tyecode Skill: grill-me
When to Use This Skill
Use this skill when:
- User says "grill me" before starting work
- Requirements are vague and need sharpening
- You're about to build something significant and want to reduce risk of building the wrong thing
The Process
Ask one question at a time. Do not ask multiple questions in one message.
For each question:
- State your recommended answer with a short reason
- Ask the user to confirm, correct, or choose differently
Before asking a question that can be answered by reading the codebase, read the codebase first. Don't ask what you can discover yourself.
What to Cover
Walk the decision tree until every branch is resolved:
- Goal — What does success look like? How will you know it's done?
- Scope — What's in? What's explicitly out?
- Users — Who uses this? What do they need?
- Data — What data is created, read, updated, deleted?
- Edge cases — What happens when inputs are invalid, missing, or extreme?
- Errors — How should failures be handled and surfaced?
- Integration — What existing systems does this touch?
- Constraints — Any deadline, performance, or compatibility requirements?
Stop when you can write a one-paragraph spec that the user confirms is correct.
When to Stop
Stop asking when you have enough to write a spec. Over-grilling is as harmful as under-grilling — at some point you're just delaying work.
If the user says "just start" before you're done, note the open questions explicitly and proceed with your best assumptions stated.