# Grilling > Grill the user relentlessly about a plan, decision, or idea. Use when the user wants to stress-test their thinking, or uses any 'grill' trigger phrases. - Skill: `tt-a1i/grilling` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tt-a1i/grilling` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tt-a1i/grilling/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: tt-a1i (https://skillmd.com/u/tt-a1i) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tt-a1i/grilling --- Interview the user relentlessly until you reach a shared understanding. Map this as a **design tree**: every decision branches into the decisions that hang off it. 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 haven't 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. ## Question format Lead each round with a fixed header, then emit every frontier question in one shape. Use emoji as **structure anchors** and **question-type signals** — not decoration in every sentence. **Round header:** ``` 🔥 **Round N** · K questions ``` **Each question** (one type emoji before the number): ``` **QN** - **** 💡 ``` **Round footer** (after the last question): ``` 👇 Reply by number: `1) … 2) … 3) …` ``` ### Type emoji (pick one that fits the decision) | Type | Emoji | Use when | |---|---|---| | Scope / in-or-out | 🎯 | Boundary, YAGNI, what ships now | | Trade-off | ⚖️ | A vs B, pick one path | | Risk / failure | ⚠️ | What breaks, abuse cases, rollback | | Naming / language | 🏷️ | Terms, glossary, how we say it | | UX / UI | 👀 | What someone sees or clicks | | Data / state | 🧩 | Model shape, transitions, schema | | Cost / perf | ⚡ | Latency, money, scale | | Auth / trust | 🔐 | Permissions, tenancy, secrets | | Timing | ⏱️ | When, sequencing, milestones | | Challenge | 🪞 | "Do you actually need this?" | | Dependency | 🔗 | Blockers, prerequisites | | Open / foggy | 💭 | Still ill-formed; need a direction | Fixed skeleton (do not invent alternatives each round): `🔥` round · type emoji + `QN` · `💡` recommendation · `👇` reply prompt. Keep the body text clean — at most one optional mood emoji in the round header line if it helps (e.g. a long session), never a spray of emoji inside the question body. ## Round loop Each round the user 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. Finding _facts_ is your job, never the user's. When a frontier question needs a fact from the environment (filesystem, tools, etc.), dispatch a sub-agent to find it — don't ask the user for anything you could look up yourself. Don't block on it: a running exploration is an unsettled prerequisite, so only the questions downstream of it wait for the sub-agent to report — ask the rest of the frontier now. The _decisions_ are the user's — put each to them and wait. 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.