grill

name	grill
description	A relentless interview that stress-tests a plan or design before any code is written. Use when the user wants to pressure-test an approach, walk the design tree, or uses any 'grill' trigger phrase ("grill me", "grill this plan", "poke holes in this").

Grill

Interview the user relentlessly about every aspect of the plan until you reach a shared understanding. The goal is to surface the decisions, dependencies, and unstated assumptions before anything is built — not to enact the plan.

How to run it

Walk down each branch of the design tree, resolving dependencies between decisions one at a time. Start at the load-bearing decisions (the ones every other choice hangs off), and only descend into a branch once its parent is settled.

• One question at a time. Ask a single question, then wait for the answer before moving on. Asking several at once is bewildering and produces shallow answers.
• Recommend an answer. For every question, give your own recommended answer and the reasoning behind it. A grilling is a conversation between two people who care about the design, not an interrogation from a blank clipboard.
• Explore the codebase instead of asking, when you can. If a question is answerable by reading the code (how does X currently work? does this seam already exist?), go read it rather than making the user recite it. Use the Explore subagent for anything that spans many files.
• Chase the fuzzy word. When the user reaches for a vague or overloaded term, stop and pin it down. Precise language now prevents a wrong build later.
• Follow the friction. When an answer opens a new branch of the tree, descend into it. Don't move on until the branch is resolved.

Stopping condition

Do not enact the plan until the user confirms you've reached a shared understanding. When you believe you're there, say so explicitly and let the user confirm — the end of a grilling is a deliberate handshake, not a silent transition into building.