grill
code-review checks whether a change looks correct. grill tries to break a design, plan, diff,
or claim before you trust it. Use self-refute on your own fresh output. Use grill on something
you are being asked to trust.
When to use it
- A design, plan, or diff that is about to be trusted, merged, or shipped.
- A claim that needs to hold under pressure, not only sound right.
- For a claim that must be recomputed from a source of truth, use
prove, the heavier sibling; grill argues, prove recomputes. - Skip it for a small, reversible change already covered by code-review.
Required inputs
- The thing to test: the design, plan, diff, or claim.
- Any spec or docs it rests on, so claims can be checked against what was promised.
Steps
- List the key claims. Name the three to seven things the design, plan, diff, or claim depends on.
- Attack each claim. Write the strongest concrete counter-case: an input, sequence, race, missing precondition, or assumption that breaks it.
- Cross-check against the spec or docs when they exist. Flag disagreements and claims with no enforcement.
- Rank the results. Mark each claim
SURVIVEDwith the reason, orBROKENwith the counter-case and a severity of blocker, major, or minor.
Output format
- Claims: the key claim list, one line each.
- Findings: per claim,
SURVIVEDorBROKEN, with the counter-case and severity for broken ones. - Verdict: one line. Trustworthy as-is, trustworthy with the listed fixes, or not yet trustworthy.
Stop conditions
- Do not soften a finding to be agreeable. If nothing breaks, say why the design, plan, diff, or claim held.
- This is read-only. Do not modify the design, plan, diff, or claim; hand fixes to refactor-safely or the build.
- Stop at the verdict. One honest line, no hedging.