AgentStack
SKILL verified Apache-2.0 Self-run

Ask Matt

skill-grasscaograss-awesomeweldoneskills-ask-matt · by grasscaograss

Ask which skill or flow fits your situation. A router over the user-invoked skills in this repo.

No reviews yet
0 installs
4 views
0.0% view→install

Install

$ agentstack add skill-grasscaograss-awesomeweldoneskills-ask-matt

✓ scanned · ✓ verified — works with Claude Code, Cursor, and more.

Security review

✓ Passed

No issues found. Passed automated security review. · v0.1.0 How review works →

  • Prompt-injection patterns
  • Secret / credential exfiltration
  • Dangerous shell & filesystem operations
  • Untrusted network calls
  • Known-malicious package signatures

What it can access

  • Network access No
  • Filesystem access No
  • Shell / process execution No
  • Environment & secrets No
  • Dynamic code execution No

From automated source analysis of v0.1.0. “Used” means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it’s unsafe.

Are you the author of Ask Matt? Claim this listing to set pricing, connect Stripe payouts, and keep 70% of every sale.
Sign up to claim

About

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.

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 archive/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.
  1. 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 archive/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.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

Reviews

No reviews yet — be the first.

Versions

  • v0.1.0 Imported from the upstream source.