About

Imported from sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills (skills/ask-matt/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills --skill ask-matt. Copyright stays with the author (MIT).

Ask Matt

Name: ask-matt
Author: sickn33

When to Use

Use when this workflow matches the user request: Ask which skill or flow fits your situation. A router over the user-invoked skills in this repo.

Source: mattpocock/skills (MIT).

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.

/grill-with-docs — sharpen the idea by interview. Start here when you have a codebase: it's stateful, retaining what it learns in CONTEXT.md and ADRs. (No codebase? Use /grill-me — see Standalone.)
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.
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 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.

Example

User request:

Use @ask-matt for this task: Ask which skill or flow fits your situation.

Limitations

Requires the upstream tool, account, API key, or local setup when the workflow names one.
Does not authorize destructive, production, paid, or external-message actions without explicit user approval.
Validate generated artifacts or recommendations against the user's real sources before treating them as final.

Use it

Copy one of these into your project. Installing also returns the manifest and these snippets.

yaml

targets:
  - https://api.opensmartroute.ai/api/v1/registry/sickn33-agentic-awesome-skills-ask-matt/manifest   # or paste the manifest below

Manifest

An Open Capability Manifest: the router reads it to know what this does, what it costs and when to pick it.

sickn33-agentic-awesome-skills-ask-matt.ocm.jsonjson

{
  "ocm": "1",
  "id": "sickn33-agentic-awesome-skills-ask-matt",
  "kind": "skill",
  "name": "ask-matt",
  "description": "Ask which skill or flow fits your situation. A router over the user-invoked skills in this repo.",
  "publisher": "sickn33",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "capabilities": {
    "domains": [
      "general"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "skill-md",
      "productivity",
      "workflow",
      "coding-agents",
      "skills-sh"
    ],
    "languages": [
      "en"
    ]
  },
  "quality_prior": 0.6,
  "examples": [
    "Ask which skill or flow fits your situation. A router over the user-invoked skills in this repo."
  ],
  "primary": false,
  "metadata": {
    "source": {
      "provider": "skills.sh",
      "repository": "https://github.com/sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills",
      "path": "skills/ask-matt/SKILL.md",
      "ref": "HEAD",
      "url": "https://github.com/sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/ask-matt/SKILL.md",
      "key": "sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills/skills/ask-matt/SKILL.md"
    },
    "license": "MIT"
  },
  "instructions": "# Ask Matt\n\n## When to Use\n\nUse when this workflow matches the user request: Ask which skill or flow fits your situation. A router over the user-invoked skills in this repo.\n\n\n_Source: [mattpocock/skills](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills) (MIT)._\n\nYou don't remember every skill, so ask.\n\nA **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.\n\n## The main flow: idea → ship\n\nThe route most work travels. You have an idea and want it built.\n\n1. **`/grill-with-docs`** — sharpen the idea by interview. St",
  "cost": {
    "context_tokens": 1214
  }
}

Fetch it by URL: GET /api/v1/registry/sickn33-agentic-awesome-skills-ask-matt/manifest?version=1.0.0

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