grill-me
A relentless interview that turns a loose idea into decisions you can defend.
What grill-me does
grill-me makes the agent interview you about an idea until there is nothing left to assume. You do not need a plan to start; the session exists to produce one. It works on anything you can talk through: a feature, a product direction, a business decision, or a piece of writing.
It is part of Matt Pocock's skills collection, one of the most-starred skill repos on GitHub. The skill itself is tiny: it hands off to a shared skill called grilling, which holds the interview rules. grill-me writes no files and keeps no state. The only output is a clearer version of the idea.
Use it when
- You have an idea worth taking seriously but have not worked out what it involves.
- You want an agent to find the decisions you have been making without noticing.
- The subject is not code: pricing, a launch plan, an essay outline.
Skip it when
- You can already specify the thing precisely. There is nothing left to grill.
- The open question can only be answered by seeing something (layout, feel). Build a throwaway prototype instead.
How it works
- The agent maps your idea as a design tree: every decision branches into the decisions that depend on it.
- It asks in rounds. Each round contains every question whose prerequisites are already settled, numbered, with the agent's recommended answer under each one. Replying "yes" accepts the recommendation.
- Your answers settle branches and unlock the next round. A question that depends on something still open waits for a later round.
- Facts are the agent's job: if a question needs something it can look up, it sends a sub-agent to find it instead of asking you. Decisions stay with you.
- The session ends when every branch has been visited, and the agent does nothing with the result until you confirm you reached a shared understanding.
How to install grill-me
Claude Code
claude plugin install mattpocock-skills@claude-plugins-officialInstalls the whole collection and updates itself.
Codex
codex plugin marketplace add mattpocock/skills
codex plugin add mattpocock-skills@mattpocockGemini CLI
gemini skills install https://github.com/mattpocock/skills.git --path skills/productivityCursor, OpenCode, Windsurf and others
npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills -a cursorReplace cursor with your agent, or leave out -a to choose interactively.
Pick one install method per agent. Installing the plugin and the npx copy gives you every skill twice.
Prompts to try
- /grill-me I want to add team accounts to my SaaS
- /grill-me Should I move my blog from WordPress to a static site?
- /grill-me I'm planning a paid newsletter for indie game developers
Tips and gotchas
- Start in a fresh conversation, not on top of a plan an agent already wrote.
- Leave plan mode off. It makes the agent hurry towards a plan when you want it to keep asking.
- Do not just answer "agreed" forty times. The author's own warning: a session with no pushback from you produces a plan you nodded at, not one you decided.
- "I don't know" is a real answer. A question you cannot answer usually means you should prototype, not guess.
- Two hundred questions usually means the scope is too big. Ask the agent to split the work first, then grill each piece.
- Prefer one question at a time? Add "When grilling, ask one question at a time." to your global CLAUDE.md.
- Use your strongest model. Good questions depend on the model knowing how systems break.
FAQ
Why doesn't grill-me start automatically?
Its SKILL.md sets disable-model-invocation: true, so the agent never reaches for it on its own. You start it by typing /grill-me followed by your idea.
How many questions will it ask?
Count rounds, not questions. The author describes forty-odd questions across four rounds as an ordinary session. It ends when no unsettled decision is left.
What is the difference between grill-me and grill-with-docs?
Both run the same interview. grill-me needs no repository and writes nothing. grill-with-docs reads your codebase and records what it learns in GLOSSARY.md and architecture decision records.
Is grill-me free?
Yes. The collection is open source under the MIT license.
Related skills
Superpowers
Makes your agent ask what you want, plan it, test first, and review its own work.
/plugin install superpowers@claude-plugins-officialskill-creator
Anthropic's own skill for writing skills, with tests and benchmarks built in.
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
/plugin install example-skills@anthropic-agent-skillsEverything Claude Code (ECC)
A full engineering system for your agent: plan, test, review, verify, remember.
npx [email protected] setupThis page summarises the project's own SKILL.md and README, checked on 2026-10-16. Star count from GitHub on 2026-10-16. Commands change between releases, so check the repository if one fails. Written by Skillary; not affiliated with Matt Pocock. See how we review skills.