grilling

name	grilling
description	Grill the user relentlessly about a plan, decision, or idea. Use when the user wants to stress-test their thinking, or uses any 'grill' trigger phrases.

Grilling

Interview the user relentlessly about every aspect of the plan, decision, or idea until you reach a shared understanding. Walk down each branch of the decision 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. Asking multiple questions at once is bewildering.

If a fact can be found by exploring the environment (filesystem, tools, etc.), look it up rather than asking. The decisions, though, belong to the user — put each one to them and wait for their answer.

Do not act on it until the user confirms you have reached a shared understanding.

When to Use

• The user wants to stress-test their thinking before committing to an approach.
• The user uses any "grill" trigger phrase ("grill me on this", "poke holes in this", "interrogate this plan").
• A plan or decision has hidden dependencies or unexamined assumptions worth surfacing.

For open-ended idea generation, use mp:brainstorming instead — grilling is for pressure-testing an existing plan or decision, not for discovering what to build.

Key Principles

• One question at a time — never batch questions.
• Recommend an answer for every question so the user has something concrete to react to.
• Look up facts, ask about decisions — don't waste the user's attention on anything you can verify yourself.
• Resolve dependencies in order — walk the decision tree branch by branch.
• No action until aligned — wait for explicit confirmation that you share an understanding.

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Adapted from mattpocock/skills — grilling.