Grill

/aiagentminder:grill - Plan Interrogation

Stress-test a plan or design by walking every branch of the decision tree. This is the intensive counterpart to the Approach-First check embedded in the dev agent profile — use it when a design is non-obvious, high-stakes, or involves multiple interdependent decisions.

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Step 1: Scope the Interrogation

Read the plan or design being questioned. Sources may include:

• An approach statement from the dev agent's Approach-First check
• A feature description from docs/strategy-roadmap.md
• A freeform plan the user describes
• An existing design doc or PR description

Also read:

• DECISIONS.md — for prior decisions that constrain the design space
• docs/strategy-roadmap.md — for scope context

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Step 2: Map the Decision Tree

Identify every decision branch in the plan — any point where two or more reasonable approaches exist. Present the branches as a numbered list, noting dependencies between them.

Example:

Decision branches identified:

1. Auth storage: session vs JWT
2. Rate limiting: middleware vs API gateway (depends on #1)
3. Error format: structured vs freeform

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Step 3: Walk Each Branch

For each decision branch, one at a time:

1. If the codebase can answer it — explore the code first. Check existing patterns, conventions, and constraints. Do not ask the user questions that the code can answer.
2. If the user needs to decide — present:
   • The options available
   • Tradeoffs of each
   • Reversal cost: High (hard to undo), Medium (costly but possible), or Low (easy to change later)
   • Downstream dependencies: "If you choose X, then Y becomes constrained"

Resolve one branch before moving to the next. If branches have dependencies, resolve the upstream branch first.

Continue until the user says they are satisfied or all branches are resolved.

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Step 4: Decision Summary

After all branches are resolved, produce a structured summary:

Grill Summary — {plan name}

Decisions made:
1. {topic}: {choice}. Alternatives: {what was considered}. Reversal cost: {H/M/L}. Rationale: {why}.
2. ...

Open questions (deferred):
- {question} — deferred because {reason}

Constraints discovered:
- {constraint found during codebase exploration}

Ask the user: "Log these decisions to DECISIONS.md? (y/n)"

If yes, append each decision to DECISIONS.md in the project's existing format, including alternatives considered.

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When to Use This

• Use /aiagentminder:grill when a design is non-obvious, high-stakes, or has multiple interdependent decisions.
• Use the dev agent's Approach-First check for routine check-ins — state intent, confirm, proceed.
• Consider running /aiagentminder:grill before architecture changes touching more than 5 files.

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Adapted from mattpocock/skills/grill-me (MIT license).