Adapted methods

Zdev adapts planning, implementation, and review methods from external agent skills. The adaptations use zdev briefs, task files, and Git history to record the work.

Source mapping

Source method	Zdev adaptation
Matt Pocock’s grilling and domain-modeling skills	discuss.md: identify high-impact decisions, challenge independent branches breadth first, and record decisions in brief.md.
Matt Pocock’s to-issues, to-tickets, and writing-for-agents	shape-work.md, to-tasks.md, and workflow contracts: keep agent-readable briefs, tasks, context pointers, and worker instructions focused on their branch, authoritative context, and checkable completion.
Matt Pocock’s wayfinder	shape-work.md: directly explore an objective and compare plausible paths while building the area brief.
Matt Pocock’s planning and specification skills	shape-work.md, discuss.md, and the task format: shared decisions live in the brief; each task is its own implementation specification.
Matt Pocock’s TDD and implementation skills	implement.md: test observable behavior, then enter independent verification.
Matt Pocock’s research, diagnosis, and prototype skills	investigate.md: answer one question without creating another durable state system.
Matt Pocock’s code-review and codebase-design skills	improve.md and verify.md: demand evidence, vet findings, and inspect task boundaries.
Explicit multi-agent review	improve.md: use focused reviewers, check their findings, and report proposed work.
shadcn’s Improve skill	improve.md: inspect, audit, check, prioritize, and report findings without creating tasks.
Cursor pstack’s unslop skill by Lauren Tan	Shared zdev guidance: preserve meaning and tone while editing zdev-authored prose for concrete active language, readable rhythm, stable terms, and fewer formulaic AI patterns.

Each adaptation lives in a self-contained reference under skills/zdev/. Zdev does not load upstream skills at runtime. Discussion records decisions in the brief; creating tasks remains a separate, explicitly requested action.

The method mapping uses these pinned source revisions:

• Cursor pstack’s unslop skill at 93b00b89ef425a9c1bac0d0b317dfc49c930ac99.
• Matt Pocock’s writing-for-agents skill at 3cca18b368ae95cdbdebbff572ccafa662551015.
• Matt Pocock’s skills at d574778f94cf620fcc8ce741584093bc650a61d3 (v1.1.0), with the frontier-grilling update at b8fd9afa42a6eebcfdcfc5007c42ef2367911000.
• shadcn’s Improve skill at 03369ee6d7cafbfcecc4346539b05b3dc0a603bb.
• Poteto Noodle’s complete .agents/skills tree at 82d2921c52370f23f29086de81ccfb600939c037, including the canonical unslop source already adapted into shared guidance.

Changes to an adaptation require review against a pinned upstream revision. Repository instructions and approved area, slice, and task requirements still govern the work.

Licensing and attribution

The source materials adapted by zdev are MIT-licensed. The Matt Pocock source license credits Matt Pocock. Cursor pstack’s MIT license credits Lauren Tan. The Improve license statement identifies shadcn’s skill as MIT © shadcn. Poteto Noodle’s root MIT license states Copyright (c) 2026 Lauren Tan. Zdev’s own code and documentation are covered by the MIT license.