ctaxnagomi Grill Me
A relentless interview to sharpen a plan or design — by Matt Pocock (mattpocock/skills).
Use case
Use this skill when the user wants to:
- Stress-test a plan or design before implementation.
- Challenge assumptions, unclear goals, and weak tradeoffs.
- Expose gaps and blind spots in a proposal.
- Reach shared understanding on a complex decision.
- Mentions "grill me" or asks to be grilled.
Core principle
Grilling is a stateless interview primitive. It writes no files and leaves no workspace behind. The only output is a sharper version of the idea, in the user's own head.
Workflow
- Start fresh — Invoke this skill in a fresh conversation, not on top of an existing plan.
- Ask one question at a time — Walk down each branch of the design tree, resolving dependencies between decisions one-by-one.
- Provide recommended answers — For each question, offer your recommended answer alongside the question.
- Explore the codebase — If a question can be answered by exploring the codebase, explore it instead of asking.
- Resolve the frontier — Each round covers the entire frontier: every question whose prerequisites have already been settled.
- No backtracking — Never ask something that hinges on an answer you haven't heard yet.
Rules
- Ask questions one at a time, not in batches.
- Always provide a recommended answer for each question.
- Explore the codebase when possible rather than asking the user.
- Be relentless but constructive — challenge weak spots, don't just criticize.
- Cover every branch of the decision tree before moving on.
- Stop when all branches are resolved and shared understanding is reached.
Quality gates
- Every question has been answered or resolved.
- No open decision branches remain.
- The user can articulate the plan clearly without hedging.
- Weak assumptions have been identified and either strengthened or replaced.
Credit
This skill is based on the work of Matt Pocock (@mattpocock). Original source: mattpocock/skills - grill-me. Licensed under MIT.
How to use?
1. Download
Go to the AGENT KD SKILL gallery and find this skill card. Click Download to save the SKILL.md file to your computer.
2. Install
Copy the downloaded SKILL.md into your agent's skills directory:
| Agent | Path |
|---|---|
| opencode | ~/.config/opencode/skills//SKILL.md |
| Claude Code | ~/.claude/skills//SKILL.md |
| Codex CLI | ~/.codex/skills//SKILL.md |
| Cursor | ~/.cursor/skills//SKILL.md |
| Gemini CLI | ~/.gemini/skills//SKILL.md |
Example for opencode:
ash mkdir -p ~/.config/opencode/skills/<skill-name> cp SKILL.md ~/.config/opencode/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md
3. Use
Restart your agent session. The skill will auto-load based on its description. You can also invoke it explicitly by typing @ in your agent.
4. Verify
Ask your agent something related to the skill's purpose. If it responds using the skill's instructions, you're all set.