pattern-grilling

Pattern: Grilling (elicitation interview loop)

Before acting, interrogate the human: ask pointed questions and keep going until every decision branch is resolved. Closes the user↔agent communication gap that otherwise produces work the user didn’t want. The loop is reusable and composable — other skills invoke it rather than re-implementing question-asking.

Applied by (backlinks)

Matt Pocock — Skills for Real Engineers:

• mp-grilling — the canonical reusable loop.
• mp-grill-me — interview on a plan/design.
• mp-grill-with-docs — grilling that also writes docs.

GSD:

• gsd-discuss-phase — “adaptive questioning” to gather phase context before planning.

Addy Osmani — Agent Skills:

• addy-interview-me — interviews the user to resolve decisions before work begins.

Spec Kit:

• speckit-clarify — iterative Q&A that resolves the [NEEDS CLARIFICATION] markers in the spec.

BMAD:

• bmad-pm · bmad-analyst — the persona facilitator stance: “YOU ARE A FACILITATOR, not a content generator; NEVER generate content without user input.”
• bmad-prd — a Coaching path that interrogates the human to each requirement rather than drafting the doc.

A fifth framework joins the cluster. BMAD’s twist is that grilling is not a dedicated interview skill but the default stance of every planning persona — the agents refuse to invent content, so the whole planning phase is an elicitation dialogue. Spec Kit inverts the usual order: it drafts the spec first (speckit-specify) with ambiguities flagged, then grills to resolve them — versus grilling before the spec exists.

Compound Engineering:

• ce-brainstorm — dialogue that resolves requirements (WHAT) before planning.

gstack:

• gstack-office-hours — YC-Office-Hours reframing with six forcing questions.

Superpowers:

• sp-brainstorming — Socratic one-question-at-a-time refinement with a HARD-GATE before any implementation; the design is presented in sections for approval before it flows into planning.

Agent OS — grilling as the only interaction mode (every command is an AskUserQuestion interview):

• agent-os-shape-spec — structured questions (scope → visuals → references → standards) drive the whole spec, one question at a time.
• agent-os-plan-product — one-question-at-a-time vision/roadmap/tech-stack interview.
• agent-os-discover-standards — 1-2 “why” questions per candidate standard, to capture rationale, not just the rule.

See Also

• stage-align — the stage where this applies.
• pattern-spec-driven-development — what the resolved decisions feed.