About grilling
grilling is a design skill that interviews the user in rounds until both sides share an understanding of the design. It maps decisions as a tree and asks each round's open questions with a recommended answer. It is aimed at clarifying requirements before any implementation starts.
Key features
- 01Asks questions in rounds based on prerequisites
- 02Gives a recommended answer for each question
- 03Delegates fact-finding to sub-agents instead of the user
- 04Ends only when no assumptions remain unresolved
Use cases
- 01Clarifying requirements before implementation begins
- 02Checking dependencies between design decisions
- 03Turning unstated assumptions into confirmed decisions
Install
Copy the command and run it in a terminal.
npx skills add https:/After installing, type/grillingin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.
Bundled filesagents/openai.yaml
Details
From the project READMEInterview the user relentlessly until you reach a shared understanding. Map this as a design tree: every decision branches into the decisions that hang off it.
Work the tree in rounds. The frontier is every decision whose prerequisites are already settled: the questions you can ask now without guessing at answers you haven't heard yet. Ask the whole frontier in one round: number each question and give your recommended answer. Then wait for the user's answers before the next round.
Format a round like so:
❓ **Q1** - **<question title>**: <question body, might be multiple paragraphs, including multiple choices>
➡️ <your recommended answer>
---
❓ **Q2** - **<question title>**: <question body, might be multiple paragraphs, including multiple choices>
➡️ <your recommended answer>
Word each question so "yes" accepts your recommended answer.
Each round the user answers reshapes the tree: settled decisions push the frontier outward and unblock questions that depended on them. Recompute the frontier and ask the next round. A question whose answer depends on another question still open in this round belongs to a later round, not this one.
Finding facts is your job, never the user's. When a frontier question needs a fact from the environment (filesystem, tools, etc.), dispatch a sub-agent to find it; don't ask the user for anything you could look up yourself. Don't block on it: a running exploration is an unsettled prerequisite, so only the questions downstream of it wait for the sub-agent to report; ask the rest of the frontier now. The decisions are the user's: put each to them and wait.
The session is done when the frontier is empty: every branch of the design tree visited, nothing left silently assumed. Do not act on it until the user confirms you have reached a shared understanding.