Prototype (Matt Pocock skill)
A prototype is throwaway code that answers a question, and the question decides the shape. Two branches: does this state model hold up, which produces a single shareable HTML file with free-play buttons plus tabbed guided walkthroughs a non-developer can drive; or what should this look like, which generates several radically different UI variants on one route, switchable via a URL param and a floating bar. Six shared rules: throwaway and marked as such, trivial to run, no persistence, no polish, state surfaced on every action, and a final capture on a prototype branch off main.
Strengths
- A single double-clickable HTML file on the logic branch: testable by a PM, a designer, a client
- Throwaway does not mean destroyed: captured on a prototype branch with a pointer from the issue, the exploration stays findable
- Bans persistence by default, which stops the prototype becoming the real implementation by accident
- Forces the branch choice up front, and says explicitly that picking the wrong branch wastes the whole prototype
Limitations
- If the design question is not stated, the skill produces a demo with no verdict, which is time lost
- The UI branch generates several variants on a route of your app: you have to clean up after, the skill does not
- No tests, no error handling: never let this code reach production, not even the fragment that works
Best for
- Complicated state models (statuses, transitions, partial cancellations) impossible to settle on paper
- Designers and PMs who want to drive the logic themselves instead of reading a diagram
- UI choices where three directions look equal on paper and need to be seen side by side