What it is
Matt Pocock's skills repo is the set of agent skills the TypeScript educator uses daily, aimed at "real engineering - not vibe coding". The best known are /grill-me, where the agent interviews you about a plan until every decision is settled; /grill-with-docs, which does the same while updating a GLOSSARY.md and ADRs (architecture decision records); and /tdd, a red-green-refactor loop that works one vertical slice at a time.
The README lists 27 current skills. The 20 engineering skills include /to-spec, /to-tickets, /implement, a two-axis /code-review run as parallel subagents, /diagnosing-bugs and /wayfinder for work larger than one agent session; the 7 productivity skills include /handoff and /teach. It installs as a self-updating plugin for Claude Code (from Anthropic's official marketplace), Codex and GitHub Copilot, through Gemini CLI, or via npx skills for Cursor, OpenCode and other agents.
Our review
This is the skills pack for developers who want to stay in charge, and its reach is out of proportion to its size. The repo has about 301,000 GitHub stars and was last tagged v1.3.1 on 4 October 2026, with commits since, and skills.sh counts 29.7 million installs across 55 skills it has indexed from the repo, 1.4 million of them for /grill-me. Pocock pitches it against process-owning frameworks such as GSD, BMAD and Spec Kit, which he says take control away and make process bugs hard to fix.
The grilling skills are why it spread. The /grill-me file itself is seven lines that hand off to a shared grilling skill, and Pocock writes that his grilling sessions often last about 45 minutes before any code. The friction is deliberate: the plan is argued out before the agent writes anything. /grill-with-docs then records the agreed terms in a glossary, so later prompts can be shorter and the agent stops using 20 words where one will do.
The catalogue moves quickly. skills.sh still counts installs for names the README no longer lists, such as /to-prd and /to-issues, and the repo keeps deprecated and in-progress folders, so a team that copied files with npx skills can be running retired versions without knowing. The plugin route avoids that because it updates itself, but installing through both routes gives you every skill twice.
The engineering skills also assume a workflow. /setup-matt-pocock-skills has to run once per repo to record the issue tracker, triage labels and where docs live, and skills such as /implement-spec and /triage expect tickets on GitHub, GitLab or local files. Superpowers does more on autopilot; this pack acts only when you type a command, which some teams want and others will find slow.
Where it earns its place
A senior engineer on a five-person product team using Claude Code
Stop the agent building the wrong thing from a vague ticket
Run /grill-with-docs before each change; the agent questions the plan and writes agreed terms to GLOSSARY.md. Free apart from model usage, but a session can take around 45 minutes, so it pays off on changes that would otherwise need rework.
An engineering manager rolling out coding agents to 30 developers
Give everyone the same planning, TDD and review habits without buying a platform
Install the plugin from Anthropic's official marketplace so updates arrive automatically, and run /setup-matt-pocock-skills in each repo to point it at the team's tracker and labels. No licence cost; the risk is skills changing under the team between releases.
A solo founder briefing contract developers
Turn a rough product idea into a spec and a ticketed plan
Use /grill-me, then /to-spec and /to-tickets to publish to GitHub Issues or local files with blocking links between tickets. Costs only model tokens; the output is as good as the time spent answering the interview.
Before you commit
- Setup
- One command per agent, such as claude plugin install mattpocock-skills@claude-plugins-official, then /setup-matt-pocock-skills once per repo. The README calls it a 30-second setup.
- Integrations
- Plugins for Claude Code, Codex and GitHub Copilot; Gemini CLI; Cursor, OpenCode, Devin, Windsurf, Amp and others through npx skills. Engineering skills write to GitHub, GitLab or local-file issue trackers.
- Data and privacy
- The skills are plain Markdown with no service of their own; your code and plans go wherever your agent and model provider send them. skills.sh, run by Vercel, publishes install counts gathered through its CLI. MIT licence.
- Cost at scale
- Free. The cost is model usage: grilling sessions that Pocock says often last about 45 minutes and the parallel subagents in /code-review and /implement-spec use far more tokens than a single prompt.
- Limits
- About 200 open issues and pull requests; skills are renamed and retired between releases; user-invoked skills do nothing unless you call them.
What's good
- /grill-me exposes misunderstandings before code is written
- Small skills you can read and adapt in minutes
- Self-updating plugins for Claude Code, Codex and Copilot
- MIT licence
What's not
- Per-repo setup step for engineering skills
- Duplicate skills if you install by plugin and npx
- Copied files go stale as skills are renamed or retired
- Less automation than full frameworks
Best for
Engineers who want lightweight planning and TDD habits without handing the process to a framework.
Alternatives
Matt Pocock's Skills: common questions
- Is Matt Pocock's Skills worth it?
- Matt Pocock's skills make the agent argue the plan out with you before it writes code, and /grill-me alone justifies the install. We rate it 4.5 out of 5.
- How much does Matt Pocock's Skills cost?
- Free and open source (MIT). You pay for your agent's model usage.
- What are the downsides of Matt Pocock's Skills?
- Per-repo setup step for engineering skills; duplicate skills if you install by plugin and npx; copied files go stale as skills are renamed or retired; less automation than full frameworks.
- Who is Matt Pocock's Skills best for?
- Engineers who want lightweight planning and TDD habits without handing the process to a framework.
- How much does Matt Pocock's Skills cost for a team or in production?
- Free. The cost is model usage: grilling sessions that Pocock says often last about 45 minutes and the parallel subagents in /code-review and /implement-spec use far more tokens than a single prompt.
- Is Matt Pocock's Skills safe for company data?
- The skills are plain Markdown with no service of their own; your code and plans go wherever your agent and model provider send them. skills.sh, run by Vercel, publishes install counts gathered through its CLI. MIT licence.
- What are the best Matt Pocock's Skills alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Superpowers, Agent Skills (Addy Osmani) and Karpathy-inspired CLAUDE.md.
Answers checked Oct 23, 2026.
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