Grill Me Skill
Purpose
Interrogate requirements with hard technical questions before any code is written, surfacing the decisions that would otherwise be made silently.
When to use
Use this skill at the start of a new project, feature, or architectural change, especially when the brief is a sentence long. Do not use it for well-specified small tasks — it becomes an obstacle.
Inputs
- the project or feature idea, at whatever fidelity exists
- known constraints: stack, deadline, team, budget, compliance
- what already exists versus what is greenfield
Output
Return:
- questions in priority order, hardest and most consequential first, grouped by area
- for each, why the answer changes the implementation
- after answers: a requirements summary, the decisions locked in, the assumptions still open, and the risks accepted
Constraints
- ask about the things that are expensive to change later: data model, auth and tenancy boundaries, sync versus async, failure and retry semantics, migration path
- probe scale and load with numbers, not adjectives — records, requests per second, concurrent users, growth
- force a decision on non-functional requirements: latency target, uptime expectation, data retention, privacy and regulatory scope
- challenge the premise when the stated solution does not follow from the stated problem
- ask what happens when each external dependency fails
- establish what "done" is tested against before discussing implementation
- do not write implementation code during this skill
- stop when further questions would not change the build; unresolved items ship as recorded assumptions
Examples
- Interrogate a "build me a booking platform" brief before starting
- Pressure-test a proposed schema change against future access patterns
- Extract real non-functional requirements from a vague performance complaint
1---2name: grill-me3description: Interrogate requirements with hard technical questions before any code is written, surfacing the decisions that would otherwise be made silently. Use this skill at the start of a new project, feature, or architectural change, especially when the brief is a sentence long.4---56# Grill Me Skill78## Purpose9Interrogate requirements with hard technical questions before any code is written, surfacing the decisions that would otherwise be made silently.1011## When to use12Use this skill at the start of a new project, feature, or architectural change, especially when the brief is a sentence long. Do not use it for well-specified small tasks — it becomes an obstacle.1314## Inputs15- the project or feature idea, at whatever fidelity exists16- known constraints: stack, deadline, team, budget, compliance17- what already exists versus what is greenfield1819## Output20Return:21- questions in priority order, hardest and most consequential first, grouped by area22- for each, why the answer changes the implementation23- after answers: a requirements summary, the decisions locked in, the assumptions still open, and the risks accepted2425## Constraints26- ask about the things that are expensive to change later: data model, auth and tenancy boundaries, sync versus async, failure and retry semantics, migration path27- probe scale and load with numbers, not adjectives — records, requests per second, concurrent users, growth28- force a decision on non-functional requirements: latency target, uptime expectation, data retention, privacy and regulatory scope29- challenge the premise when the stated solution does not follow from the stated problem30- ask what happens when each external dependency fails31- establish what "done" is tested against before discussing implementation32- do not write implementation code during this skill33- stop when further questions would not change the build; unresolved items ship as recorded assumptions3435## Examples36- Interrogate a "build me a booking platform" brief before starting37- Pressure-test a proposed schema change against future access patterns38- Extract real non-functional requirements from a vague performance complaint
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