Grilling

Grilling

Surface and resolve every open decision in a plan, design, or spec before any code or plan is written. The output is a complete decision-log that makes the plan airtight.

How to ask — every question takes this shape

Ask one decision at a time as a multiple-choice question. In Claude Code use the AskUserQuestion tool, one question per call. Each question:

• 2–4 concrete options, the recommended one first, its label ending (Recomendado).
• Each option's description states its tradeoff/consequence, not a restatement of the label.
• Choose the recommendation from: codebase conventions, the user's stack defaults, security/best practice — and give the one-line why in the recommended option.
• multiSelect: true when the options are not mutually exclusive.
• For code/shape/layout choices, put each candidate in a preview so the user compares side-by-side.
• The tool auto-adds "Other" — that is the user's escape hatch. Never collapse a real choice into a yes/no just to avoid enumerating options.

What to ask — sweep until dry

Walk the decision tree in dependency order: resolve a decision before the ones that depend on it; each answer reshapes and opens the next. If a question is answerable from the codebase, explore the codebase instead of asking.

Sweep every dimension — do not stop at the obvious ones:

scope & non-goals · data model · contracts/API · states & lifecycle · edge cases & failure modes · error handling · security & authz · performance & scale · dependencies/integrations · rollout & migration · testing · observability · cost

Grill irreversible / one-way-door decisions hardest. Surface every decision, including minor ones — do not pre-filter by importance.

Termination: after sweeping all dimensions, do one more pass — "what did the answers open? what's still ambiguous?" Stop only when a full pass surfaces no new decision, or the user calls it. Stopping after a handful of questions is failure.

Record — the decision-log is the airtight artifact

Maintain a running log; append one entry per resolved decision:

### <n> <decision> — <dimension>
Elegido: <option>   [recomendado | override | ⚠ supuesto: usuario difirió]
Por qué: <one line>
Abre: <follow-up decisions, or "hoja">

When the user defers ("tú decide"), take the recommended option and mark it ⚠ supuesto — never leave a decision unresolved.

When the sweep is dry, hand the full decision-log to writing-plans to produce the plan/spec.

Red flags — STOP

• A question posed as open prose with no options → reshape into 2–4 options + a recommendation.
• More than one question in a single call → one decision per call.
• Stopping at the "important" few → sweep every dimension, loop until dry.
• A decision left open because the user was vague → take the recommended option, mark ⚠ supuesto.
• Finishing without a decision-log → there is no airtight plan without it.