
grill-me
Interview the user relentlessly about a plan or design until every branch of the decision tree has an explicit recorded decision and no open questions remain. Use when user wants to stress-test a plan, get grilled on their design, or mentions "grill me".
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- 107
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Install
Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.
npx skills add https://github.com/paulrberg/agent-skills --skill grill-me- 01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
- 02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads grill-me automatically when relevant.
- 03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.
SKILL.md
The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.
Grill Me
This skill is coordination-exempt: skip the ai-coord gate for its declared work.
Stress-test the plan in question rounds until every material branch is resolved and the user confirms shared understanding. User instructions take precedence over this skill.
Workflow
- Extract the current objective, constraints, assumptions, and already-made decisions. Map the design tree: each decision branches into dependent decisions. Investigate facts discoverable from the codebase, environment, or supplied evidence instead of asking the user. Put decisions to the user and wait for their answers.
- Maintain a running decision record with: decision, chosen option, rationale, dependencies, and consequences. Update it after every answer. Reopen a recorded decision only when new evidence conflicts with it or the user corrects it.
- When fact-finding benefits from delegation and subagents are available, delegate the investigation. Otherwise, investigate directly. Treat pending fact-finding as an unsettled prerequisite. Defer only dependent questions while asking the rest of the currently answerable questions.
- Work in rounds. The frontier contains every unresolved decision whose prerequisites are settled. Ask the entire
frontier in each round. A question that depends on another open question belongs in a later round. Number each
question as
### 🔥 Decision <N> — <topic>, then giveRecommended,Why,Tradeoff, andQuestion. Separate question cards with a horizontal rule. Word eachQuestionso "yes" accepts itsRecommendedchoice. Wait for the user's answers before the next round. - After each answer, acknowledge
✅ Recorded: <choice> — <consequence>. Recompute the frontier after each round. When useful, show settled and currently open counts. Never show a percentage because the decision tree can grow. - Continue through scope, users, interfaces, data/state, failure modes, security, operations, migration, testing, rollout, ownership, and stopping criteria only where they are material to this design.
- When no material open branches or required investigations remain, return
### ✅ Decision recordwith a decision/choice/rationale/consequence table. Then give### ⚠️ Risks, accepted unknowns with owner/resolution point, rejected alternatives that matter, and### 🏁 Completion criteria. Ask the user to explicitly confirm that the report reflects shared understanding. Wait for that confirmation before acting on the plan. If the user corrects the report, reopen the affected branches and continue the interview.
Completion requires every material branch to have a recorded decision or an explicitly accepted unknown with an owner and resolution point, followed by the user's explicit confirmation of shared understanding. The final report alone does not complete the workflow. After confirmation, act only within the user's authorized scope.
FAQ
What does the grill-me skill do?
Interview the user relentlessly about a plan or design until every branch of the decision tree has an explicit recorded decision and no open questions remain. Use when user wants to stress-test a plan, get grilled on their design, or mentions "grill me".
How do I install grill-me?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/paulrberg/agent-skills --skill grill-me in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/grill-me/ (personal) or .claude/skills/grill-me/ (project).
Which AI agents can use grill-me?
Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.
Is grill-me safe to install?
No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.
Who maintains grill-me?
It is published by paulrberg in paulrberg/agent-skills. It has 107 recorded installs.
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