tokugero grill-me
Drives an exhaustive design interview before implementation begins. Surfaces ambiguities, forces decisions on every branch of the design tree, and resolves dependencies between decisions one at a time — so that implementation work starts from a shared understanding rather than unchecked assumptions.
When to use
Invoke with /grill-me before starting any significant feature, architecture
decision, or refactor. Also useful when a plan exists but feels underspecified.
Inputs
- Plan or idea (required): Describe what you want to build or decide. Can be vague — the interview will sharpen it.
Steps
Ask the user to describe the plan or idea if not already provided.
Interview relentlessly about every aspect of the plan until a shared understanding is reached:
"Interview me relentlessly about every aspect of this plan until we reach a shared understanding. Walk down each branch of the design tree, resolving dependencies between decisions one by one. And finally, if a question can be answered by exploring the codebase, explore the codebase instead."
Work through the design tree systematically:
- Identify all major decision branches (data model, interfaces, error handling, performance, security, rollback, testing strategy, etc.)
- For each branch, ask one focused question at a time
- Resolve each answer before moving to the next branch
- When a question is answerable from the codebase, read the relevant files (L0 → L1 → L2) instead of asking
After all branches are resolved, produce a concise Design Summary:
- The decision made on each branch
- Any assumptions that remain (explicitly flagged)
- Recommended next step (e.g.,
/write-a-prd, implementation task)
Expected output
A shared understanding of the full design, with all major decision branches resolved and a written Design Summary the user can reference during implementation.