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Add-ons for AI coding tools

Skills For Real Engineers

A set of small, adaptable instruction packs that help AI coding assistants plan, test and design software more carefully.

Fast-rising

What it does

This is a collection of "skills": short instruction files that AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot and Gemini CLI can follow. Its maker says they are meant to be small, easy to change and combinable, and that they work with any AI model.

Each skill tackles a common problem when coding with AI. For example, "grill-me" has the assistant ask you detailed questions before starting so it understands what you want. Another builds a shared glossary of project terms. Others guide the assistant to write tests first, debug step by step, or review a codebase's design.

Some skills turn a conversation into a written plan or a list of tasks and post them to an issue tracker (a to-do list for software projects), such as GitHub or GitLab, or save them to local files.

Who it's for

Software developers who already use AI coding assistants and want them to follow more disciplined engineering habits.

Can I use it without coding?

Developers only. Installing takes one or two commands, but the skills are built for writing and managing software code. New to this? Start here.

Can I run it?

Cost
FreeNothing to pay or sign up for.
Computer
An ordinary computer is fine

Try it

  1. Install the skills as a plugin for your AI coding assistant, following the instructions for your tool in the README.
  2. In your assistant, run the setup skill once per project to choose your issue tracker, labels and where documents are saved.
  3. Try the grill-me or grill-with-docs skill before your next change so the assistant asks you questions first.

Using Claude Code, Cursor or another AI coding assistant? Paste the prompt and it will walk you through the setup.New to this?

Before you install

  • Only download from the official GitHub page. Copies with similar names exist for many popular projects.
  • Plain-AyI is an independent guide and doesn't host or review the software it lists. Please check each project's official page before installing.
  • License (MIT): Very permissive: free to use, change and share, including for business.
  • More on staying safe

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