About grilling
grilling is a skill for interviewing users to reach shared understanding of a design. It organizes decisions as a tree and asks all currently answerable questions in rounds, with recommendations and a fixed response format.
Key features
- 01Map decisions as a design tree
- 02Ask prerequisite-ready questions in rounds
- 03Include a recommendation with each question
- 04Defer questions dependent on open decisions
- 05Use a consistent response format
Use cases
- 01Clarify requirements before implementation
- 02Explore dependent product decisions
- 03Identify unresolved assumptions
- 04Guide a structured design discussion
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.
Question format
Lead each round with a fixed header, then emit every frontier question in one shape. Use emoji as structure anchors and question-type signals — not decoration in every sentence.
Round header:
🔥 **Round N** · K questions
Questions (one type emoji before each number, separated by a horizontal rule):
<type> **Q1** - **<question title>**
<body — prose and/or multiple choices>
💡 <your recommended answer>
---
<type> **Q2** - **<question title>**
<body — prose and/or multiple choices>
💡 <your recommended answer>
Round footer (after the last question):
👇 Reply by number: `1) … 2) … 3) …`
Type emoji (pick one that fits the decision)
| Type | Emoji | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| Scope / in-or-out | 🎯 | Boundary, YAGNI, what ships now |
| Trade-off | ⚖️ | A vs B, pick one path |
| Risk / failure | ⚠️ | What breaks, abuse cases, rollback |
| Naming / language | 🏷️ | Terms, glossary, how we say it |
| UX / UI | 👀 | What someone sees or clicks |
| Data / state | 🧩 | Model shape, transitions, schema |
| Cost / perf | ⚡ | Latency, money, scale |
| Auth / trust | 🔐 | Permissions, tenancy, secrets |
| Timing | ⏱️ | When, sequencing, milestones |
| Challenge | 🪞 | "Do you actually need this?" |
| Dependency | 🔗 | Blockers, prerequisites |
| Open / foggy | 💭 | Still ill-formed; need a direction |
Fixed skeleton (do not invent alternatives each round): 🔥 round · type emoji + QN · 💡 recommendation · 👇 reply prompt.
Keep the body text clean — at most one optional mood emoji in the round header line if it helps (e.g. a long session), never a spray of emoji inside the question body.
Word each question so "yes" accepts your recommended answer.
Round loop
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.