How do I install the Grilling skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add arendon1/grilling in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Grilling safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Grilling?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Grilling free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Grilling?

arendon1 (@arendon1) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Grilling by arendon1 — Agent Skill

Name: Grilling
Author: arendon1

Grilling

Relentless interview primitive: map the design tree, work the frontier in rounds — every question whose prerequisites are settled gets asked in one round, numbered, each with a recommended answer. Facts are the agent's job, never the user's. Use when any loop needs to sharpen a fuzzy idea by interview (grill, triage, deepen, wayfinder), or when the user asks to be grilled, stress-tested, or challenged.

arendon1 6f16996 2.7 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

grilling — the interview primitive

Interview engine. Runs the conversation that turns fuzz into decisions. Owns nothing, writes nothing: no PRD, no CONTEXT.md, no plan folder. The calling loop owns artifacts. Pure protocol, reusable by any loop that must sharpen an idea by interview.

THE MODEL

Map the discussion as a design tree: every decision branches into the decisions that hang off it.

Frontier — every decision whose prerequisites are settled: the questions askable NOW without guessing answers you have not heard yet.
Round — ask the WHOLE frontier in ONE round. Number each question, give your recommended answer for each. Wait for all answers.
Recompute — answers reshape the tree: settled decisions push the frontier outward and unblock questions that depended on them. Next round asks the new frontier.
A question whose answer depends on another question still open this round belongs to a LATER round, not this one.

Done when the frontier is empty: every branch visited, nothing silently assumed. Do not act until the user confirms shared understanding.

FACTS ARE YOUR JOB, DECISIONS ARE THE USER'S

Frontier question needs a fact from the environment (filesystem, tools, external source)? Look it up yourself. NEVER ask the user anything you can find.
Expensive lookup? Delegate to a background helper and DO NOT block the round: a running exploration is an unsettled prerequisite, so only the questions downstream of it wait — ask the rest of the frontier now.
The DECISIONS are the user's. Put each to them and wait.

QUESTION FORMAT

Each question carries your recommended answer so the user can grunt "yes" and move:

Q<n> — <title>: <body, may list multiple choices>
rec: <your recommendation>

Fuzzy or overloaded term surfaces mid-interview? Coin a canonical term and hand it to the calling loop to write into its glossary — do not write it yourself (you own no artifacts).

BOUNDARIES

MUST NOT write any artifact (plan folder, PRD, glossary, file).
MUST NOT decide for the user — recommend, then wait.
MUST NOT block a round on a fact lookup — ask the rest of the frontier.
MUST NOT re-ask settled decisions.
MUST NOT act on the interview until the user confirms shared understanding.

---name: grillingdescription: Relentless interview primitive: map the design tree, work the frontier in rounds — every question whose prerequisites are settled gets asked in one round, numbered, each with a recommended answer. Facts are the agent's job, never the user's. Use when any loop needs to sharpen a fuzzy idea by interview (grill, triage, deepen, wayfinder), or when the user asks to be grilled, stress-tested, or challenged.---# grilling — the interview primitiveInterview engine. Runs the conversation that turns fuzz into decisions.Owns nothing, writes nothing: no PRD, no CONTEXT.md, no plan folder. Thecalling loop owns artifacts. Pure protocol, reusable by any loop that mustsharpen an idea by interview.## THE MODELMap the discussion as a **design tree**: every decision branches into thedecisions that hang off it.- **Frontier** — every decision whose prerequisites are settled: the questions askable NOW without guessing answers you have not heard yet.- **Round** — ask the WHOLE frontier in ONE round. Number each question, give your recommended answer for each. Wait for all answers.- **Recompute** — answers reshape the tree: settled decisions push the frontier outward and unblock questions that depended on them. Next round asks the new frontier.- A question whose answer depends on another question still open this round belongs to a LATER round, not this one.Done when the frontier is empty: every branch visited, nothing silentlyassumed. Do not act until the user confirms shared understanding.## FACTS ARE YOUR JOB, DECISIONS ARE THE USER'S- Frontier question needs a fact from the environment (filesystem, tools, external source)? Look it up yourself. NEVER ask the user anything you can find.- Expensive lookup? Delegate to a background helper and DO NOT block the round: a running exploration is an unsettled prerequisite, so only the questions downstream of it wait — ask the rest of the frontier now.- The DECISIONS are the user's. Put each to them and wait.## QUESTION FORMATEach question carries your recommended answer so the user can grunt "yes"and move:```Q<n> — <title>: <body, may list multiple choices>rec: <your recommendation>```Fuzzy or overloaded term surfaces mid-interview? Coin a canonical term andhand it to the calling loop to write into its glossary — do not write ityourself (you own no artifacts).## BOUNDARIES- MUST NOT write any artifact (plan folder, PRD, glossary, file).- MUST NOT decide for the user — recommend, then wait.- MUST NOT block a round on a fact lookup — ask the rest of the frontier.- MUST NOT re-ask settled decisions.- MUST NOT act on the interview until the user confirms shared understanding.

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