Source: mattpocock/skills · Maintainer: community: Matt Pocock · License: MIT · Checked: 24 October 2026
What is the ask-matt skill?
The ask-matt skill is a router over Matt Pocock's skill collection: you describe the situation you are in, and it tells you which skill or flow to run next and where your decisions sit. It is for people who have installed mattpocock/skills and don't remember what each one is for.
The skill's description reads: "Ask which skill or flow fits your situation. A router over the skills in this repo." Its first line is blunter: "You don't remember every skill, so ask."
The repo's docs for ask-matt answer a request people keep making in the README: a list of the skills in the right order. "This skill is that list." As of 24 October 2026, its skills.sh page listed about 767,100 installs (snapshot, 24 October 2026).
What does it do?
It recommends and stops. Per the docs, it does not grill you, write a spec, open a file or fire the skill it named. What you get back is the next thing to type.
The SKILL.md is a map of flows, paths through the skills, rather than a keyword lookup:
- The main flow, idea to ship.
/grill-with-docssharpens the idea (or/grill-mewith no working directory). A question that needs runnable code detours through/prototype, bridged by/handoff. A multi-session build goes/to-spec, then/to-tickets, then/implementper ticket or/implement-specfor the whole spec. A small build goes straight to/implement. Code is built through/tdd, checked by/code-review, and/retrocloses the loop. - On-ramps. Incoming bug reports go to
/triage, a hard bug goes to/diagnosing-bugs, and an effort too big and foggy for one session goes to/wayfinder. - Codebase health.
/improve-codebase-architecturefinds deepening opportunities, which re-enter the main flow as ideas. - Standalones such as
/research,/to-questionnaire,/wizard,/wait-whatand/teach. - A vocabulary layer:
/domain-modelingand/codebase-design.
It also gives rules of thumb. Keep grilling, spec and tickets in one unbroken context window, then start each /implement fresh. Don't triage tickets that /to-tickets produced. When a wayfinder map clears, go to /to-spec, not straight to /implement.
The folder has a second file, PHASE-BOUNDARIES.md, covered below, plus agents/openai.yaml (Codex display name "Ask Matt", implicit invocation off).
How do you install it?
The README gives a plugin route and an editable-files route, and says to pick one per agent so you don't get every skill twice. For a router, the plugin route makes the most sense, because a recommendation is only useful if the skill it names is installed.
Claude Code plugin (whole set, updates itself). The collection is listed in Anthropic's official plugin marketplace:
claude plugin install mattpocock-skills@claude-plugins-official
Plugin skills are namespaced, so it appears as /mattpocock-skills:ask-matt.
Codex plugin. From the README:
codex plugin marketplace add mattpocock/skills
codex plugin add mattpocock-skills@mattpocock
Editable files with the skills CLI. The command on skills.sh:
npx skills add https://github.com/mattpocock/skills --skill ask-matt
The skills CLI prompts you to pick skills if you leave out --skill, and -g installs for all projects. Codex and Cursor read the same SKILL.md format; see Codex skills and Cursor skills.
The docs add that the tracker routes (triage, to-spec, to-tickets, implement) assume /setup-matt-pocock-skills has configured an issue tracker, and the router recommends them even before that has happened.
How do you use it?
Type /ask-matt and describe your situation in a sentence or two. The skill sets disable-model-invocation: true, which per the Claude Code skills docs means "Claude can't invoke the skill on its own."
Example prompts (suggestions, not quotes from the repo):
/ask-matt I have an idea for a CSV export feature in this repo. Where do I start?/ask-matt Bug reports are piling up from users. What flow do I use?/ask-matt Should I use grill-with-docs or wayfinder for a rewrite of our billing system?/ask-matt We just finished grilling and the context is at 120k tokens. Compact, clear or hand off?/ask-matt just give me the sequence for a multi-session feature build.
The docs say a good answer names what to type and stops, mentions where to clear or compact and where you review, and explains why the nearby alternative is wrong for you. If you already know which skill you want, invoke that skill directly.
What is the phase-boundary tree?
A phase is a chunk of work inside a session, such as grilling, implementation or QA. PHASE-BOUNDARIES.md says the boundary between two phases "is the only place this decision belongs" and gives five options in order, where the first yes wins:
| Order | Option | Take it when |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Continue | The next phase needs this one as a primary source, or there is room left |
| 2 | /clear |
Everything in the session is disposable |
| 3 | /handoff |
Something has to travel: new harness, new directory, a colleague, or a side task |
| 4 | Subagent | The task can run with you away from the keyboard |
| 5 | /compact |
None of the above |
It describes /compact as "the default, not the first reach," and warns that starting there can leave "a fresh session that is confidently wrong about a decision the summary flattened." The file puts the useful window at about 150k tokens on current models. For the Claude Code side of this, see our context window guide and the handoff skill.
Tips and limits
From the repo's docs, not from testing:
- "Not installed" is usually wrong. User-invoked skills are left out of the skill list the agent sees, so it may report them missing. The docs say sixteen of the plugin's twenty-seven skills carry the flag. Type the command anyway, or check
.claude-plugin/plugin.json. - It can misdescribe other skills. It may answer from its own one-line summaries. The docs cite a session where it advised skipping
to-specwithout opening that skill. Ask it to read the target SKILL.md first, and treat the SKILL.md as right when they disagree. - It only knows this repo. Proposals for a router over your local skills folder exist, but
ask-mattis not that. - Edits to installed skills don't last.
npx skills updateoverwrites files and the plugin install is read-only. Put standing rules in your ownCLAUDE.mdorAGENTS.md. - Renames confuse it. Check the changelog before assuming a skill is gone. The docs list
to-prdbecomingto-specandwriting-great-skillsbecomingwriting-for-agents. They also saypathfinderbecamewayfinder, but the changelog and the wayfinder docs record the old name asdecision-mapping.
As of 24 October 2026, skills.sh showed Pass from Gen Agent Trust Hub, Socket and Snyk. The skill runs no scripts and writes no files. It is MIT licensed.
Save it in your Kipt library
In Kipt, open Skills and paste the mattpocock/skills repo link into the import box. Because the repo holds many skills, Kipt shows a list to pick from, so you can take ask-matt together with the skills it routes to. Your copies live in your own private GitHub repo and install into Claude Code or Codex with one command:
npx skills add https://github.com/<you>/<repo>.git --all -g
Kipt is not affiliated with Matt Pocock or mattpocock/skills.
Similar skills
- Grill with docs skill: the head of the main flow, where the router most often sends you.
- Wayfinder skill: the on-ramp for efforts too big for one session.
- Handoff skill: option 3 in the phase-boundary tree.
- Implement skill: the build step for one ticket.
- Find skills skill: searches the wider skills ecosystem instead of one repo.