Grill me
Pressure-test a plan or design by interviewing the user until there is genuinely shared understanding: every consequential branch of the decision tree resolved, and the dependencies between those decisions settled in order. The point is not interrogation for its own sake: it is to surface the assumptions, edge cases, and forks now, at conversation cost, instead of mid-build or in production.
This is the on-demand, relentless counterpart to "think before coding." That habit asks for clarification when warranted; this skill commits to walking the entire tree before a line is written.
Interaction and agent discipline: as the main atelier skill's Interaction section (terse, answer first, no em dashes, each question led by your recommendation, next steps when the interview wraps), including its two gates on commits and tests (rules 24-25); the one-round cap does not apply here, multi-round questioning is this skill's sanctioned purpose.
When to use
- The user asks to be grilled, or to stress-test / pressure-test a plan or design.
- A decision carries real stakes and a bad call is expensive to reverse: architecture, data model, public API shape, a migration, a dependency choice, a security boundary.
- The plan is a new product or feature: before grilling how to build it, grill whether to build it at all (the atelier
references/product.md § Validate before you build). What evidence of the problem exists beyond the room? What is the cheapest test of demand (a landing page, a concierge run) before the build? What dated go/no-go criteria would make "no" sayable? What adoption threshold decides keep-or-kill after launch? A killed idea at interview cost is this skill's best outcome.
- A plan is vague, broad, or hides many unstated branches.
Match intensity to stakes. A five-question interrogation of "rename this variable" is noise: skip the grilling for trivial or already-well-specified tasks.
How to run the interview
- Frame neutrally. Restate the goal in a sentence or two, without tilting it toward a preferred answer, and confirm you have it right before drilling in.
- Explore before asking. Anything the codebase can answer, answer yourself: read the files, the config, the existing patterns. Never ask the user what a
grep would tell you. Bring findings, not homework.
- One question at a time. Ask a single question, wait for the answer, then ask the next. A numbered list of ten questions overwhelms, and the answers come back shallow.
- Lead with your recommended answer. For each question, say what you'd choose and why in one line, so the user can reply "yes" or correct you. A question with no recommendation just hands the work back to them.
- Walk the tree depth-first, resolving dependencies in order. When one decision constrains others, settle it first and follow its branch; don't open a new branch until the current one is closed. Name the dependency when it matters ("if we keep static export, the per-request-caching question disappears").
- Track state. Keep a running tally of decisions resolved and questions still open, so neither of you loses the thread on a long tree.
- Stop at shared understanding. You are done when every consequential branch is resolved and you could implement without guessing. Say so explicitly: don't trail off mid-interview.
Output
When the interview converges, write a short decision record: the goal, each decision with its one-line rationale, and the first concrete next step. Keep it tight: it is the spec the implementation will follow. For a decision with rejected alternatives and a reversal path worth keeping, shape it as the ADR the repo commits (docs/adr/NNNN-title.md, atelier references/governance.md § Decision records); for a build/no-build question, the record is the dated go/no-go checklist with its explicit criteria (atelier references/product.md).
Grill toward the simplest design that survives the questions, not the most elaborate one: every answer you recommend should still respect YAGNI and "the cheapest code is the code you never wrote."
In a repo that keeps an .claude/LESSONS.md journal, propose the durable choices as [decision] entries (append on approval) so the next session inherits them rather than re-litigating the tree.
1---2name: atelier-grill-me3description: Use when the user wants to stress-test, pressure-test, or poke holes in a plan, design, migration, or architectural decision before building or committing to it, de-risk a big decision, walk through a design's tradeoffs, validate whether a new product or feature is worth building at all (problem evidence, demand test, go/no-go), or says "grill me" or "grill me on this". It then relentlessly interviews you one question at a time, each with a recommended answer, exploring the codebase before asking, until every branch of the decision tree is resolved and you reach shared understanding.4---56# Grill me78Pressure-test a plan or design by interviewing the user until there is genuinely shared understanding: every consequential branch of the decision tree resolved, and the dependencies between those decisions settled in order. The point is not interrogation for its own sake: it is to surface the assumptions, edge cases, and forks now, at conversation cost, instead of mid-build or in production.910This is the on-demand, relentless counterpart to "think before coding." That habit asks for clarification when warranted; this skill commits to walking the *entire* tree before a line is written.1112Interaction and agent discipline: as the main atelier skill's Interaction section (terse, answer first, no em dashes, each question led by your recommendation, next steps when the interview wraps), including its two gates on commits and tests (rules 24-25); the one-round cap does not apply here, multi-round questioning is this skill's sanctioned purpose.1314## When to use1516- The user asks to be grilled, or to stress-test / pressure-test a plan or design.17- A decision carries real stakes and a bad call is expensive to reverse: architecture, data model, public API shape, a migration, a dependency choice, a security boundary.18- The plan is a new product or feature: before grilling how to build it, grill whether to build it at all (the atelier `references/product.md` § Validate before you build). What evidence of the problem exists beyond the room? What is the cheapest test of demand (a landing page, a concierge run) before the build? What dated go/no-go criteria would make "no" sayable? What adoption threshold decides keep-or-kill after launch? A killed idea at interview cost is this skill's best outcome.19- A plan is vague, broad, or hides many unstated branches.2021Match intensity to stakes. A five-question interrogation of "rename this variable" is noise: skip the grilling for trivial or already-well-specified tasks.2223## How to run the interview24251. **Frame neutrally.** Restate the goal in a sentence or two, without tilting it toward a preferred answer, and confirm you have it right before drilling in.262. **Explore before asking.** Anything the codebase can answer, answer yourself: read the files, the config, the existing patterns. Never ask the user what a `grep` would tell you. Bring findings, not homework.273. **One question at a time.** Ask a single question, wait for the answer, then ask the next. A numbered list of ten questions overwhelms, and the answers come back shallow.284. **Lead with your recommended answer.** For each question, say what you'd choose and why in one line, so the user can reply "yes" or correct you. A question with no recommendation just hands the work back to them.295. **Walk the tree depth-first, resolving dependencies in order.** When one decision constrains others, settle it first and follow its branch; don't open a new branch until the current one is closed. Name the dependency when it matters ("if we keep static export, the per-request-caching question disappears").306. **Track state.** Keep a running tally of decisions resolved and questions still open, so neither of you loses the thread on a long tree.317. **Stop at shared understanding.** You are done when every consequential branch is resolved and you could implement without guessing. Say so explicitly: don't trail off mid-interview.3233## Output3435When the interview converges, write a short **decision record**: the goal, each decision with its one-line rationale, and the first concrete next step. Keep it tight: it is the spec the implementation will follow. For a decision with rejected alternatives and a reversal path worth keeping, shape it as the ADR the repo commits (`docs/adr/NNNN-title.md`, atelier `references/governance.md` § Decision records); for a build/no-build question, the record is the dated go/no-go checklist with its explicit criteria (atelier `references/product.md`).3637Grill toward the *simplest* design that survives the questions, not the most elaborate one: every answer you recommend should still respect YAGNI and "the cheapest code is the code you never wrote."3839In a repo that keeps an `.claude/LESSONS.md` journal, propose the durable choices as `[decision]` entries (append on approval) so the next session inherits them rather than re-litigating the tree.
vdelacou