grill-me

name	grill-me
description	Brainstorm engine — interview the user about a plan/design, auto-write PRD and context manifests as answers resolve. Use when the user wants to stress-test a plan, brainstorm a feature, design architecture, or says 'grill me', 'brainstorm', 'let's plan', 'design this', or describes a new feature they want to build. Also use when the workflow phase is 'planning' and a task is active.

Brainstorm Engine (grill-me)

Interview me relentlessly about every aspect of this plan. Walk down each branch of the design tree, resolving dependencies one-by-one. For each question, provide your recommended answer.

Ask questions one at a time. If a question can be answered by exploring the codebase, explore the codebase instead of asking.

Why this skill writes files during the interview

If the brainstorm stays only in chat, a session timeout or /compact loses everything. Writing incrementally means every resolved question is immediately durable — the PRD builds up as you go, and a session crash loses at most the current question. The finalize step at the end cleans up the working draft into a polished document.

Setup

Before the first question, ensure a task exists:

# Check for active task
python3 scripts/codex_harness.py task current

# If none exists, create one
python3 scripts/codex_harness.py task create "<title from user's request>"
python3 scripts/codex_harness.py task start <slug>

Note the task slug — you'll use it for every command below.

The interview loop

Each turn of the brainstorm follows this pattern:

1. Ask one question with your recommended answer
2. Wait for the user's answer (they may accept your recommendation, modify it, or reject it)
3. Immediately write the decision — this is the critical step, don't batch these

What "immediately write" means

After the user answers, run these before asking the next question:

# Step 1: Record the question (returns an ID like q-1)
python3 scripts/codex_harness.py task question ask <slug> "<your question>" --recommended-answer "<your recommendation>"

# Step 2: Record the user's answer (use the ID from step 1)
python3 scripts/codex_harness.py task question answer <slug> <id> "<their answer>" --decision "<one-line summary for prd.md>"

The --decision flag auto-appends to prd.md's Decisions section. Beyond that, also update the relevant section of prd.md directly:

• Scope/goal decisions → ## Goal
• Feature requirements → ## Requirements
• Implementation choices → ## Technical Approach
• Quality bar decisions → ## Acceptance Criteria
• Boundary decisions → ## Out of Scope

If the decision identifies files the implementer will need:

python3 scripts/codex_harness.py task add-context <slug> implement "<spec-or-source-path>" "<why>"

If it identifies files the reviewer will need:

python3 scripts/codex_harness.py task add-context <slug> check "<spec-or-source-path>" "<why>"

Scan .codex/spec/project/index.md to know what specs exist for curation.

Example turn

You: "Should the keyboard shortcuts be user-configurable, or hardcoded? I'd recommend configurable with a JSON config file."

User: "Configurable, but use a plist not JSON since this is a macOS app."

You: (runs task question ask <slug> "..." --recommended-answer "...", gets back id q-1, runs task question answer <slug> q-1 "Configurable via plist" --decision "Shortcuts: user-configurable via plist", updates prd.md Technical Approach, adds playback-state-sync.md to implement.jsonl, then asks next question)

Convergence and finalize

The brainstorm converges when you've explored all branches and no new questions are emerging. Typically this is after 5-10 questions. When you sense convergence, say so: "I think we've covered the main decisions. Ready to finalize the PRD?"

When the user confirms:

1. Rewrite prd.md as a clean document (replace the working draft entirely):

   • ## Goal — one paragraph
   • ## Requirements — numbered list
   • ## Technical Approach — architecture decisions, key patterns
   • ## Acceptance Criteria — checkboxes
   • ## Out of Scope — explicit exclusions
   • ## Decisions — all Q&A pairs from the brainstorm

2. Verify manifests:

   python3 scripts/codex_harness.py task list-context <slug>
   

3. Validate readiness:

   python3 scripts/codex_harness.py task validate <slug>
   

4. Record to journal:

   python3 scripts/codex_harness.py record-session --title "Brainstorm: <task-title>" --summary "<one-line summary>"
   

5. Announce: "Brainstorm complete. PRD written, manifests curated. Ready for task start."