Grill Me Store Decisions

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. For each question, provide your recommended answer.

Ask the questions one at a time.

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

Persistence requirement (what makes this skill different from grill-me)

Maintain a decision-tree.md file in the current working directory (the repo being grilled on). Update it incrementally as the interview progresses — do not wait until the end.

For each question asked, record:

1. The question — exactly as posed.
2. All options presented — every option the user was offered, including ones not selected.
3. The selected option — clearly marked, including any user override that didn't match a presented option verbatim.
4. The rationale / recommendation — your reasoning and which option you recommended.
5. Cost tradeoff — for every decision, include a **Cost tradeoff:** block analyzing:
   • The recurring $/month cost at v1 (solo), alpha (50 users), and growth (1,000 users) scales.
   • SaaS-vs-self-host alternatives and the dollar delta.
   • Crossover points where the right choice changes.
   • Engineer-time cost (weeks of build) where it's material.
6. Dependencies — which earlier decisions this question depends on, and which later branches this decision unlocks.
7. Status — decided or open.

Structure the file with these sections, in this order:

1. Title + premise — one-line project description.
2. Guiding principles — any user-stated constraints (e.g., "minimize paid 3rd parties", "no Python", "must run on AWS"). Surface these prominently so they color every downstream decision.
3. Master cost map — a single table summarizing the recurring $/month for every SaaS line item at the three scales, with self-host alternatives. Update incrementally as new components are decided.
4. Summary of decisions — one-line-per-decision table including a "Cost impact" column.
5. Per-decision sections — full detail (question, options, selected, rationale, cost tradeoff, unlocks).
6. Open branches not yet asked — list with brief cost notes for each.

After each user answer:

• Update decision-tree.md before asking the next question (use Edit for incremental updates once the file exists; Write for the initial creation).
• If the user states a guiding principle mid-interview (e.g., "I want to avoid paying providers"), elevate it to the Guiding-principles section, re-evaluate the recommendations for already-decided branches if applicable, and save it to memory as a feedback type so future sessions inherit the preference.

The goal: the user can re-open decision-tree.md weeks later, see every fork they hit, what they picked, what they rejected, why, AND the dollar implication at three growth stages — and confidently revisit a branch without re-running the whole interview.