Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Ask Matt agent skill: install and route your tasks
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
Ask Matt is an agent skill from the mattpocock/skills repository that works as a router: you describe your situation and the agent points you to the right skill or sequence of skills. It is for developers who use that collection and don't want to memorise which skill fits which task. After this guide you will know what the skill does, how to install it, how to trigger it with natural requests, and what it depends on.
Ask Mattmattpocock/skills · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Download the ZIP. Get the ask-matt ZIP from the directory page.
- 2Unzip it into a skills folder. Extract it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or the project's .claude/skills/ for one project.
- 3Or upload it in the Claude apps. Go to Settings → Capabilities → Skills and upload the skill there.
- 4Install the skills it routes to. Make sure the other mattpocock/skills, such as grill-with-docs, to-spec, implement, tdd and code-review, are available.
- 5Describe your situation. Ask in plain words what you have and what you need, naming the skill is optional.
- 6Follow the path it gives you. Work through the suggested skills in order, reading each skill's SKILL.md first.
What is an agent skill, and what does Ask Matt do?
An agent skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file with instructions that an AI coding agent can load when a task calls for them. Ask Matt is one such skill, and its job is routing: it knows about the other skills in the mattpocock/skills repository and walks you through the relevant path for your situation.
The skill describes a main flow from idea to shipped code, plus on-ramps for bugs, huge efforts and codebase upkeep. For example, it covers going from a rough idea to a built and reviewed feature, fixing a hard bug, or planning a large project. It also tells the agent to read each skill's own SKILL.md before stating what that skill does or recommending a step be skipped.
Install the ask-matt skill
Download the ZIP for the skill from the directory page. Then choose one of two locations. For a personal install, unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/. For a single project, unzip it into that project's .claude/skills/ folder.
If you use the Claude apps instead, upload the skill under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
- Personal install: ~/.claude/skills/
- Project install: .claude/skills/ inside your project
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills (upload)
Install the other skills it routes to
Ask Matt only routes between skills. It does little on its own, so the other skills from the mattpocock/skills repository need to be present. The skill names it refers to include grill-with-docs, grill-me, to-spec, to-tickets, implement, implement-spec, tdd, code-review, pr, retro, triage, diagnosing-bugs, wayfinder, prototype, handoff, improve-codebase-architecture, domain-modeling and codebase-design.
How do you trigger it with a natural request?
The skill is set to disable model invocation, so ask for it directly rather than expecting the agent to load it by itself. Describe your situation in plain words, and the agent will pick the matching path.
Good requests name the situation, not the skill. Say what you have and what you need, for example that you have a rough feature idea, or that a bug keeps coming back.
- Ask which skill fits: I have a rough idea for a feature, what should I use?
- Describe a bug: this bug only fails sometimes, which skill helps?
- Compare options: should I use grill-me or grill-with-docs here?
Follow the main flow from idea to ship
The main flow starts with /grill-with-docs when you are working in a working directory, since it keeps notes in GLOSSARY.md and ADRs. If no working directory is available, use /grill-me instead. If the work spans several sessions, the path runs through /to-spec and /to-tickets, then /implement or /implement-spec. Otherwise you implement directly with /implement.
Building is done with /tdd, and /code-review reviews the diff. When the work goes up as a pull request, /pr shapes the description, and /retro looks back over the session and suggests environment changes.
- Working directory present: start with /grill-with-docs
- No working directory: start with /grill-me
- Multi-session build: /to-spec, then /to-tickets, then implement per ticket or with /implement-spec
- Single session: /implement
Keep context healthy at phase boundaries
A phase is a chunk of work such as grilling, implementation or QA. The source says the decision to continue, clear, hand off, use a subagent or compact belongs at the gap between phases, not in the middle of one, because compacting mid-phase makes the agent lose the thread.
Keep the early steps in one unbroken context window until /to-tickets is done. If a session approaches the smart zone limit, which the source gives as roughly 150k tokens on state-of-the-art models, compact at the nearest phase boundary.
- Continue: stay in the session
- /clear: empty the context window
- /handoff: write a portable markdown file for a new session
- Subagent: send the task to its own context window
Safety notes: scripts and network
Ask Matt does not run scripts and does not use the network, according to its listing. Its files are agents/openai.yaml, PHASE-BOUNDARIES.md and SKILL.md. The other skills it points to may have their own requirements, so read those skills before following their steps.
What people use it for
- Turning a rough feature idea into a specced, ticketed build using the main flow.
- Choosing between overlapping skills such as grill-me and grill-with-docs.
- Routing a hard, intermittent bug to diagnosing-bugs with a tight feedback loop.
- Planning a large greenfield effort with wayfinder before moving to to-spec.
- Getting a pull request description shaped with pr after a build.
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the ask-matt skill?
Download the ZIP from the directory page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder. In the Claude apps, you can instead upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
Is ask-matt free to use?
The skill is listed under the MIT licence. The source does not mention pricing for the skill itself, so check the repository for the licence terms.
What do I need before ask-matt is useful?
You need the other skills from the mattpocock/skills repository, such as grill-with-docs, to-spec, implement, tdd and code-review. Ask Matt only routes between them and does little alone.
Does ask-matt run scripts or use the internet?
According to its listing, it runs no scripts and uses no network. Its files are SKILL.md, PHASE-BOUNDARIES.md and agents/openai.yaml.
Should I use ask-matt for a simple coding question?
No. The routing adds overhead that doesn't help with one-off questions, so ask the agent directly for those.
What is the difference between grill-me and grill-with-docs?
Both run the same grilling process. grill-with-docs keeps a paper trail in GLOSSARY.md and ADRs, so it is the better choice when you have a repo to write into. grill-me is for when there is no working directory.
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Our verdict
Ask Matt is worth installing if you already use the mattpocock/skills collection and often can't remember which skill fits a task. It is less useful if you have not installed the other skills, or if you mostly ask simple one-off coding questions, since it only routes between existing skills.
Download the skill