agentleFS
manastalukdarmanastalukdar/ai-devstudio/skills/ask-matt/SKILL.md

ask-matt

Skill1 starsChanged 7 months agoMITView on GitHub

Router over the skill flows in this repo. Use when you don't know which skill or flow fits your situation, or when asked "what skill should I use for X".

123 other projects use a version of this, 110 of them edited.

Adopted by

Most recently taken up by

Used with

Projects with it also use setup-ts-deep-modules, claude-handoff and 7 more.

Other files people use alongside this one.

Files found in the same public projects as a version of this one, more often than they turn up anywhere else. Each project counts once, large collections count for less, and this file's own repository is left out.
  • liufeng1976Skill

    setup-ts-deep-modules

    Wire dependency-cruiser into a TypeScript repo so each package is a deep module — implementation hidden in subfolders, reachable only through its entry-point files. User-invoked.

    Also in 30 projects that use this

  • ryotaroh180105Skill

    claude-handoff

    Hand the current conversation off to a fresh background agent that picks up the work immediately.

    Also in 33 projects that use this

  • RoentekSkill

    loop-me

    Grill me about specs for the workflows I want to build, within this workspace.

    Also in 36 projects that use this

  • FabienDehopreSkill

    decision-mapping

    Turn a loose idea into a sequenced map of investigation tickets, then drive them to resolution one at a time.

    Also in 5 projects that use this

  • LesaniSkill

    writing-beats

    Shape an article as a journey of beats, choose-your-own-adventure style. The user picks a starting beat from the raw material, you write only that beat, then offer options for where to pivot next, beat by beat, until the article reaches a natural end. Use when the user has raw material and wants to assemble it as a narrative rather than an argument.

    Also in 35 projects that use this

  • LesaniSkill

    writing-fragments

    Grilling session that mines the user for fragments — heterogeneous nuggets of writing (claims, vignettes, sharp sentences, half-thoughts) — and appends them to a single document as raw material for a future article. Use when the user wants to develop ideas before imposing structure, or mentions "fragments", "ideate", or "raw material" for writing.

    Also in 35 projects that use this

  • +1 more from Lesani

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

2 rules. 0 are common, 0 are distinctive, and 2 are very specific to this project.

  • 0

    Common

    Most of the 113 edited versions we read keep these.

  • 0

    Distinctive

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 2

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Very specific:

    Branch: can you settle every question in conversation?: If a question needs a runnable answer (state, business logic, a UI you have to …

    line 19
  2. Very specific:

    Keep steps 1–3 in one unbroken context window (don't compact or clear until after /to-tickets).

    line 35

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 113 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

Ask Matt

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, or a vocabulary layer that runs underneath.

The main flow: idea → ship

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

  1. /grill-with-docs sharpens the idea by interview. Start here whenever you are working in a working directory: it's stateful, retaining what it learns in GLOSSARY.md and ADRs. (No working directory? Use /grill-me instead. Both run the same /grilling primitive; grill-with-docs is the one that leaves a paper trail.)
  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:
    • /handoff out, open a fresh session,
    • /prototype to answer the question with throwaway code,
    • /handoff back what you learned.
  3. Branch: is this a multi-session build?

    • Yes → /to-spec (synthesize the thread into a spec), then /to-tickets to split it into tracer-bullet tickets with blocking edges. Then:
      • /implement per ticket, clearing context between each one; or
      • /implement-spec for the whole spec in one orchestrated run (parallel implementer subagents across the frontier).
    • No → /implement right here.

    Either way, code is built driving /tdd and closes with /code-review``. When the work goes up as a PR, **/pr` shapes the body.

  4. /retro closes the loop — looks back and suggests changes to the agent's environment.

Context hygiene

Keep steps 1–3 in one unbroken context window (don't compact or clear until after /to-tickets). Each /implement then starts fresh. The limit is the smart zone (~150k tokens): if a session approaches it before /to-tickets, /compact at the nearest phase boundary.

On-ramps

  • Bugs and requests piling up → /triage: moves issues through triage roles and produces agent-ready issues for /implement.
  • Something's broken → /diagnosing-bugs: for hard bugs — refuses to theorise until it has a tight feedback loop, then fixes with a regression test.
  • A huge, foggy effort → /wayfinder: charts a shared map of decision tickets and resolves them one at a time until the way is clear.

Codebase health

  • /improve-codebase-architecture: surfaces deepening opportunities; picking one generates an idea to take into the main flow at /grill-with-docs.

Vocabulary underneath

Two model-invoked references beneath the other skills:

  • /domain-modeling: sharpen the project's domain language, challenge fuzzy terms, record hard-to-reverse decisions as ADRs.
  • /codebase-design: deep-module vocabulary (module, interface, depth, seam, adapter, leverage, locality) for designing a module's shape.

Phase boundaries

At a phase boundary you have five options:

  • Continue: stay put. Costs nothing, loses nothing.
  • /clear: empty the window when nothing here matters to what's next.
  • /handoff: writes a portable markdown file — use for a new harness, new directory, a colleague, or forking a side task mid-phase.
  • Subagent: send a tightly-scoped task to its own window.
  • /compact: compress this context and seed a fresh session — the default at the bottom of the tree.

Standalone

Off the main flow entirely:

  • /grill-me: same interview as /grill-with-docs, but stateless — no working directory needed.
  • /grilling: the interview primitive itself — use directly when you want the interview with no wrapper.
  • /prototype: throwaway code that answers one design question.
  • /research: delegate reading legwork to a background agent; produces a cited Markdown file.
  • /to-questionnaire: turns a decision into a Markdown questionnaire for async handoff to a domain expert.
  • /wizard: generates an interactive bash wizard for manual human-only steps.
  • /wait-what: re-pitches the last unclear message in plain English using GLOSSARY.md vocabulary.
  • /teach: learn a concept over multiple sessions using the current directory as a stateful workspace.
  • /writing-for-agents: reference for writing skills, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md.

Token Optimization

Expected range: 50–150 tokens (this skill is a guide read — no file I/O required)

Patterns used: Early exit (stateless reference; returns immediately after presenting the map)

Ported from mattpocock/skills with attribution.

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