# Grill Me

> Interview the user relentlessly about a plan or design until reaching shared understanding, resolving each branch of the decision tree. Use when user wants to stress-test a plan, get grilled on their design, or mentions "grill me".

- Skill: `stolinski/grill-me` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add stolinski/grill-me`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/stolinski/grill-me/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: stolinski (https://skillmd.com/u/stolinski)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/stolinski/grill-me

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Use the `grilling` skill as the base discipline for this session. If it is not already loaded, follow the same rules directly: interview the user relentlessly about every aspect of the plan until you reach shared understanding, resolving dependencies between decisions one-by-one.

Ask questions one at a time, waiting for feedback before continuing. Asking multiple questions at once is bewildering.

For each question, provide your recommended answer before asking for the user's answer.

For each branch, give a recommended answer, but treat the user's correction as the new truth immediately. Do not defend the recommendation or drift back to it later.

If the grilled plan has a durable planning artifact, active slot, spec, issue, or notes file, update that artifact as decisions land instead of relying on chat memory. Keep the artifact concise; grilling should resolve decisions, not create bloated process.

When grilling creative/story work, keep the grill focused on consequential choices. Do not turn every transition into meaning, symbolism, logistics, or taxonomy; if the user says a step is "just setup" or "the function is that it is hot," accept the correction and ask the next body/action/consequence question.

Stop when the decision tree has enough load-bearing structure to produce the next artifact. If the next question would be "who cares" detail - checkout blocking, incidental gestures, redundant transition meaning, or anything that does not change the body/action/consequence - stop grilling and propose/produce the artifact instead.

If a question can be answered by exploring the codebase, explore the codebase instead.