grill-me

Grill Me

Grill the user before building. Reach shared understanding, expose contradictions, and leave durable docs or code pointers that reduce future re-explanation.

Operating loop

1. Start by finding available grounding:
   • User-provided docs, PRDs, specs, tickets, diagrams, transcripts.
   • Existing codebase files, tests, schema/migrations, README, and package scripts.
   • Domain docs such as CONTEXT.md, UBIQUITOUS_LANGUAGE.md, docs/, architecture/, adr/, or decisions/.
2. If a question can be answered from docs or code, inspect those artifacts instead of asking.
3. Ask one question at a time.
4. For each question:
   • State the tension or unknown.
   • Give the recommended answer first.
   • Offer 2-4 concrete options only when the choice is real.
   • Name what code or docs evidence supports or contradicts the recommendation.
5. Walk dependency-first: resolve upstream concepts, relationships, ownership, lifecycle, state, permissions, failure modes, data contracts, and naming before implementation details.
6. Keep grilling until the next build step is unambiguous or the remaining blockers require human product judgment.

Docs-aware grilling

Before or during the interview, look for a bounded-context document:

• Prefer CONTEXT.md if present.
• If absent, use the smallest relevant existing doc set and propose creating or updating CONTEXT.md when shared language emerges.
• In monorepos, identify the bounded context first. Do not force a single global glossary if contexts use different language.

During grilling:

• Challenge fuzzy terms against existing glossary/docs.
• Surface terminology collisions, such as one term being used for two concepts or two terms for one concept.
• Ground terms in code: types, schemas, route names, migrations, component names, test names, and folder boundaries.
• Convert verbose phrasing into precise domain language.
• Use concrete scenarios and edge cases to test each term.
• Capture unresolved terms as open questions, not fake definitions.