5 Claude Code skills that will change how you build

Authors

Using Claude Code without structured workflows often means getting mediocre results. Matt Pocock shares five reusable "skills" and commands that steer Claude with process-driven prompts, that dramatically sharpen the quality of AI-generated code.


01 /grill-me

Before writing a single line of code, this skill has Claude interrogate you about your requirements. It surfaces assumptions you didn't know you were making and produces a far clearer brief — making every downstream step sharper.


02 /write-a-prd

Turns a rough idea into a proper Product Requirements Document. Having Claude produce a PRD first grounds the entire session in a shared spec, reducing drift and vague outputs later in the process.


03 /prd-to-issues

Breaks down the PRD into discrete, actionable GitHub issues. This transforms abstract requirements into a concrete, trackable work list — and keeps Claude (and you) focused on one thing at a time.


04 /tdd

Enforces test-driven development by having Claude write tests before implementation. The tests act as a specification that constrains the generated code, catching regressions automatically and producing more trustworthy output.


05 /improve-codebase-architecture

A dedicated refactoring pass that asks Claude to look at the big picture — identifying structural problems, proposing better abstractions, and keeping the codebase maintainable as it grows.


The key insight: LLMs excel when given clear process constraints. Each skill adds a guardrail that keeps Claude on-task and pushes outputs from "good enough" to production-ready.


These skills are available on Matt's site, and he's running a full Claude Code for Real Engineers course for engineers who want to build process-driven AI workflows.

Watch the full video →

Ahmed Mannai

Ahmed Mannai

Software & DevOps Engineer · Builder · Writer