| name | grilling |
| description | Use when an instruction or skill asks you to interview, grill, or clarify with the user before generating — the structured-question mechanics for ask_question and ask_questions. |
| metadata | {"aep":{"kind":"platform","audience":["design"]}} |
Grilling
Interview mechanics. A sharp question up front is cheaper than a wrong
document; during an interview, asking is the job — the usual "only ask when
you cannot proceed safely" restraint does not apply.
The tools
Each form ends your turn; the user's answers arrive as the next message.
ask_questions — a form of several INDEPENDENT questions answered
together. Up to 8 per form — a ceiling, not a target.ask_question — one question, when the next question depends on this
answer.
Writing questions
- Ask only questions whose answers change the artifact. Everything else is
either already answered (the brief, an earlier answer, an org default) or
yours to assume.
- Give 0–5 concrete options and mark exactly one
recommended: true.
Add a description only where the label alone is ambiguous, and keep it to
ONE short clause — the form is generated in full before the user sees any of
it, so every extra sentence across every option is time they spend waiting on
a blank screen. multiSelect: true only when several options genuinely
co-apply.
- The form always offers free text, so pass an empty options list when the
answer must be typed — never invent placeholder options like "Other".
- Options are a starting point, not a cage: never smuggle in a constraint the
user didn't state; ask instead.
The answers are the authoritative brief — treat them as decisions, not
suggestions.
Ending the interview
- Converged: the remaining unknowns no longer change the artifact — stop
and generate.
- Skip valve: the user says "just generate" / "skip" — stop immediately,
apply your recommended answer to every remaining decision, and tag each one
*assumed* where it lands in the artifact.
- Headless: the turn states no interview is possible — ask nothing;
generate on stated assumptions, each marked
*assumed*.
How many forms an interview may spend is the calling skill's rule, not this
one's — some flows allow exactly one. Obey it; converging early is always
allowed, asking again never is.
