What it does. Configure this repo for the engineering skills: set up its issue tracker, triage label vocabulary, and domain doc layout. Run once before first use of the other engineering skills. Part of mattpocock/skills (Skills for Real Engineers) (mattpocock/skills).


Upstream	mattpocock/skills
Skill file	skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/SKILL.md
License	MIT
Author	Matt Pocock
Fetched	2026-09-10

Install

npx skills add mattpocock/skills --skill setup-matt-pocock-skills, or copy the skill folder into ~/.claude/skills/setup-matt-pocock-skills/.
Raw file: curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mattpocock/skills/HEAD/skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/SKILL.md

SKILL.md (verbatim)

name: setup-matt-pocock-skills
description: "Configure this repo for the engineering skills: set up its issue tracker, triage label vocabulary, and domain doc layout. Run once before first use of the other engineering skills."
disable-model-invocation: true

Setup Matt Pocock's Skills

Scaffold the per-repo configuration that the engineering skills assume:

Issue tracker: where issues live (GitHub by default; local markdown is also supported out of the box)
Triage labels: the strings used for the five canonical triage roles
Domain docs: where CONTEXT.md and ADRs live, and the consumer rules for reading them

This is a prompt-driven skill, not a deterministic script. Explore, present what you found, confirm with the user, then write.

Process

1. Explore

Look at the current repo to understand its starting state. Read whatever exists; don't assume:

git remote -v and .git/config: is this a GitHub repo? Which one?
AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md at the repo root: does either exist? Is there already an ## Agent skills section in either?
CONTEXT.md and CONTEXT-MAP.md at the repo root
docs/adr/ and any src/*/docs/adr/ directories
docs/agents/: does this skill's prior output already exist?
.scratch/: a sign that a local-markdown issue tracker convention is already in use
Is the triage skill installed? (a triage skill folder alongside this one, or triage in your available skills.) This decides whether Section B runs at all.
Monorepo signals: a pnpm-workspace.yaml, a workspaces field in package.json, or a populated packages/* with its own src/. These are present only in a genuinely large multi-package repo; their absence means single-context, which is almost every repo.

2. Present findings and ask

Summarise what's present and what's missing. Then take the sections in order. One section, one answer, then the next.

Lead each section with the recommended answer so the user can accept it in a word. Give a one-line explainer only when the choice genuinely branches; skip the section entirely when exploration already settled it (Section B when triage isn't installed, Section C when there's no monorepo).

Section A: Issue tracker.

Explainer: The "issue tracker" is where issues live for this repo. Skills like to-tickets, triage, and to-spec read from and write to it. They need to know whether to call gh issue create, write a markdown file under .scratch/, or follow some other workflow you describe. Pick the place you actually track work for this repo.

Default posture: these skills were designed for GitHub. If a git remote points at GitHub, propose that. If a git remote points at GitLab (gitlab.com or a self-hosted host), propose GitLab. Otherwise (or if the user prefers), offer:

GitHub: issues live in the repo's GitHub Issues (uses the gh CLI)
GitLab: issues live in the repo's GitLab Issues (uses the glab CLI)
Local markdown: issues live as files under .scratch/<feature>/ in this repo (good for solo projects or repos without a remote)
Other (Jira, Linear, etc.): ask the user to describe the workflow in one paragraph; the skill will record it as freeform prose

Record the choice in docs/agents/issue-tracker.md. The GitHub and GitLab templates carry a "PRs as a request surface" flag, defaulted off. Leave it off and don't raise it: a user who wants external PRs in the triage queue can flip the flag in the file later.

Section B: Triage label vocabulary. Skip this section entirely if the triage skill isn't installed (exploration told you), since an uninstalled skill needs no labels.

If it is installed, ask exactly one question:

Do you want to keep the default triage labels? (recommended: yes)

The defaults are the five canonical roles, each label string equal to its name: needs-triage, needs-info, ready-for-agent, ready-for-human, wontfix. On yes, write them as-is. Only if the user says no, usually because their tracker already uses other names (e.g. bug:triage for needs-triage), collect the overrides so triage applies existing labels instead of creating duplicates.

Section C: Domain docs. Default to single-context (one CONTEXT.md + docs/adr/ at the repo root). This fits almost every repo; write it without asking.

Offer multi-context (a root CONTEXT-MAP.md pointing to per-context CONTEXT.md files) only when exploration found monorepo signals. Then confirm which layout they want.

3. Confirm and edit

Show the user a draft of:

The ## Agent skills block to add to whichever of CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md is being edited (see step 4 for selection rules)
The contents of docs/agents/issue-tracker.md, docs/agents/domain.md, and docs/agents/triage-labels.md (the last only when triage is installed)

Let them edit before writing.

4. Write

Pick the file to edit:

If CLAUDE.md exists, edit it.
Else if AGENTS.md exists, edit it.
If neither exists, ask the user which one to create; don't pick for them.

Never create AGENTS.md when CLAUDE.md already exists (or vice versa); always edit the one that's already there.

If an ## Agent skills block already exists in the chosen file, update its contents in-place rather than appending a duplicate. Don't overwrite user edits to the surrounding sections.

The block:

## Agent skills

### Issue tracker

[one-line summary of where issues are tracked]. See `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md`.

### Triage labels

[one-line summary of the label vocabulary]. See `docs/agents/triage-labels.md`.

### Domain docs

[one-line summary of layout: "single-context" or "multi-context"]. See `docs/agents/domain.md`.

Include the ### Triage labels sub-block, and write docs/agents/triage-labels.md, only when triage is installed and Section B ran. When it isn't, both are omitted.

Then write the docs files using the seed templates in this skill folder as a starting point:

issue-tracker-github.md: GitHub issue tracker
issue-tracker-gitlab.md: GitLab issue tracker
issue-tracker-local.md: local-markdown issue tracker
triage-labels.md: label mapping (only if triage is installed)
domain.md: domain doc consumer rules + layout

For "other" issue trackers, write docs/agents/issue-tracker.md from scratch using the user's description.

5. Done

Tell the user the setup is complete and which engineering skills will now read from these files. Mention they can edit docs/agents/*.md directly later; re-running this skill is only necessary if they want to switch issue trackers or restart from scratch.

Other files in this skill

domain.md (verbatim)

Domain Docs

How the engineering skills should consume this repo's domain documentation when exploring the codebase.

Before exploring, read these

CONTEXT.md at the repo root, or
CONTEXT-MAP.md at the repo root if it exists: it points at one CONTEXT.md per context. Read each one relevant to the topic.
docs/adr/: read ADRs that touch the area you're about to work in. In multi-context repos, also check src/<context>/docs/adr/ for context-scoped decisions.

If any of these files don't exist, proceed silently. Don't flag their absence; don't suggest creating them upfront. The /domain-modeling skill (reached via /grill-with-docs and /improve-codebase-architecture) creates them lazily when terms or decisions actually get resolved.

File structure

Single-context repo (most repos):

/
├── CONTEXT.md
├── docs/adr/
│   ├── 0001-event-sourced-orders.md
│   └── 0002-postgres-for-write-model.md
└── src/

Multi-context repo (presence of CONTEXT-MAP.md at the root):

/
├── CONTEXT-MAP.md
├── docs/adr/                          ← system-wide decisions
└── src/
    ├── ordering/
    │   ├── CONTEXT.md
    │   └── docs/adr/                  ← context-specific decisions
    └── billing/
        ├── CONTEXT.md
        └── docs/adr/

Use the glossary's vocabulary

When your output names a domain concept (in an issue title, a refactor proposal, a hypothesis, a test name), use the term as defined in CONTEXT.md. Don't drift to synonyms the glossary explicitly avoids.

If the concept you need isn't in the glossary yet, that's a signal: either you're inventing language the project doesn't use (reconsider) or there's a real gap (note it for /domain-modeling).

Flag ADR conflicts

If your output contradicts an existing ADR, surface it explicitly rather than silently overriding:

Contradicts ADR-0007 (event-sourced orders), but worth reopening because…

issue-tracker-github.md (verbatim)

Issue tracker: GitHub

Issues and specs for this repo live as GitHub issues. Use the gh CLI for all operations.

Conventions

Create an issue: gh issue create --title "..." --body "...". Use a heredoc for multi-line bodies.
Read an issue: gh issue view <number> --comments, filtering comments by jq and also fetching labels.
List issues: gh issue list --state open --json number,title,body,labels,comments --jq '[.[] | {number, title, body, labels: [.labels[].name], comments: [.comments[].body]}]' with appropriate --label and --state filters.
Comment on an issue: gh issue comment <number> --body "..."
Apply / remove labels: gh issue edit <number> --add-label "..." / --remove-label "..."
Close: gh issue close <number> --comment "..."

Infer the repo from git remote -v; gh does this automatically when run inside a clone.

Pull requests as a triage surface

PRs as a request surface: no. (Set to yes if this repo treats external PRs as feature requests; /triage reads this flag.)

When set to yes, PRs run through the same labels and states as issues, using the gh pr equivalents:

Read a PR: gh pr view <number> --comments and gh pr diff <number> for the diff.
List external PRs for triage: gh pr list --state open --json number,title,body,labels,author,authorAssociation,comments then keep only authorAssociation of CONTRIBUTOR, FIRST_TIME_CONTRIBUTOR, or NONE (drop OWNER/MEMBER/COLLABORATOR).
Comment / label / close: gh pr comment, gh pr edit --add-label/--remove-label, gh pr close.

GitHub shares one number space across issues and PRs, so a bare #42 may be either: resolve with gh pr view 42 and fall back to gh issue view 42.

When a skill says "publish to the issue tracker"

Create a GitHub issue.

When a skill says "fetch the relevant ticket"

Run gh issue view <number> --comments.

Wayfinding operations

Used by /wayfinder. The map is a single issue with child issues as tickets.

Map: a single issue labelled wayfinder:map, holding the Notes / Decisions-so-far / Fog body. gh issue create --label wayfinder:map.
Child ticket: an issue linked to the map as a GitHub sub-issue (gh api on the sub-issues endpoint). Where sub-issues aren't enabled, add the child to a task list in the map body and put Part of #<map> at the top of the child body. Labels: wayfinder:<type> (research/prototype/grilling/task). Once claimed, the ticket is assigned to the driving dev.
Blocking: GitHub's native issue dependencies, the canonical, UI-visible representation. Add an edge with gh api --method POST repos/<owner>/<repo>/issues/<child>/dependencies/blocked_by -F issue_id=<blocker-db-id>, where <blocker-db-id> is the blocker's numeric database id (gh api repos/<owner>/<repo>/issues/<n> --jq .id, not the #number or node_id). GitHub reports issue_dependencies_summary.blocked_by (open blockers only, the live gate). Where dependencies aren't available, fall back to a Blocked by: #<n>, #<n> line at the top of the child body. A ticket is unblocked when every blocker is closed.
Frontier query: list the map's open children (gh issue list --state open, scoped to the map's sub-issues / task list), drop any with an open blocker (issue_dependencies_summary.blocked_by > 0, or an open issue in the Blocked by line) or an assignee; first in map order wins.
Claim: gh issue edit <n> --add-assignee @me, the session's first write.
Resolve: gh issue comment <n> --body "<answer>", then gh issue close <n>, then append a context pointer (gist + link) to the map's Decisions-so-far.

issue-tracker-gitlab.md (verbatim)

Issue tracker: GitLab

Issues and specs for this repo live as GitLab issues. Use the glab CLI for all operations.

Conventions

Create an issue: glab issue create --title "..." --description "...". Use a heredoc for multi-line descriptions. Pass --description - to open an editor.
Read an issue: glab issue view <number> --comments. Use -F json for machine-readable output.
List issues: glab issue list -F json with appropriate --label filters.
Comment on an issue: glab issue note <number> --message "...". GitLab calls comments "notes".
Apply / remove labels: glab issue update <number> --label "..." / --unlabel "...". Multiple labels can be comma-separated or by repeating the flag.
Close: glab issue close <number>. glab issue close does not accept a closing comment, so post the explanation first with glab issue note <number> --message "...", then close.
Merge requests: GitLab calls PRs "merge requests". Use glab mr create, glab mr view, glab mr note, etc., the same shape as gh pr ... with mr in place of pr and note/--message in place of comment/--body.

Infer the repo from git remote -v; glab does this automatically when run inside a clone.

Merge requests as a triage surface

MRs as a request surface: no. (Set to yes if this repo treats external merge requests as feature requests; /triage reads this flag.)

When set to yes, MRs run through the same labels and states as issues, using the glab mr equivalents:

Read an MR: glab mr view <number> --comments and glab mr diff <number> for the diff.
List external MRs for triage: glab mr list -F json, then keep only MRs whose author is not a project member/owner (a contributor's MR, not a maintainer's in-flight work).
Comment / label / close: glab mr note, glab mr update --label/--unlabel, glab mr close.

Unlike GitHub, GitLab numbers issues and MRs separately, so #42 is unambiguous once you know which surface the maintainer means.

When a skill says "publish to the issue tracker"

Create a GitLab issue.

When a skill says "fetch the relevant ticket"

Run glab issue view <number> --comments.

Wayfinding operations

Used by /wayfinder. The map is a single issue with child issues as tickets.

Map: a single issue labelled wayfinder:map, holding the Notes / Decisions-so-far / Fog body. glab issue create --label wayfinder:map. (On GitLab tiers with native epics, an epic may hold the map instead; a labelled issue works everywhere.)
Child ticket: an issue carrying Part of #<map> at the top of its description and labels wayfinder:<type> (research/prototype/grilling/task). Once claimed, the ticket is assigned to the driving dev.
Blocking: GitLab's native blocking link, the canonical, UI-visible representation. Add it with the /blocked_by #<n> quick action, posted as a note (glab issue note <child> --message "/blocked_by #<blocker>"). Native blocking links are a Premium/Ultimate feature; on the free tier (or where unavailable) fall back to a Blocked by: #<n>, #<n> line at the top of the description. A ticket is unblocked when every blocker is closed.
Frontier query: glab issue list -F json scoped to the map's children, drop any with an open blocker: a native blocked_by link to an open issue (glab api projects/:id/issues/:iid/links), or an open issue in the Blocked by line, or an assignee; first in map order wins.
Claim: glab issue update <n> --assignee @me, the session's first write.
Resolve: glab issue note <n> --message "<answer>", then glab issue close <n>, then append a context pointer (gist + link) to the map's Decisions-so-far.

issue-tracker-local.md (verbatim)

Issue tracker: Local Markdown

Issues and specs for this repo live as markdown files in .scratch/.

Conventions

One feature per directory: .scratch/<feature-slug>/
The spec is .scratch/<feature-slug>/spec.md
Implementation issues are one file per ticket at .scratch/<feature-slug>/issues/<NN>-<slug>.md, numbered from 01, never a single combined tickets file
Triage state is recorded as a Status: line near the top of each issue file (see triage-labels.md for the role strings)
Comments and conversation history append to the bottom of the file under a ## Comments heading

When a skill says "publish to the issue tracker"

Create a new file under .scratch/<feature-slug>/ (creating the directory if needed).

When a skill says "fetch the relevant ticket"

Read the file at the referenced path. The user will normally pass the path or the issue number directly.

Wayfinding operations

Used by /wayfinder. The map is a file with one child file per ticket.

Map: .scratch/<effort>/map.md (the Notes / Decisions-so-far / Fog body).
Child ticket: .scratch/<effort>/issues/NN-<slug>.md, numbered from 01, with the question in the body. A Type: line records the ticket type (research/prototype/grilling/task); a Status: line records claimed/resolved.
Blocking: a Blocked by: NN, NN line near the top. A ticket is unblocked when every file it lists is resolved.
Frontier: scan .scratch/<effort>/issues/ for files that are open, unblocked, and unclaimed; first by number wins.
Claim: set Status: claimed and save before any work.
Resolve: append the answer under an ## Answer heading, set Status: resolved, then append a context pointer (gist + link) to the map's Decisions-so-far in map.md.

triage-labels.md (verbatim)

Triage Labels

The skills speak in terms of five canonical triage roles. This file maps those roles to the actual label strings used in this repo's issue tracker.

Label in mattpocock/skills	Label in our tracker	Meaning
`needs-triage`	`needs-triage`	Maintainer needs to evaluate this issue
`needs-info`	`needs-info`	Waiting on reporter for more information
`ready-for-agent`	`ready-for-agent`	Fully specified, ready for an AFK agent
`ready-for-human`	`ready-for-human`	Requires human implementation
`wontfix`	`wontfix`	Will not be actioned

When a skill mentions a role (e.g. "apply the AFK-ready triage label"), use the corresponding label string from this table.

Edit the right-hand column to match whatever vocabulary you actually use.

Back to mattpocock/skills (Skills for Real Engineers) or Agent skills.

setup-matt-pocock-skills skill (mattpocock/skills)

Install

SKILL.md (verbatim)

Setup Matt Pocock's Skills

Process

1. Explore

2. Present findings and ask

3. Confirm and edit

4. Write

5. Done

Other files in this skill

domain.md (verbatim)

Domain Docs

Before exploring, read these

File structure

Use the glossary's vocabulary

Flag ADR conflicts

issue-tracker-github.md (verbatim)

Issue tracker: GitHub

Conventions

Pull requests as a triage surface

When a skill says "publish to the issue tracker"

When a skill says "fetch the relevant ticket"

Wayfinding operations

issue-tracker-gitlab.md (verbatim)

Issue tracker: GitLab

Conventions

Merge requests as a triage surface

When a skill says "publish to the issue tracker"

When a skill says "fetch the relevant ticket"

Wayfinding operations

issue-tracker-local.md (verbatim)

Issue tracker: Local Markdown

Conventions

When a skill says "publish to the issue tracker"

When a skill says "fetch the relevant ticket"

Wayfinding operations

triage-labels.md (verbatim)

Triage Labels