How do I install the Stacks Grilling skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add stacksjs/stacks-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 Stacks 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 Stacks 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 Stacks Grilling free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free. This skill is licensed under MIT.

Who published Stacks Grilling?

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

Stacks Grilling by stacksjs — Agent Skill

Name: Stacks Grilling
Author: stacksjs

Stacks Grilling

Use when a plan, design or decision needs stress-testing before any code is written, when the user asks to be grilled or to have their thinking challenged, or when another skill needs the round-and-frontier interview primitive. Produces a shared understanding, never code.

stacksjs 5c6b6b4 3.3 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

Grilling

Interview the user relentlessly until you reach a shared understanding. Map the work as a design tree: every decision branches into the decisions that hang off it.

This is the interview primitive. stacks-office-hours runs it to shape a product idea, stacks-plan-review runs it to settle an architecture, and stacks-redesign runs it to pin down an aesthetic direction. Reach for it directly when you want the interview with no wrapper around it.

Credit: adapted from Matt Pocock's grilling skill (MIT), https://github.com/mattpocock/skills.

Rounds and the frontier

Work the tree in rounds. The frontier is every decision whose prerequisites are already settled: the questions you can ask now without guessing at answers you have not heard yet.

Ask the whole frontier in one round. Number each question and give your recommended answer. Then wait for the user's answers before the next round.

❓ **Q1** - **<question title>**: <question body, possibly several paragraphs,
including the options you see>

➡️ <your recommended answer>

---

❓ **Q2** - **<question title>**: <question body>

➡️ <your recommended answer>

Each round of answers reshapes the tree. Settled decisions push the frontier outward and unblock questions that depended on them. Recompute the frontier and ask the next round. A question whose answer depends on another question still open in this round belongs to a later round, not this one.

Facts are your job, decisions are the user's

Finding facts is never the user's job. When a frontier question needs a fact from the environment, go get it. In a Stacks project that means reading rather than asking:

config/*.ts for what is already configured, and which driver is selected.
app/Models/ and storage/framework/defaults/app/Models/ for what the domain already models.
routes/ for the surface that already exists.
buddy list and buddy <command> --help for what the CLI already does.
CONTEXT.md for the terms already settled.
The relevant stacks-* skill for how a subsystem actually behaves.

Do not block on the lookup. 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.

Done

The session is done when the frontier is empty: every branch of the design tree visited, nothing left silently assumed. Do not act on it until the user confirms you have reached a shared understanding.

Do not build

No code during a grilling session. If the user reaches for an implementation mid-interview, note the decision it implies, add it to the tree, and carry on. Where a question genuinely cannot be settled in conversation because it needs a runnable answer, reach for stacks-prototype and bring the result back.

Downstream

Frontier empty? /stacks-plan-review turns the understanding into an implementation plan, or /stacks-new-feature slices it into tracer bullets.

---name: stacks-grillingdescription: Use when a plan, design or decision needs stress-testing before any code is written, when the user asks to be grilled or to have their thinking challenged, or when another skill needs the round-and-frontier interview primitive. Produces a shared understanding, never code.license: MIT---# GrillingInterview the user relentlessly until you reach a shared understanding. Map thework as a **design tree**: every decision branches into the decisions that hangoff it.This is the interview primitive. `stacks-office-hours` runs it to shape aproduct idea, `stacks-plan-review` runs it to settle an architecture, and`stacks-redesign` runs it to pin down an aesthetic direction. Reach for itdirectly when you want the interview with no wrapper around it.Credit: adapted from Matt Pocock's `grilling` skill (MIT),<https://github.com/mattpocock/skills>.## Rounds and the frontierWork the tree in **rounds**. The **frontier** is every decision whoseprerequisites are already settled: the questions you can ask *now* withoutguessing at answers you have not heard yet.Ask the whole frontier in one round. Number each question and give yourrecommended answer. Then wait for the user's answers before the next round.```❓ **Q1** - **<question title>**: <question body, possibly several paragraphs,including the options you see>➡️ <your recommended answer>---❓ **Q2** - **<question title>**: <question body>➡️ <your recommended answer>```Each round of answers reshapes the tree. Settled decisions push the frontieroutward and unblock questions that depended on them. Recompute the frontier andask the next round. A question whose answer depends on another question stillopen in this round belongs to a *later* round, not this one.## Facts are your job, decisions are the user'sFinding *facts* is never the user's job. When a frontier question needs a factfrom the environment, go get it. In a Stacks project that means reading ratherthan asking:- `config/*.ts` for what is already configured, and which driver is selected.- `app/Models/` and `storage/framework/defaults/app/Models/` for what the domain already models.- `routes/` for the surface that already exists.- `buddy list` and `buddy <command> --help` for what the CLI already does.- `CONTEXT.md` for the terms already settled.- The relevant `stacks-*` skill for how a subsystem actually behaves.Do not block on the lookup. 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.## DoneThe session is done when the frontier is empty: every branch of the design treevisited, nothing left silently assumed. Do not act on it until the user confirmsyou have reached a shared understanding.## Do not buildNo code during a grilling session. If the user reaches for an implementationmid-interview, note the decision it implies, add it to the tree, and carry on.Where a question genuinely cannot be settled in conversation because it needs arunnable answer, reach for `stacks-prototype` and bring the result back.## Downstream> Frontier empty? `/stacks-plan-review` turns the understanding into an> implementation plan, or `/stacks-new-feature` slices it into tracer bullets.

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