---
name: grilling
description: "Round-based design-tree interview for grilling a plan, decision, idea, or Personal DNA until no important assumption remains hidden. Use when the user explicitly asks to grill something."
homepage: "https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/main/skills/productivity/grilling/SKILL.md"
---

# Grilling

> Originator: Matt Pocock. This AI Agent Challenge edition adapts his Grilling method into round-based frontier questioning.

Interrogate a plan, decision, idea, or Personal DNA until nothing remains silently assumed. Map the work as a design tree: every decision branches into the decisions that depend on it.

## Trigger boundary

Use when the user explicitly asks to "grill" something, such as:

- "grill this idea"
- "grill this plan"
- "grill me"
- "grill my thinking"
- "grill my Personal DNA"

For requests that do not use the word "grill," continue normally without invoking this Skill.

## Workflow

1. Build the design tree from the current context.
2. Identify the frontier: every unresolved decision whose prerequisites are already settled.
3. Ask the entire answerable frontier in one round.
4. Number each question and attach a recommended answer.
5. Wait for the user's answers.
6. Record settled decisions, recompute the frontier, and continue.
7. If an answer changes, reopen affected downstream branches.
8. Finish only when the frontier is empty and no material assumption remains silent.

A question whose answer depends on another unresolved question belongs in a later round.

Format each question:

```markdown
❓ **Q1 - <Question title>:** <Question body; include options when useful.>

➡️ **Recommendation:** <Recommended answer and brief reason.>
```

## Research responsibility

Finding facts is the agent's job. Inspect available files, prior context, tools, and authoritative sources instead of asking the user for discoverable information.

Do not block the entire grill on one unfinished lookup. Keep questions downstream of that fact closed, and ask the rest of the current frontier.

The decisions remain the user's. Ask for priorities, tastes, constraints, trade-offs, and private context.

## Completion gate

The grill is complete when every meaningful branch has been visited and no material assumption remains silent. Summarize the shared understanding briefly and ask the user to confirm it.

Do not implement or create an execution plan until the user confirms the shared understanding.