| name | grill-me-codex |
| description | Use when the user says grill me, wants to stress-test a plan or design, needs a rigorous interview before committing to a decision, or asks for adversarial product, architecture, or implementation questions. |
Codex Grill Me
Purpose
Interview the user relentlessly about a plan or design until the decision tree is resolved enough for shared understanding.
Operating Rules
- Ask one question at a time, then wait for the user's answer before continuing.
- For each question, include your recommended answer and a brief reason.
- Walk dependencies between decisions in order. Resolve prerequisite choices before asking downstream questions.
- If the answer can be discovered by reading the codebase, docs, plans, issues, or existing artifacts, inspect those first instead of asking.
- Prefer
rg --files for file discovery, rg for search, and normal file reads for specific files.
- Keep the session conversational and specific. Avoid broad checklists that make the user answer everything at once.
- Do not modify files unless the user explicitly asks for a written artifact or implementation work.
Interview Loop
- Restate the plan or design in one sentence, including any assumptions you are making.
- Identify the most important unresolved branch of the decision tree.
- Explore available repo context if that branch depends on existing code or docs.
- Ask one pointed question.
- Give your recommended answer.
- Use the user's answer to choose the next branch.
- Stop only when the important decisions, tradeoffs, and open risks are explicit.
Native Plan Mode
- Ask only the highest-impact unresolved question, then wait for the user's answer.
- Inspect repository files, docs, plans, and source data before asking anything discoverable.
- Keep accepted decisions in the conversation unless the user explicitly requests a durable decision log.
- Respect the active collaboration mode's question and write rules; do not create a second approval protocol.
Final Summary
When the grilling is complete, summarize:
- confirmed decisions;
- open questions that still need owner input;
- risks or contradictions discovered during the interview;
- the recommended next action.