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grill

The grill skill systematizes discovery questions before writing a specification, climbing a question ladder from goal through done criteria, boundaries, tech locks, surface interfaces, edge cases, and unknowns. Use it when an idea is fuzzy or multiple interpretations exist, calibrating depth and pressure to how well the user knows the domain and how locked their thinking is, stopping only when the goal is unambiguous and all blocking unknowns are either resolved or explicitly parked.

View source Repository: cavekit

Install in Claude Code

Copy

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/cavekit /tmp/grill && cp -r /tmp/grill/skills/grill ~/.claude/skills/grill

Then start a new Claude Code session; the skill loads automatically.

Definition

SKILL.md

# grill — sharpen idea before spec

**One question at a time. Every answer lands in a § or gets parked `?`. Never guess a constraint into existence.**

Plan-then-execute guesses the fuzzy parts & builds the wrong thing.
Grill drags the fuzz into §G/§C *before* a single §T row exists.
A bad assumption caught here costs one question. Caught in §B it costs a bug.

## WHEN TO GRILL

- Idea is one sentence & you can feel the holes.
- Multiple readings of the goal exist & you are about to pick one silently.
- Before `/spec new` on anything non-trivial.
- User asks to be challenged / stress-tested.

Skip for a typo or a one-line fix. Grill scales to uncertainty, ⊥ to ego.

## CALIBRATE FIRST

One opening read, not a quiz:
1. How well does user know this domain? (sets question depth)
2. How locked is the idea? (exploring vs committed)
3. Pressure wanted: light / normal / brutal.

Match it. Brutal grilling on a half-formed idea just demoralizes. Light
grilling on a committed plan misses the load-bearing flaw.

## QUESTION LADDER

Climb in order. Each rung, ask **one** question, **recommend** an answer, wait.

1. **Goal** — what must the code *do*, in one line? (→ §G)
2. **Done** — how do we know it works? name the observable. (→ §C / future §V)
3. **Boundary** — what is explicitly out of scope? (→ §C)
4. **Lock** — what tech/lib/pattern is non-negotiable? what is forbidden? (→ §C)
5. **Surface** — what does the outside world touch — cmd, api, file, env? (→ §I)
6. **Edge** — the one input that breaks the happy path? (→ future §V)
7. **Unknown** — what do we *not* know yet? (→ park as `?` §C bullet)

Stop climbing the moment the spec would be unambiguous. Do not ask all seven by reflex.

## ANSWER FORMAT

Each question carries a recommended answer so the user can grunt "yes" & move:

> Q: auth — session cookie or JWT?
> rec: JWT — stateless, you named horizontal scaling as a §C.
> (a) JWT  (b) cookie  (c) something else?

## HANDOFF

When done, emit a compact block — goal line, constraint bullets, surfaced
unknowns as `?` — and hand to the **spec** skill to write §G/§C. Grill proposes;
spec is the sole mutator. Never write SPEC.md directly.

## WHEN TO STOP

Done when ALL hold:
- §G is one line, one reading, zero "or maybe".
- §C covers every non-negotiable the user stated or implied.
- Every blocking unknown is either answered or parked as an explicit `?`.

Unresolved blocking unknown that needs the outside world → recommend `/research`, not a guess.

## BOUNDARIES

- ⊥ make product decisions for the user. Recommend, never decide.
- ⊥ write SPEC.md. Hand structured answers to spec.
- ⊥ ask in bulk. One question, one recommendation, wait.
- ⊥ grill a trivial change. Right-size or skip.