NodeJSmith Grill
Multi-angle interrogation of a raw idea. Attacks the idea from product, design, engineering, and adversarial perspectives to surface what you haven't thought about. Produces a structured brief that /mine-define can ingest.
Not a spec. Not a design doc. A thinking tool.
Arguments
$ARGUMENTS — the idea, issue, or problem to explore. Can be a description, an issue reference, or a path to an existing document.
Phase 1: Understand the Idea
If $ARGUMENTS is provided, paraphrase it back in one sentence to confirm understanding. If empty, ask:
AskUserQuestion:
question: "What's the idea or problem you want to think through?"
header: "Grill"
Before exploring, confirm the pain point:
Understood pain point:
If the user gave a solution ("I want to add X") but not the problem, ask: "What's not working well?" before proceeding.
Explore the codebase for relevant context (existing patterns, related features, prior art). Present a brief summary of what you found — this grounds the entire conversation.
Phase 2: Multi-Angle Interrogation
Work through these lenses one at a time. For each lens, ask 1-3 questions — only the ones that surface something the user likely hasn't considered. Skip questions where the codebase already provides the answer. One question per AskUserQuestion call.
Product lens
- Who exactly benefits from this, and who doesn't?
- What's the smallest version that delivers value?
- What happens if you don't build this?
Design lens
- How does the user discover and interact with this?
- What's the failure experience? (error states, edge cases, empty states)
- What existing mental models does this break or build on?
Engineering lens
- What existing code/patterns does this touch or conflict with?
- What's the hardest technical constraint?
- What will be annoying to maintain?
Scope lens
- What's adjacent to this that you're tempted to include?
- Where's the line between "this feature" and "the next feature"?
- What would you cut if you had to ship in half the time?
Adversarial lens
- What assumption are you making that could be wrong?
- What's the worst way this could fail?
- If someone argued against building this, what would their strongest point be?
You do not need to ask every question. Skip any that are obvious, already answered, or where the codebase provides the answer. The goal is to find the 5-8 questions the user hasn't thought about, not to run a checklist.
After each answer, walk down any decision branches it opens — same pattern as adaptive follow-up in /mine-define. If an answer reveals something the codebase can inform, check the code before asking the next question.
Phase 3: Synthesize
After the interrogation, write a brief to the feature directory. If no feature directory exists yet, create one:
cfl spec init <slug>
Record the returned dir field — you will write the brief there.
Write to <feature_dir>/brief.md:
# Brief: <Title>
**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Status:** explored
## Idea
<One-paragraph summary of what was explored>
## Key Decisions Made
<Bullet list of decisions reached during the grill — things that were ambiguous and are now pinned down>
## Open Questions
<Anything that came up but couldn't be resolved — these feed directly into /mine-define>
## Scope Boundaries
<What's in, what's explicitly out, what's deferred>
## Risks and Concerns
<Things that surfaced during adversarial questioning — assumptions, failure modes, maintenance burden>
## Codebase Context
<Relevant findings from code exploration — existing patterns, integration points, constraints>
Phase 4: Handoff
AskUserQuestion:
question: "Brief saved. What next?"
header: "Handoff"
multiSelect: false
options:
- label: "Challenge this brief first"
description: "Run /mine-challenge — the brief shapes everything downstream, catch issues now"
- label: "Specify this feature"
description: "Run /mine-define with this brief as input"
- label: "Build it directly"
description: "Run /mine-build — routes based on complexity"
- label: "Done for now"
description: "Brief saved; pick it up later"
On "Challenge this brief first"
Invoke /mine-challenge --target-type=brief <feature_dir>/brief.md. After challenge completes, loop back to this handoff gate.
On "Specify"
Invoke /mine-define <feature_dir>
On "Build it directly"
Invoke /mine-build <feature_dir>
On "Done for now"
Confirm: "Brief saved at <feature_dir>/brief.md. Resume with /mine-define <feature_dir> later."