Grill With Docs

What it does

The selected SKILL.md is deliberately short: it delegates to the collection’s grilling and domain-modeling disciplines. The interview follows a decision tree, asking together only questions whose prerequisites are already settled. Recommendations accompany the questions, while environment facts should be researched rather than put back on the user. Domain modeling supplies precise vocabulary, concrete scenarios and inline documentation. This is a user-invoked orchestration skill, not a standalone implementation workflow.

When to use it

• A feature brief contains many dependent decisions.
• Repeated planning sessions disagree about the meaning of core terms.
• A team wants durable reasoning for a consequential product or architecture choice.

Step-by-step workflow

1. Load the grilling and domain-modeling companions along with existing project docs.
2. Map the unresolved decisions and identify questions that are ready now.
3. Ask a numbered round with clear recommendations and wait for the answers.
4. Update definitions and appropriate decision records as agreements emerge, then recompute the next round.
5. Confirm shared understanding once no unresolved branch remains before starting implementation.

Example request

Use grill-with-docs to clarify a team invitation feature. Establish what organization, workspace, member and guest mean in our project. Explore invitation expiry, an email already linked to another account and removal of the inviter. Ask only questions whose prerequisites are settled in each round. Research existing behavior from code. Update the glossary as terms become precise and offer an ADR only for a durable trade-off. Finish with the agreed decisions; do not implement yet.

Worked example

Whether an expired invitation can be renewed may depend on who owns the invitation and whether a workspace still exists. Asking every downstream question at once encourages guessed answers. A structured session settles ownership first, then asks the newly unblocked lifecycle questions. If guest and member have distinct permissions, those definitions belong in the glossary immediately. A consequential tenancy decision may merit an ADR; the wording of a single button usually does not.

What you get

A resolved decision tree, consistent terminology and project documents reflecting the agreements reached during the interview.

How to evaluate the result

• Verify dependent questions were asked after their prerequisites were answered.
• Compare glossary changes with the user’s actual decisions.
• Confirm implementation has not begun before shared understanding is established.

What you need

User availability for the interview, the grilling and domain-modeling companion skills, project documents and source access. Host support for delegated fact-finding may be needed.

Setup and activation

The publisher documents plugin setup for Claude Code, Codex and Copilot, and manual Agent Skills setup for Gemini CLI and other clients. Choose one distribution method per client to avoid duplicate skills. The engineering collection expects project-specific tracker, triage-label and document-location settings from setup-matt-pocock-skills. Keep referenced companion skills and files available. This catalogue review does not install or run them; scan the exact source before any later installation. Client tools, permissions and subagent support still need separate validation.

Limits and considerations

This wrapper relies on its companion instructions; copying only its tiny SKILL.md loses the workflow. It deliberately waits for decisions and final shared understanding. It should not turn every conversation into an interview or treat unanswered questions as approval.

Related workflows

• Use prototype for a specific unresolved interaction or state-model question.
• Use to-spec after the interview to capture the agreed feature.

License and reuse

MIT at repository level (Copyright 2026 Matt Pocock). Preserve the copyright and permission notice when redistributing substantial source material; inspect any separately licensed dependencies or assets.

Further reading

• Publisher README: client setup and companion skills
• Reviewed SKILL.md (immutable commit)
• Reviewed MIT license