barlevalon/skills

Alon's one-command bootstrap for an agentic engineering environment.

A skill is a directory with a SKILL.md entry point plus any helper references, scripts, or templates it needs. Agents see the skill name and description first, then load the full skill only when the task matches.

Install

Choose one install path.

For Pi-managed global skills with Pi-owned update discovery:

pi install npm:@barlevalon/skills

This loads the complete curated catalog—maintained skills plus pinned upstream releases—globally in Pi. Update it with pi update --extensions.

For scoped copies across supported harnesses:

npx @barlevalon/skills@latest install

With no flags the installer does the normal file-based bootstrap:

• installs the curated repo workflow bundle—Matt Pocock workflows plus the maintained tdd fork—under .agents/skills and .claude/skills
• updates repo instruction files for agents that need them
• installs this package's global-purpose maintained skills/forks globally; maintained tdd stays repo-local
• installs canonical upstream global skills from Bento, Caveman, Ponytail, Matt, Vercel, Worktrunk, and Cursor
• reports any pre-existing skill folders it left untouched

Advanced escape hatches:

npx @barlevalon/skills@latest install --agent vscode --skill tdd --skill release-prep --yes
npx @barlevalon/skills@latest install --bundle matt-core --agent vscode --project --yes
npx @barlevalon/skills@latest install --bundle matt-wayfinder --agent vscode --project --yes
npx @barlevalon/skills@latest install --source matt --skill diagnosing-bugs --agent vscode --project --yes
npx @barlevalon/skills@latest install --agent claude-code --skill release-prep --global --yes
npx @barlevalon/skills@latest install --all --yes

Do not combine Pi-managed and file-based installs unless duplicate skill names are intentional. The installer detects an existing Pi package and asks before creating Pi-visible copies; non-interactive overlap requires --allow-pi-overlap.

Migrating from file bootstrap to Pi ownership? Remove installer-managed copies first.

Before deploying the Matt v1.3.1 refresh, complete the domain and Pi-loading cutover checklist. Package validation does not migrate project glossaries or global instructions.

The npm package contains a reproducible aggregate catalog pinned to upstream releases and reviewed commits for Pi. The file-based installer continues fetching selected third-party skills directly from their upstream repositories.

See docs/setup.md for options and manual fallback setup.

Use

Ask your agent for a workflow:

Use tdd to implement this change.
Use diagnosing-bugs before fixing this bug.
Use release-prep for the next release.

Pick a skill

Work	Skills
Configure project tracker and domain conventions	setup-matt-pocock-skills (explicit invocation)
Plan a feature	to-spec, to-tickets, grill-with-docs, grilling
Map large or uncertain work	wayfinder
Research	research
Prototype	prototype
Implement a prepared ticket	implement
Guide human-only setup or migration	wizard
Debug	diagnosing-bugs
Build test-first	tdd
Minimize implementation complexity	ponytail
Improve architecture	improve-codebase-architecture, codebase-design, domain-modeling
Review code	code-review, thermo-nuclear-code-quality-review, ponytail-review
Draft and open a PR	pr (explicit invocation)
Learn from a coding session	retro (explicit invocation)
Learn a topic across sessions	teach (explicit invocation)
Audit repository complexity	ponytail-audit
Track deliberate simplification debt	ponytail-debt
Manage branches and worktrees	worktrunk
Create presentations	bento-slides
Write docs	documentation-system
Get decisions from another person	to-questionnaire
Re-pitch an unclear response	wait-what
Write agent-facing instructions	writing-for-agents
Find more skills	find-skills
Release	release-prep
Commit message	caveman-commit
Concise mode	caveman, caveman-help
Handoff	handoff

Source and usage details: docs/usage.md

Local skills in this package

Skill	Why it lives here	Influences / credits
caveman-commit	local commit-message policy fork	based on JuliusBrussee/caveman
documentation-system	local documentation workflow	based on the current Diátaxis framework
tdd	local TDD discipline synthesis	influenced by Matt Pocock's tdd skill and Obra's test-driven-development superpower
release-prep	local release preparation workflow	authored for this package's release process
pr	self-contained PR drafting and approval-gated browser workflow	influenced by Workmux open-pr, Matt Pocock pr, and Dex Horthy show-me

Upstream sources

Pi installs use the immutable refs recorded in catalog/sources.json. File-based bootstrap fetches canonical skills from:

• nyblnet/bento
• JuliusBrussee/caveman
• DietrichGebert/ponytail
• mattpocock/skills
• vercel-labs/skills
• max-sixty/worktrunk
• cursor/plugins

Docs

• Setup
• Workflow map
• Skill reference
• Maintainer release process

License

MIT