grilling
Stress-test any plan before you build it
Plans often fail because hidden assumptions go unchallenged. This skill makes the AI relentlessly interview you about every aspect of your design, surfacing gaps and resolving dependencies one question at a time.
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Test it
Using "grilling". Grill me on my plan to add dark mode to my React app.
Expected outcome:
What styling approach are you considering — CSS variables, a theme provider library, or something else? I recommend CSS variables with a ThemeProvider context because it keeps the toggle logic minimal and works well with SSR.
[waits for user response before continuing]
Using "grilling". I'm planning to switch from REST to GraphQL. Grill me.
Expected outcome:
What's the primary motivation — reducing over-fetching, simplifying the client, or something else? I'd recommend starting with over-fetching as the anchor because it makes the strongest cost case for the migration.
[waits for user response before continuing]
Security Audit
SafeStatic analysis flagged 3 instances of 'Weak cryptographic algorithm' at SKILL.md:3 and SKILL.md:6. After manual review, all 3 are FALSE POSITIVES — the file contains only plain markdown text (a skill description and instructions for an interview workflow) with no executable code, no cryptographic operations, and no security-relevant patterns. The file is 11 lines of natural language instructions with no scripts, network calls, filesystem access, or external commands.
Detected Patterns
Quality Score
What You Can Build
Review an architecture decision
Stress-test a proposed system architecture before writing code by having the AI challenge every assumption and dependency.
Validate a product roadmap
Walk through a product plan branch by branch, resolving sequencing and dependency questions one at a time.
Pressure-test a side project idea
Use the grilling workflow to find weak spots in a hobby or side project plan before investing time building it.
Try These Prompts
Grill me on my plan to add a user notification system to my app.
I'm designing a microservices architecture for a logistics platform. Grill me on every aspect until we reach a shared understanding.
Grill me about my migration plan from PostgreSQL to MongoDB, focusing on how each decision depends on the others.
Grill me about my plan to refactor the authentication module. Explore the codebase first before asking questions.
Best Practices
- Start with a clear, specific plan statement so the AI knows what to grill you about
- Answer each question honestly — the value comes from surfacing weak assumptions, not defending them
- Use the recommended answers as a starting point, but make your own final decision
- Allow codebase exploration when relevant — it reduces the number of questions you need to answer manually
Avoid
- Do not use this skill for tasks that require immediate execution or code generation
- Do not expect multiple questions at once — the skill is intentionally one-question-at-a-time
- Do not skip providing a recommended answer when asking the AI to continue, as it loses the coaching value