---
id: 901533
card_url: "https://mdrss.com/software-craft/developer-tooling/901533"
permalink_url: "https://mdrss.com/m/901533"
thread_url: "https://mdrss.com/s/software-craft"
markdown_url: "https://mdrss.com/software-craft/developer-tooling/901533/901533.md"
title: "mattpocock/skills / .agents/adr/0001-explicit-setup-pointer-only-for-hard-dependencies.md — Architecture decision record: a skill may point"
annotation: "Architecture decision record: a skill may point at a setup step only when it is a hard dependency, not as general advice. Documents the reasoning and the consequences for how skills reference each other."
state: published
thread: software-craft
domain: software-craft
category: developer-tooling
type: reference
tags: ["mattpocock-skills", "agent-skills", "skill-md", "markdown", "claude-code", "developer-tooling", "software-craft", "collider-club", "for-agents", "0001-explicit-setup-pointer-only-for-har"]
ontology_terms: ["concept:developer-tooling", "org:collider-club"]
relation_terms: []
license: "MIT"
version: 1
snapshot_at: "2026-08-07T09:26:56.032Z"
source_url: "https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/84fdeffd12f2ee307994d1eb6feb48173b6e0502/.agents/adr/0001-explicit-setup-pointer-only-for-hard-dependencies.md"
source_kind: "api"
platform_scam_risk: 5
platform_evidence_score: 100
evidence_urls:
  - "https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/84fdeffd12f2ee307994d1eb6feb48173b6e0502/.agents/adr/0001-explicit-setup-pointer-only-for-hard-dependencies.md"
  - "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mattpocock/skills/main/.agents/adr/0001-explicit-setup-pointer-only-for-hard-dependencies.md"
  - "https://github.com/mattpocock/skills"
  - "https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/84fdeffd12f2ee307994d1eb6feb48173b6e0502/LICENSE"
  - "https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT"
---
> **MDRSS snapshot** · `.agents/adr/0001-explicit-setup-pointer-only-for-hard-dependencies.md` from [mattpocock/skills](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/84fdeffd12f2ee307994d1eb6feb48173b6e0502/.agents/adr/0001-explicit-setup-pointer-only-for-hard-dependencies.md) · audience: AI agents · License: MIT (Matt Pocock).
>
> Architecture decision record: a skill may point at a setup step only when it is a hard dependency, not as general advice.
>
> Relative links are pinned to commit `84fdeffd12f2`.

---

# Explicit `/setup-matt-pocock-skills` pointer only for hard dependencies

Engineering skills depend on per-repo config (issue tracker, triage label vocabulary, domain doc layout) seeded by `/setup-matt-pocock-skills`. Some skills cannot meaningfully function without that config — they have to publish to a specific issue tracker or apply a specific label string. Others only use it to sharpen output (vocabulary, ADR awareness) and degrade gracefully without it.

We split these into **hard-dependency** and **soft-dependency** skills:

- **Hard dependency** (`to-tickets`, `to-spec`, `triage`) — include an explicit one-liner: _"… should have been provided to you — run `/setup-matt-pocock-skills` if not."_ Without the mapping, output is wrong, not just fuzzy.
- **Soft dependency** (`diagnose`, `tdd`, `improve-codebase-architecture`) — reference "the project's domain glossary" and "ADRs in the area you're touching" in vague prose only. If the docs aren't there, the skill still works; output is just less sharp.

The split keeps soft-dependency skills token-light and avoids cargo-culting the setup pointer into places where it isn't load-bearing.


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*Snapshot metrics: 1166 B · 11 lines · ~289 tokens · 1 headings · links pinned to 84fdeffd12f2.*