| name | grill-with-docs |
| description | Grilling session that challenges your plan against the existing domain model, sharpens terminology, and updates documentation (a domain glossary and ADRs under .context/) inline as decisions crystallise. Use when user wants to stress-test a plan against their project's language and documented 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, waiting for feedback on each question before continuing.
If a question can be answered by exploring the codebase, explore the codebase instead.
Where the domain docs live
All project context lives under a .context/ folder at the repo root. Unlike .iudex/ (operational state, gitignored), .context/ is tracked project documentation — commit it. That is also what makes the glossary and ADRs visible inside iudex ticket worktrees (which only see committed files), so the impl and QA agents share the same language.
.context/
├── glossary.md # the domain glossary
├── <area>.md # optional extra glossaries for a monorepo (e.g. ordering.md, billing.md)
├── adr/ # architectural decision records
│ ├── 0001-event-sourced-orders.md
│ └── 0002-postgres-for-write-model.md
└── prd/ # PRDs produced by to-prd (not glossary — kept in a subfolder)
- The glossary is every top-level
*.md file directly inside .context/. Most repos have a single .context/glossary.md. A monorepo with multiple bounded contexts can add one file per context (.context/ordering.md, .context/billing.md); read them all, and when the current topic spans several, infer which context it belongs to — if unclear, ask. (Files in subfolders like adr/ and prd/ are NOT glossary.)
- ADRs live in
.context/adr/ with sequential numbering: 0001-slug.md, 0002-slug.md, etc.
Create files lazily — only when you have something to write. If no .context/glossary.md exists, create it when the first term is resolved. If no .context/adr/ exists, create it when the first ADR is needed.
During the session
Challenge against the glossary
When the user uses a term that conflicts with the existing language in the glossary, call it out immediately. "Your glossary defines 'cancellation' as X, but you seem to mean Y — which is it?"
Sharpen fuzzy language
When the user uses vague or overloaded terms, propose a precise canonical term. "You're saying 'account' — do you mean the Customer or the User? Those are different things."
Discuss concrete scenarios
When domain relationships are being discussed, stress-test them with specific scenarios. Invent scenarios that probe edge cases and force the user to be precise about the boundaries between concepts.
Cross-reference with code
When the user states how something works, check whether the code agrees. If you find a contradiction, surface it: "Your code cancels entire Orders, but you just said partial cancellation is possible — which is right?"
Update the glossary inline
When a term is resolved, update .context/glossary.md (or the relevant context file) right there. Don't batch these up — capture them as they happen, using the Glossary format below.
The glossary should be totally devoid of implementation details. Do not treat it as a spec, a scratch pad, or a repository for implementation decisions. It is a glossary and nothing else.
Offer ADRs sparingly
Only offer to create an ADR when all three are true:
- Hard to reverse — the cost of changing your mind later is meaningful
- Surprising without context — a future reader will wonder "why did they do it this way?"
- The result of a real trade-off — there were genuine alternatives and you picked one for specific reasons
If any of the three is missing, skip the ADR. Use the ADR format below.
Glossary format
Each glossary file:
# {Context Name}
{One or two sentence description of what this context is and why it exists.}
## Language
**Order**:
{A one or two sentence description of the term}
_Avoid_: Purchase, transaction
**Invoice**:
A request for payment sent to a customer after delivery.
_Avoid_: Bill, payment request
**Customer**:
A person or organization that places orders.
_Avoid_: Client, buyer, account
Rules:
- Be opinionated. When multiple words exist for the same concept, pick the best one and list the others under
_Avoid_.
- Keep definitions tight. One or two sentences max. Define what it IS, not what it does.
- Only include terms specific to this project's context. General programming concepts (timeouts, error types, utility patterns) don't belong even if the project uses them extensively. Before adding a term, ask: is this a concept unique to this context, or a general programming concept? Only the former belongs.
- Group terms under subheadings when natural clusters emerge. If all terms belong to a single cohesive area, a flat list is fine.
For a monorepo with multiple contexts, each context gets its own file (.context/ordering.md, .context/billing.md). If relationships between contexts matter, capture them at the top of the most relevant file or in .context/glossary.md:
## Relationships
- **Ordering → Fulfillment**: Ordering emits `OrderPlaced` events; Fulfillment consumes them to start picking
- **Fulfillment → Billing**: Fulfillment emits `ShipmentDispatched` events; Billing consumes them to generate invoices
ADR format
ADRs live in .context/adr/ using sequential numbering: 0001-slug.md, 0002-slug.md, etc. Scan the directory for the highest existing number and increment by one. Create .context/adr/ lazily — only when the first ADR is needed.
Template:
# {Short title of the decision}
{1-3 sentences: what's the context, what did we decide, and why.}
That's it. An ADR can be a single paragraph. The value is in recording that a decision was made and why — not in filling out sections.
Optional sections (only when they add genuine value; most ADRs won't need them):
- Status frontmatter (
proposed | accepted | deprecated | superseded by ADR-NNNN) — useful when decisions are revisited
- Considered Options — only when the rejected alternatives are worth remembering
- Consequences — only when non-obvious downstream effects need to be called out
What qualifies for an ADR
- Architectural shape. "We're using a monorepo." "The write model is event-sourced, the read model is projected into Postgres."
- Integration patterns between contexts. "Ordering and Billing communicate via domain events, not synchronous HTTP."
- Technology choices that carry lock-in. Database, message bus, auth provider, deployment target. Not every library — just the ones that would take a quarter to swap out.
- Boundary and scope decisions. "Customer data is owned by the Customer context; other contexts reference it by ID only." The explicit no-s are as valuable as the yes-s.
- Deliberate deviations from the obvious path. "We're using manual SQL instead of an ORM because X." Anything where a reasonable reader would assume the opposite.
- Constraints not visible in the code. "We can't use AWS because of compliance requirements." "Response times must be under 200ms because of the partner API contract."
- Rejected alternatives when the rejection is non-obvious. If you considered GraphQL and picked REST for subtle reasons, record it — otherwise someone will suggest GraphQL again in six months.
After the session
When the plan is hardened, hand it to to-prd to write it up as a PRD under .context/prd/ (using the sharpened glossary vocabulary), then to-issues to slice it into iudex tickets.