| name | eng-setup |
| description | Sets up an `## Agent skills` block in AGENTS.md and `.memory/docs/agents/` so the engineering skills know this repo's issue tracker, triage label vocabulary, and domain doc layout. Run before first use of `to-issues`, `to-prd`, `triage`, `diagnose`, `tdd`, `improve-codebase-architecture`, or `zoom-out` — or if those skills appear to be missing context about the issue tracker, triage labels, or domain docs. |
Setup Matt Pocock's Skills
Scaffold the per-repo configuration that the engineering skills assume:
- Issue tracker — where issues live (local miniproject by default; GitHub/GitLab/local also supported)
- 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 at the repo root — does it exist? Is there already an ## Agent skills section?CONTEXT.md and CONTEXT-MAP.md at the repo root.memory/docs/adr/ and any .memory/docs/adr/<relativepath>/ directories.memory/docs/agents/ — does this skill's prior output already exist?.memory/scratch/ — sign that a local-markdown issue tracker convention is already in use
2. Present findings and ask
Summarise what's present and what's missing. Then walk the user through the three decisions one at a time — present a section, get the user's answer, then move to the next. Don't dump all three at once.
Assume the user does not know what these terms mean. Each section starts with a short explainer (what it is, why these skills need it, what changes if they pick differently). Then show the choices and the default.
Section A — Issue tracker.
Explainer: The "issue tracker" is where issues live for this repo. Skills like to-issues, triage, to-prd, and qa read from and write to it — they need to know whether to call gh issue create, write a markdown file under .memory/scratch/, or follow some other workflow you describe. Pick the place you actually track work for this repo.
Default posture: if no issue tracker is specified, prefer Local miniproject. If a git remote points at GitHub, offer GitHub as an explicit alternative. If a git remote points at GitLab (gitlab.com or a self-hosted host), offer GitLab as an explicit alternative. Also 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 miniproject — issues live as files under
.memory/scratch/<feature>/ in this repo (default when unspecified)
- Local markdown — flat issue files in
.memory/scratch/issues/, optional shared PRD at .memory/scratch/PRD.md
- Other (Jira, Linear, etc.) — ask the user to describe the workflow in one paragraph; the skill will record it as freeform prose
Section B — Triage label vocabulary.
Explainer: When the triage skill processes an incoming issue, it moves it through a state machine — needs evaluation, waiting on reporter, ready for an AFK agent to pick up, ready for a human, or won't fix. To do that, it needs to apply labels (or the equivalent in your issue tracker) that match strings you've actually configured. If your repo already uses different label names (e.g. bug:triage instead of needs-triage), map them here so the skill applies the right ones instead of creating duplicates.
The five canonical roles:
needs-triage — maintainer needs to evaluateneeds-info — waiting on reporterready-for-agent — fully specified, AFK-ready (an agent can pick it up with no human context)ready-for-human — needs human implementationwontfix — will not be actioned
Default: each role's string equals its name. Ask the user if they want to override any. If their issue tracker has no existing labels, the defaults are fine.
Section C — Domain docs.
Explainer: Some skills (improve-codebase-architecture, diagnose, tdd) read a CONTEXT.md file to learn the project's domain language, and .memory/docs/adr/ for past architectural decisions. They need to know whether the repo has one global context or multiple (e.g. a monorepo with separate frontend/backend contexts) so they look in the right place.
Confirm the layout:
- Single-context — one
CONTEXT.md + .memory/docs/adr/ at the repo root. Most repos are this.
- Multi-context —
CONTEXT-MAP.md at the root pointing to per-context CONTEXT.md files (typically a monorepo).
3. Confirm and edit
Show the user a draft of:
- The
## Agent skills block to add to AGENTS.md
- The contents of
.memory/docs/agents/issue-tracker.md, .memory/docs/agents/triage-labels.md, .memory/docs/agents/domain.md
Let them edit before writing.
4. Write
Pick the file to edit:
- If
AGENTS.md exists, edit it.
- If it does not exist, create
AGENTS.md.
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 `.memory/docs/agents/issue-tracker.md`.
### Triage labels
[one-line summary of the label vocabulary]. See `.memory/docs/agents/triage-labels.md`.
### Domain docs
[one-line summary of layout — "single-context" or "multi-context"]. See `.memory/docs/agents/domain.md`.
Then write the three docs files under .memory/docs/agents/ using the seed templates in this skill folder as a starting point:
For "other" issue trackers, write .memory/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 .memory/docs/agents/*.md directly later — re-running this skill is only necessary if they want to switch issue trackers or restart from scratch.
