Install the grill-me skill (with grilling)

What it is, and what it is not

grill-me maps your idea as a design tree, where every decision branches into the decisions that hang off it. Each round it asks the whole frontier: every question whose prerequisites you have already settled, so it never asks something that depends on an answer it has not heard. Facts it can look up itself; decisions it puts to you. The subject does not have to be code: a feature, a product direction, a business call or a piece of writing all work.

It is not a code generator, not a plan-mode auto-writer and not a prompt library. It keeps no state and writes no files.

Why grill-me needs grilling

This is the install mistake to avoid. Upstream grill-me is a thin, user-invoked entry point; the interview itself lives in a separate, reusable skill called grilling. Here is the complete grill-me/SKILL.md at the commit on the source card:

---
name: grill-me
description: A relentless interview to sharpen a plan or design.
disable-model-invocation: true
---

Call the Skill tool with "grilling".

If only grill-me is installed, /grill-me has no grilling skill to call and no interview rules to follow. Install both in the same command.

Missing the dependency: npx skills add mattpocock/skills --skill grill-me · Right: npx skills add mattpocock/skills --skill grill-me --skill grilling

Install for your assistant

Commands follow the mattpocock/skills README and the skills CLI documentation, fetched 31 Oct 2026. AgentSkillsDir has not run them yet.

Upstream offers two routes. Pick one per agent: installing both gives you every skill twice.

skills CLI: just these two skills

Copies grill-me and grilling as editable files. Update them by re-running the command or with npx skills update.

• Claude Code

  then /grill-me
  npx skills add mattpocock/skills --skill grill-me --skill grilling -a claude-codeCopy

• Codex

  then /grill-me
  npx skills add mattpocock/skills --skill grill-me --skill grilling -a codexCopy

• Cursor

  then /grill-me
  npx skills add mattpocock/skills --skill grill-me --skill grilling -a cursorCopy

• All your projects (-g)

  then /grill-me
  npx skills add mattpocock/skills --skill grill-me --skill grilling -gCopy

  Without -g the CLI installs into the current project; -g installs into your user directory instead. The CLI asks which agents to target unless you add -a.

Plugin: the whole pack

The plugin route installs every skill in mattpocock/skills, grilling included, and keeps them updated. Use it if you want the rest of the pack too.

• Claude Code plugin (whole pack)

  then /mattpocock-skills:grill-me
  claude plugin install mattpocock-skills@claude-plugins-officialCopy

  Installs every skill in the pack, grilling included, and updates itself. Plugin skills are namespaced, so expect /mattpocock-skills:grill-me; not yet verified by AgentSkillsDir.

• Codex plugin (whole pack)

  then /grill-me
  codex plugin marketplace add mattpocock/skills codex plugin add mattpocock-skills@mattpocockCopy

  README command; updates at Codex startup. The exact invocation name inside Codex has not yet been verified by AgentSkillsDir.

Minimal flow

From the upstream docs; AgentSkillsDir has not run a grill session yet.

1. Install grill-me and grilling together (one command above, or a whole-pack plugin).
2. Open a fresh conversation, not one where an agent already wrote a plan. Leave plan mode off.
3. Type /grill-me followed by your loose idea: a feature, a product direction, a business call, a piece of writing.
4. Answer each round. Every question is numbered and comes with a recommended answer; “yes” accepts it. Push back and say “I don’t know” when it is true.
5. The session ends when the frontier is empty: no open branch left. Nothing is written to disk; the result is a clearer idea.

The round format the grilling skill asks the agent to use (one question shown; a format excerpt, not a real session):

❓ **Q1** - **<question title>**: <question body, might be multiple paragraphs, including multiple choices>

➡️ <your recommended answer>

Getting a useful session

Upstream’s main warning is passivity: answering “agreed” forty times leaves you with the agent’s plan, not yours. Steer the scope, disagree when you do, and treat “I don’t know” as a real answer. Also from the docs:

• Count rounds, not questions. Upstream calls forty-six questions across four rounds an ordinary session.
• Hundreds of questions usually mean the scope is too big: ask the agent to split the work, then grill each piece.
• Some questions cannot be settled by talking (how should this feel?). Stop and build a throwaway prototype first.
• Prefer one question at a time? Upstream suggests adding “When grilling, ask one question at a time.” to your global CLAUDE.md.

This page and the mattpocock-skills page

grill-me is one skill in Matt Pocock’s larger mattpocock/skills repository. For the whole collection, its setup step and the other skills, see the mattpocock-skills entry. This page stays on one job: installing grill-me with grilling and running it. grill-with-docs, the stateful version that reads a codebase, is not covered here.

Before you install

• Both SKILL.md files are plain written instructions. Read them on GitHub before you install; they are short.
• Upstream notes grilling may dispatch a sub-agent to look up facts in your environment instead of asking you. Use it where your agent is allowed to read.
• Listing is not a security review. AgentSkillsDir has not reviewed this code.

FAQ

Related

• Browse all Claude skills in the directory
• Matt Pocock’s skills pack (whole repository)
• Read the official grill-me docs on GitHub

Corrections and suggestions

Spotted something out of date, or want to suggest a skill? Email a correction. To suggest a resource, submit it for manual review.