**: <body; concrete choices when alternatives are known> ➡️ <recommended answer> ``` 3. Wait for all answers before the next round. Deliver rounds via your harness's question tool (pi `question`, Cursor `AskUserQuestion`; options = the credible alternatives, recommendation in the prompt). Fall back to the markdown format when no question tool is available or questions need long context or free-form answers. ## Pruning Not every branch deserves a question. Prune decisions that are reversible, low-impact, derivable from project conventions, or safely handled by a stated assumption — record those as assumptions instead of asking. The interview is done when no unresolved decision can materially change the design or risk profile, not when every branch has been visited. ## Facts vs decisions Finding *facts* is your job, never the user's. When a frontier question needs a fact from the environment (code, config, tool behavior), find it yourself — read/grep the repo or dispatch a read-only exploration subagent where the harness provides one. Don't block on it: a running lookup is an unsettled prerequisite, so only questions downstream of it wait; ask the rest of the frontier now. The *decisions* are the user's: put each to them and wait. ## Done The session ends when no unresolved decision can materially change the design or risk profile — remaining branches are recorded as explicit assumptions. Present the **Handover Artifact**. Require explicit confirmation before handing off high-risk work or public-contract changes; for ordinary reversible work, proceed unless the user objects: ```markdown ### Settled Decisions - [D1]: ... ### Explicit Assumptions (Pruned) - [A1]: ... ### Non-Goals / Deferred Scope - [N1]: ... ``` Multi-step work → pass this artifact to skill `plan-execute`; a clear local change → implement directly.

# Grill Me > Structured design interview that resolves consequential decisions without dwelling on reversible details. Use when the user wants to stress-test their thinking, asks to be grilled, or a task hinges on material unresolved decisions. - Skill: `zhu327/grill-me` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add zhu327/grill-me` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/zhu327/grill-me/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Productivity - Author: zhu327 (https://skillmd.com/u/zhu327) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/zhu327/grill-me --- # Grill Me Interview until every material, irreversible, or high-risk decision is settled. Do not prolong the interview over reversible choices that project conventions or explicit assumptions can safely resolve. ## Rounds and the frontier Map the discussion as a **design tree**: every decision branches into the decisions hanging off it. Work the tree in rounds. The **frontier** is every decision whose prerequisites are already settled — questions you can ask *now* without guessing at answers not yet heard. Ask the whole frontier in one round, capped at the four highest-consequence questions (the usual limit of a question tool); the rest wait for the next round. A question whose answer depends on a still-open question belongs to a later round. Each round: 1. Recompute the frontier from the user's latest answers — settled decisions push it outward and unblock downstream questions. 2. Ask every frontier question, numbered, with your recommended answer: ```markdown ❓ **Q1** — ****: <body; concrete choices when alternatives are known> ➡️ <recommended answer> ``` 3. Wait for all answers before the next round. Deliver rounds via your harness's question tool (pi `question`, Cursor `AskUserQuestion`; options = the credible alternatives, recommendation in the prompt). Fall back to the markdown format when no question tool is available or questions need long context or free-form answers. ## Pruning Not every branch deserves a question. Prune decisions that are reversible, low-impact, derivable from project conventions, or safely handled by a stated assumption — record those as assumptions instead of asking. The interview is done when no unresolved decision can materially change the design or risk profile, not when every branch has been visited. ## Facts vs decisions Finding *facts* is your job, never the user's. When a frontier question needs a fact from the environment (code, config, tool behavior), find it yourself — read/grep the repo or dispatch a read-only exploration subagent where the harness provides one. Don't block on it: a running lookup is an unsettled prerequisite, so only questions downstream of it wait; ask the rest of the frontier now. The *decisions* are the user's: put each to them and wait. ## Done The session ends when no unresolved decision can materially change the design or risk profile — remaining branches are recorded as explicit assumptions. Present the **Handover Artifact**. Require explicit confirmation before handing off high-risk work or public-contract changes; for ordinary reversible work, proceed unless the user objects: ```markdown ### Settled Decisions - [D1]: ... ### Explicit Assumptions (Pruned) - [A1]: ... ### Non-Goals / Deferred Scope - [N1]: ... ``` Multi-step work → pass this artifact to skill `plan-execute`; a clear local change → implement directly.