the MIT license; the Claude Code plugin is also listed in Anthropic’s claude-plugins-official marketplace.

How do I install Matt Pocock’s skills in Claude Code?

Run claude plugin install mattpocock-skills@claude-plugins-official in the terminal, then run /setup-matt-pocock-skills once in each repo where you want the engineering skills.

Should I use the plugin or skills.sh?

Pick one per agent. The README says the plugin updates itself, skills.sh copies editable files that you update with npx skills@latest update, and installing both gives you every skill twice.

Which skill should I start with?

The README calls /grill-me and /grill-with-docs its most popular skills and suggests using them every time you want to make a change. If you are unsure which flow fits, /ask-matt routes you to one.

Sources

Checked October 20, 2026.

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