--- title: "Specification to Dependency-Aware Tickets: review, setup & limitations · Undominated.ai" canonical: https://undominated.ai/skills/mattpocock-to-tickets/ description: "Splits an agreed plan into small vertical slices, with explicit blocking relationships and a review before publication." --- # Specification to Dependency-Aware Tickets: review, setup & limitations · Undominated.ai > Splits an agreed plan into small vertical slices, with explicit blocking relationships and a review before publication. [← Explore all skills](/skills/) PLANNING AND DELIVERY / Matt Pocock # Specification to Dependency-Aware Tickets Splits an agreed plan into small vertical slices, with explicit blocking relationships and a review before publication. See setup guidance ↓Original source ↗ SOURCE REVIEW Reviewed 2026-09-22 Evidence 14 linked sources Publisher Matt Pocock Licence MIT ↗ Revision c55ee46073ed Read what was—and wasn’t—checked ↓ “Break a plan, spec, or the current conversation into a set of tracer-bullet tickets, each declaring its blocking edges, published to the” Matt Pocock · upstream description ↗ Our analysis follows below. 01 / THE REASONING ## Why this made the selection. - Asks for user agreement on the proposed breakdown before creating the tickets. - Keeps each slice testable across the system and records dependency edges, including expand-and-contract sequencing for broad changes. ### A good fit for - Preparing implementation work that several contributors can pick up in dependency order - Turning an approved specification into separate local Markdown, GitHub or GitLab issues ### Weigh up before choosing - Ticket publication is not transactional: partial failures or repeated runs can leave duplicates and incomplete dependency links. - The definition asks to preserve the parent specification. Decide whether native parent/sub-issue associations are permitted; use textual references if parent mutation is out of scope. - Native blocking links depend on tracker capabilities and account entitlements; the companion supplies textual fallbacks. 02 / THE REVIEW RECORD ## What we actually inspected. Source review has boundaries. A clear record is more useful than a “safe” badge. ### Material inspected - skills/engineering/to-tickets/SKILL.md - README.md (installation and supported-host sections) - LICENSE - skills/engineering/to-tickets/agents/openai.yaml - skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/SKILL.md - skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/agents/openai.yaml - skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/domain.md - skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/issue-tracker-github.md - skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/issue-tracker-gitlab.md - skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/issue-tracker-local.md - skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/triage-labels.md ### Our findings - The definition separates proposing the decomposition from publishing it. - Its local tracker template writes one file per ticket, rather than a single combined task list; remote templates describe native links and fallbacks. ### Not established by this review - No upstream definition, helper, installer or generated workload was executed. - No end-to-end agent session or effectiveness benchmark was run. The review applies to the material and revision named here. A newer upstream release can change its behavior. 03 / PUT IT TO WORK ## Add a skill to your workflow. Upstream setup instructions ↗ DOCUMENTED COMMAND npx skills add https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/tree/c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7 --skill to-tickets --skill setup-matt-pocock-skills Copy command ↗ Copying does not execute this command. It may retrieve a newer version than the reviewed source. - Install the complete skill directory, including its references and helpers; select your intended host and project scope. - Run the setup companion once. Inspect its proposed edits to AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md and docs/agents/ before accepting; it configures GitHub, GitLab or local Markdown tracking. - Review the instructions before invoking them. The source revision is pinned; the installer was not executed or version-pinned by this review. ### Before you start - Node.js/npm and git for the documented Skills installer - An agent host that supports the skill format and the tools required by the workflow - Configured tracker access: authenticated gh or glab for remote issues, or a writable local Markdown directory ### Compatibility Claude Code · Codex ### Repository instructions and host-provided tools - Read the specification and relevant source/context - Create ticket files or authenticated tracker issues after agreement - Write dependency links and permitted labels or associations ### Cost model MIT-licensed instructions; agent and tracker account costs remain separate. 04 / FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE ## The source trail. Our notes are separate from the original resource. Check upstream before adopting a new version. - Definition at the reviewed revision ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7/skills/engineering/to-tickets/SKILL.md Supports: summary, upstreamDescription, whySelected, bestFor, limitations, review, access - Publisher installation guidance ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7/README.md Supports: install, compatibility - Licence at the reviewed revision ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7/LICENSE Supports: license, access.cost - Reviewed companion: skills/engineering/to-tickets/agents/openai.yaml ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7/skills/engineering/to-tickets/agents/openai.yaml Supports: review, limitations, install, access - Skills installer: README.md ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/vercel-labs/skills/blob/7407f3893ad4dceab546ac002c3ef806e4000c73/README.md Supports: install - Skills installer: src/git.ts ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/vercel-labs/skills/blob/7407f3893ad4dceab546ac002c3ef806e4000c73/src/git.ts Supports: install - Skills installer: src/source-parser.ts ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/vercel-labs/skills/blob/7407f3893ad4dceab546ac002c3ef806e4000c73/src/source-parser.ts Supports: install - Reviewed companion: skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/SKILL.md ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7/skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/SKILL.md Supports: review, limitations, install, access - Reviewed companion: skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/agents/openai.yaml ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7/skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/agents/openai.yaml Supports: review, limitations, install, access - Reviewed companion: skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/domain.md ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7/skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/domain.md Supports: review, limitations, install, access - Reviewed companion: skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/issue-tracker-github.md ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7/skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/issue-tracker-github.md Supports: review, limitations, install, access - Reviewed companion: skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/issue-tracker-gitlab.md ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7/skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/issue-tracker-gitlab.md Supports: review, limitations, install, access - Reviewed companion: skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/issue-tracker-local.md ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7/skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/issue-tracker-local.md Supports: review, limitations, install, access - Reviewed companion: skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/triage-labels.md ↗ Checked 2026-09-22 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7/skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/triage-labels.md Supports: review, limitations, install, access KEEP COMPARING ## Other approaches to consider. Related by category or shared topics. These are alternatives to inspect, not a measured quality order. [### Conversation to Specification ↗ Turns an already-discussed change into a repository-aware specification for the configured issue tracker.](/skills/mattpocock-to-spec/)[### Matt Pocock Domain Modeling ↗ Builds a project glossary and short architecture decision records while testing domain terms against code and concrete edge cases.](/skills/mattpocock-domain-modeling/)[### Matt Pocock Grilling ↗ Interviews the user through dependency-ordered decisions before the agent acts on a plan or idea.](/skills/mattpocock-grilling/) [AI Tools ↗](/tools/)[Skills ↗](/skills/)[Agents ↗](/agents/)[MCP Servers ↗](/mcp-servers/)