Make Claude Code grill you before building
Matt Pocock's `/grill-me` skill walks down the design tree question by question, surfacing every hidden assumption before a single line is written.
- Type: Prompt
- Tags: Coding Agent Hacks, Intermediate, Claude Code
- Updated: 2026-10-01
Prompt
Matt Pocock's `/grill-me` skill walks down the design tree question by question, surfacing every hidden assumption before a single line is written. By default Claude jumps straight to building, then 20 minutes in you discover it missed half your requirements. The `/grill-me` skill (three lines!) flips this: it interviews you relentlessly about every aspect of the plan, suggesting answers where things are obvious and drilling down into the tough calls. Run it before starting any non-trivial feature. Implementation example: # Install npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills/grill-me # Or hand-roll: .claude/skills/grill-me/SKILL.md """ Interview me relentlessly about every aspect of this plan until we reach a shared understanding. Walk down each branch of the design tree resolving dependencies between decisions one by one. If a question can be answered by exploring the codebase, explore the codebase instead. For each question, provide your recommended answer. """
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