# skills changelog

> Skills for Real Engineers. Straight from my .agents directory.

- Vendor: mattpocock
- Category: AI
- Official site: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills
- Tracked by: What's New (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/skills)
- Harvested from: GitHub (mattpocock/skills)
- Entries below: 4 (newest first)

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

## Releases

### v1.1.0

- Date: 2026-07-08
- Version: v1.1.0
- Original notes: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/releases/tag/v1.1.0
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/skills/releases/v1.1.0

- **changed** — Update the ask-matt router to map five previously missing skills: tdd, diagnosing-bugs, domain-modeling, codebase-design, and grilling, and flesh out prototype as a standalone skill
- **changed** — Add a maintenance rule to CLAUDE.md to trigger ask-matt re-checks whenever a skill is added, renamed, removed, or the flow changes
- **changed** — Rename the in-progress review skill to code-review, move it from in-progress/ to engineering/, and promote it to ship in the plugin with docs and top-level listings
- **changed** — Update implement skill and docs to point to code-review
- **added** — Add a Fowler smell baseline to code-review Standards axis with twelve curated bad smells inlined into SKILL.md
- **changed** — Update grilling skill with a confirmation gate so the agent waits for user confirmation before enacting the plan
- **changed** — Update grilling description to use the leading word Grill the user relentlessly for sharper invocation
- **changed** — Revise grilling skill to split facts (explore the codebase) from decisions (ask the human), preventing autonomous decision-making during resolve-the-ticket frames
- **added** — Add Negation and Negative Space failure modes to writing-great-skills with entries in GLOSSARY.md and SKILL.md
- **changed** — Make the prototype skill model-invoked and rewrite its description around the leading word prototype with triggers for state/logic sanity-check and UI exploration
- **added** — Add the research skill as a model-invoked skill that spins up a background agent to investigate questions against primary sources and leaves a cited Markdown file

###### Minor Changes

- [#406](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/pull/406) [`930a450`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/930a450089f77a49af09001d955db8452a4b867d) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Bring the **`ask-matt`** router up to date with the full skill set. It now maps five skills it was missing: **`tdd`** (woven into the main flow as the red-green engine `implement` drives), **`diagnosing-bugs`** (a new "Something's broken" on-ramp — there was previously no route for a bug), **`domain-modeling`** and **`codebase-design`** (a new "Vocabulary underneath" section), and **`grilling`** (the shared interview primitive). `prototype` is fleshed out as a standalone and the description broadens from "user-invoked skills" to "the skills". A maintenance rule is added to `CLAUDE.md` so any future skill add/rename/remove or flow change triggers an `ask-matt` re-check, beside the existing docs-page re-sync rule.

- [#464](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/pull/464) [`639df6e`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/639df6e7386dfddc739b2aecdeff37a876f2483b) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Promote and harden **`code-review`**. The in-progress **`review`** skill is renamed to **`code-review`** and moved from `in-progress/` into `engineering/`: it now ships in the plugin, is listed in the top-level and Engineering READMEs (Model-invoked), and has a docs page at `docs/engineering/code-review.md`. The `/implement` skill and docs point at `/code-review`.

  It also gains an always-on **Fowler smell baseline** on its Standards axis — a curated ~12 high-signal "Bad Smells in Code" (Mysterious Name, Duplicated Code, Feature Envy, Data Clumps, Primitive Obsession, Repeated Switches, Shotgun Surgery, Divergent Change, Speculative Generality, Message Chains, Middle Man, Refused Bequest) inlined into `SKILL.md` as a fixed baseline alongside whatever the repo documents, not a new third axis. Two binding rules keep it safe: a documented repo standard overrides the baseline, and every smell is reported as a judgement call, never a hard violation.

- [#464](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/pull/464) [`639df6e`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/639df6e7386dfddc739b2aecdeff37a876f2483b) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Sharpen **`grilling`** on two fronts.

  **A confirmation gate.** The agent won't enact the plan until you confirm the shared understanding has been reached — turning the skill's existing "shared understanding" completion criterion into an explicit stop-gate. The `description` also recruits the pretrained **`grill`** leading word ("Grill the user relentlessly") to sharpen invocation, and the docs page is re-synced.

  **Facts vs. decisions.** Grilling now splits _facts_ (look them up — explore the codebase) from _decisions_ (put each one to the human and wait for their answer). The old blanket line — "if a question can be answered by exploring the codebase, explore the codebase instead" — was written for the live-human case, but once another skill runs grilling inside a resolve-the-ticket frame it read as license to answer _decisions_ autonomously too. Separating the two keeps a grilling agent from racing ahead and answering its own questions.

- [#463](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/pull/463) [`af6d692`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/af6d6922c3e2b5288eef155346cbe319e4ed3bd0) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Add two adjacent Steering failure modes to **`writing-great-skills`**, both about how language you think of as "off" still steers the agent. **Negation** — the _elephant_ — is steering by prohibition: naming what _not_ to do drags the forbidden behaviour into context and makes it _more_ available, not less (_don't think of an elephant_), so the cure is to prompt the **positive**. **Negative Space** — the void — is blindness to the steering done by what you leave _out_: every decision a skill d

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/releases/tag/v1.1.0]_

### v1.0.1

- Date: 2026-06-17
- Version: v1.0.1
- Original notes: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/releases/tag/v1.0.1
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/skills/releases/v1.0.1

- **changed** — Make the teach skill reuse-first, with lessons now built from reusable components in ./assets/ and the agent reading available components before authoring lessons

###### Patch Changes

- [`d20ee26`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/d20ee2684e2a9442698ac3c1e0f2c5b68c4cf296) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Make the **`teach`** skill reuse-first. Lessons are now built from reusable **components** in `./assets/` — stylesheets, quiz widgets, simulators, diagram helpers. Reuse is the default: the agent reads `./assets/` before authoring a lesson, builds from what's there, and extracts anything new and reusable into a component rather than inlining it.

### v1.0.0

- Date: 2026-06-17
- Version: v1.0.0
- Original notes: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/releases/tag/v1.0.0
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/skills/releases/v1.0.0

- **added** — Add the ask-matt skill, a user-invoked router that points you at the right skill or flow for your situation
- **added** — Add the codebase-design skill for deep-module vocabulary and principles for interface design
- **added** — Add the domain-modeling skill to actively build and sharpen a project's domain model
- **added** — Add the resolving-merge-conflicts skill for resolving in-progress git merge or rebase conflicts
- **added** — Expose grilling as a model-invoked skill, the reusable interview loop behind grill-me and grill-with-docs
- **changed** — Rewire improve-codebase-architecture to draw its architecture vocabulary from codebase-design and its domain model from domain-modeling
- **changed** — Update tdd to lean on codebase-design for interface-design guidance, removing inline deep-modules.md and interface-design.md notes
- **changed** — Update grill-with-docs to build the domain model inline via domain-modeling
- **changed** — Rename the diagnose skill to diagnosing-bugs
- **changed** — Rename the skill taxonomy from Commands/Skills to User-invoked/Model-invoked, with user-invoked skills for orchestration and model-invoked skills reachable automatically when the task fits
- **changed** — Tighten the review skill with fail-fast ref check, single-sourced rules, and no-op cuts
- **removed** — Remove the caveman skill
- **removed** — Remove the zoom-out skill
- **removed** — Remove the write-a-skill skill and replace it with writing-great-skills
- **added** — Add writing-great-skills as a reference for writing and editing skills well, including its GLOSSARY.md

###### Major Changes

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Add the **`ask-matt`** skill — a user-invoked router that points you at the right skill or flow for your situation.

  **Breaking:** `ask-matt` routes over the other user-invoked skills in this repo, so it expects them to be installed.

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Add the shared design skills and rewire existing skills onto them.

  - New **`codebase-design`** skill — the deep-module vocabulary (module, interface, depth, seam, adapter) and the principles for putting a lot of behaviour behind a small interface. The language that previously lived in `improve-codebase-architecture/LANGUAGE.md` now lives here, generalized for reuse across skills.
  - New **`domain-modeling`** skill — actively build and sharpen a project's domain model, stress-testing terms against the glossary and keeping `CONTEXT.md` and ADRs current.
  - `improve-codebase-architecture` now draws its architecture vocabulary from `/codebase-design` and its domain model from `/domain-modeling`.
  - `tdd` now leans on `/codebase-design` for interface-design guidance — its inline `deep-modules.md` / `interface-design.md` notes were removed in favour of the shared skill.
  - `grill-with-docs` now builds the domain model inline via `/domain-modeling`.

  **Breaking:** these skills now depend on the new `codebase-design` / `domain-modeling` skills, so you must install them too.

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Remove the **`caveman`** and **`zoom-out`** skills.

  - `caveman` was a duplicate of another skill I was testing and was never meant to be public.
  - `zoom-out` went unused in practice, so it's been removed from the repo.

  **Breaking:** both skills have been removed.

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Rename the **`diagnose`** skill to **`diagnosing-bugs`**.

  **Breaking:** invoke it as `/diagnosing-bugs` — the old `/diagnose` name no longer exists.

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Replace **`write-a-skill`** with **`writing-great-skills`**.

  - Removed `write-a-skill`.
  - Added `writing-great-skills` (plus its `GLOSSARY.md`) — a reference for writing and editing skills well: the vocabulary and principles that make a skill predictable, hunting no-ops down to the sentence level.
  - Exposed `grilling` as a model-invoked skill — the reusable interview loop behind `grill-me` and `grill-with-docs`.

  **Breaking:** `write-a-skill` has been removed; use `writing-great-skills` instead.

###### Minor Changes

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Add the **`resolving-merge-conflicts`** skill — a loop for resolving an in-progress git merge or rebase conflict. Standalone, with no dependencies on other skills.

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Rename the skill taxonomy from **Commands / Skills** to **User-invoked / Model-invoked** across the docs, and add `docs/invocation.md` defining the split: user-invoked skills are reachable only when you type them and exist to orchestrate; model-invoked skills can also be reached automatically when the task fits. A user-invoked skill may invoke model-invoked skills, but never another user-invoked one.

###### Patch Changes

- [`47bde84`

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/releases/tag/v1.0.0]_

### mattpocock-skills@1.0.0

- Date: 2026-06-17
- Version: mattpocock-skills@1.0.0
- Original notes: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/releases/tag/mattpocock-skills%401.0.0
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/skills/releases/mattpocock-skills-1.0.0

- **added** — Add the ask-matt skill, a user-invoked router that points to the right skill or flow for your situation
- **added** — Add the codebase-design skill with deep-module vocabulary and principles for putting behavior behind a small interface
- **added** — Add the domain-modeling skill to actively build and sharpen a project's domain model
- **added** — Add the resolving-merge-conflicts skill, a loop for resolving an in-progress git merge or rebase conflict
- **added** — Expose grilling as a model-invoked skill, the reusable interview loop behind grill-me and grill-with-docs
- **changed** — Improve-codebase-architecture now draws its architecture vocabulary from codebase-design and its domain model from domain-modeling
- **changed** — TDD now leans on codebase-design for interface-design guidance, with inline deep-modules.md and interface-design.md notes removed
- **changed** — Grill-with-docs now builds the domain model inline via domain-modeling
- **changed** — Rename the diagnose skill to diagnosing-bugs
- **changed** — Rename the skill taxonomy from Commands / Skills to User-invoked / Model-invoked, and add docs/invocation.md defining the split
- **changed** — Tighten the review skill with fail-fast ref check, single-sourced rules, and no-op cuts
- **removed** — Remove the caveman skill
- **removed** — Remove the zoom-out skill
- **removed** — Remove the write-a-skill skill
- **added** — Add the writing-great-skills skill as a reference for writing and editing skills well, including its GLOSSARY.md

###### Major Changes

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Add the **`ask-matt`** skill — a user-invoked router that points you at the right skill or flow for your situation.

  **Breaking:** `ask-matt` routes over the other user-invoked skills in this repo, so it expects them to be installed.

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Add the shared design skills and rewire existing skills onto them.

  - New **`codebase-design`** skill — the deep-module vocabulary (module, interface, depth, seam, adapter) and the principles for putting a lot of behaviour behind a small interface. The language that previously lived in `improve-codebase-architecture/LANGUAGE.md` now lives here, generalized for reuse across skills.
  - New **`domain-modeling`** skill — actively build and sharpen a project's domain model, stress-testing terms against the glossary and keeping `CONTEXT.md` and ADRs current.
  - `improve-codebase-architecture` now draws its architecture vocabulary from `/codebase-design` and its domain model from `/domain-modeling`.
  - `tdd` now leans on `/codebase-design` for interface-design guidance — its inline `deep-modules.md` / `interface-design.md` notes were removed in favour of the shared skill.
  - `grill-with-docs` now builds the domain model inline via `/domain-modeling`.

  **Breaking:** these skills now depend on the new `codebase-design` / `domain-modeling` skills, so you must install them too.

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Remove the **`caveman`** and **`zoom-out`** skills.

  - `caveman` was a duplicate of another skill I was testing and was never meant to be public.
  - `zoom-out` went unused in practice, so it's been removed from the repo.

  **Breaking:** both skills have been removed.

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Rename the **`diagnose`** skill to **`diagnosing-bugs`**.

  **Breaking:** invoke it as `/diagnosing-bugs` — the old `/diagnose` name no longer exists.

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Replace **`write-a-skill`** with **`writing-great-skills`**.

  - Removed `write-a-skill`.
  - Added `writing-great-skills` (plus its `GLOSSARY.md`) — a reference for writing and editing skills well: the vocabulary and principles that make a skill predictable, hunting no-ops down to the sentence level.
  - Exposed `grilling` as a model-invoked skill — the reusable interview loop behind `grill-me` and `grill-with-docs`.

  **Breaking:** `write-a-skill` has been removed; use `writing-great-skills` instead.

###### Minor Changes

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Add the **`resolving-merge-conflicts`** skill — a loop for resolving an in-progress git merge or rebase conflict. Standalone, with no dependencies on other skills.

- [`47bde84`](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/commit/47bde84da032afb2e5058f997f3bbca47d321dbd) Thanks [@mattpocock](https://github.com/mattpocock)! - Rename the skill taxonomy from **Commands / Skills** to **User-invoked / Model-invoked** across the docs, and add `docs/invocation.md` defining the split: user-invoked skills are reachable only when you type them and exist to orchestrate; model-invoked skills can also be reached automatically when the task fits. A user-invoked skill may invoke model-invoked skills, but never another user-invoked o

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/releases/tag/mattpocock-skills%401.0.0]_