Grilling

by mattpocockc55ee46073edNo licenseListed Oct 8, 2026Updated Oct 8, 2026

Grill the user relentlessly about a plan, decision, or idea. Use when the user wants to stress-test their thinking, or uses any 'grill' trigger phrases.

Instructions onlyProductivity & Workflow
AI-generated overview

Interviews the user in rounds of numbered questions to stress-test a plan, decision, or idea until shared understanding is reached.

What it does
The skill runs a relentless interview about a plan, decision, or idea, modelling it as a design tree where each decision branches into dependent decisions. It works the tree in rounds, asking the whole current frontier of answerable questions at once, each numbered with a recommended answer, then waiting for the user's replies before recomputing the frontier. Facts are looked up by the agent, including via sub-agents, while decisions are put to the user. The session ends when the frontier is empty and the user confirms shared understanding.
When to use it
Use it when the user wants to stress-test their thinking about a plan, decision, or idea, or uses a 'grill' trigger phrase. It suits situations where assumptions should be surfaced and settled before acting.
Requirements
No scripts or special tooling; it is instructions only. It may dispatch sub-agents to look up facts from the environment such as the filesystem or tools.

Interview the user relentlessly until you reach a shared understanding. Map this as a design tree: every decision branches into the decisions that hang off it.

Work the tree in rounds. The frontier is every decision whose prerequisites are already settled: the questions you can ask now without guessing at answers you haven't heard yet. Ask the whole frontier in one round: number each question and give your recommended answer. Then wait for the user's answers before the next round.

Format a round like so:

❓ **Q1** - **<question title>**: <question body, might be multiple paragraphs, including multiple choices>
➡️ <your recommended answer>
---
❓ **Q2** - **<question title>**: <question body, might be multiple paragraphs, including multiple choices>
➡️ <your recommended answer>

Each round the user answers reshapes the tree: settled decisions push the frontier outward and unblock questions that depended on them. Recompute the frontier and ask the next round. A question whose answer depends on another question still open in this round belongs to a later round, not this one.

Finding facts is your job, never the user's. When a frontier question needs a fact from the environment (filesystem, tools, etc.), dispatch a sub-agent to find it; don't ask the user for anything you could look up yourself. Don't block on it: a running exploration is an unsettled prerequisite, so only the questions downstream of it wait for the sub-agent to report; ask the rest of the frontier now. The decisions are the user's: put each to them and wait.

The session is done when the frontier is empty: every branch of the design tree visited, nothing left silently assumed. Do not act on it until the user confirms you have reached a shared understanding.

Source and attribution

Source:mattpocock/skillsinskills/productivity/grillingat commitc55ee46

License: No license

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