mp-grilling

---
name: mp-grilling
description: Use when you want to stress-test a plan or design before building — a relentless one-question-at-a-time interview that resolves every decision to a shared understanding.
source: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/main/skills/productivity/grilling/SKILL.md
generated: 2026-07-08T18:57:54.777Z
category: concept
audience: engineers
---

## When to use

- Stress-testing a plan or design before you start building
- You want every branch of the design tree walked and its decisions resolved
- You keep hand-waving details and want them forced into the open
- Any 'grill me' trigger phrase

## Key concepts

### Relentless interview

Interview the user about every aspect of the plan until you reach a shared understanding, walking down each branch of the design tree and resolving dependencies between decisions one by one.

### One question at a time

Ask questions one at a time and wait for feedback on each before continuing. Asking multiple questions at once is bewildering.

### Recommend an answer

For each question, provide your recommended answer — don't just ask, take a position the user can react to.

### Facts vs decisions

If a fact can be found by exploring the codebase, look it up rather than asking. The decisions, though, are the user's — put each one to them and wait for their answer.

## Gotchas

- Never ask multiple questions at once — it's bewildering; strictly one at a time
- Don't ask the user for facts you can find in the codebase yourself
- Do not enact the plan until the user confirms a shared understanding is reached
- Always attach your recommended answer to each question

---
Generated by SkillMake from https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/main/skills/productivity/grilling/SKILL.md on 2026-07-08T18:57:54.777Z.
Verify against source before relying on details.

File: ~/.claude/skills/mp-grilling/SKILL.md