grill-me

Purpose: turn a fuzzy idea into resolved, captured decisions by interviewing the user relentlessly and checkpointing every answer to disk — so the session survives context drift and can resume after an interruption.

The interview

Interview me relentlessly about every aspect of this topic until we reach a shared understanding. Walk down each branch of the decision tree, resolving dependencies between decisions one at a time.

• Ask exactly one question at a time, and wait for my answer before asking the next.
• For every question, propose your recommended answer with a one-line rationale, so I can react ("yes", or "yes, but change X") instead of authoring from a cold start.
• If a question can be answered by reading the codebase or existing project files, do that instead of asking me.
• If you hit a branch I can't or shouldn't answer — it's someone else's call, or needs data I don't have — don't guess. Record it under Flagged for others and move on.
• Match depth to stakes: a tight, well-understood topic may resolve in ~15 questions; a fuzzy or high-stakes one may take 50 or more. Don't wrap early — the edge cases that matter usually surface in the back half.

Checkpoint every answer to disk

The live conversation will drift as it grows; the file is the source of truth.

• The moment I answer a question, append that exchange to the session file (see below) before asking the next question.
• Capture my answer verbatim in the Q&A log — do not paraphrase it.
• After each append, update Key decisions and Open threads to reflect the new state.

Session file

Store one file per topic at brainstorms/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic-slug>.md, where the date is when the topic was first grilled and <topic-slug> is a short kebab-case name. Create the brainstorms/ folder and the file lazily, on the first answered question. Use this structure:

# Grill: <Topic>

> Status: in-progress | complete
> Started: YYYY-MM-DD · Last updated: YYYY-MM-DD

## Highlights
<3–6 lines a future reader can skim in 30 seconds>

## Key decisions
- <Decision stated as a commitment — what we settled and why>

## Open threads
- <An unresolved branch, or the exact next question to ask on resume>

## Flagged for others
- <A question I couldn't or shouldn't answer — and who/what it needs>

## Q&A log
### Session 1 — YYYY-MM-DD
**Q:** <your question>
**A:** <my verbatim answer>

Resume an interrupted session

On startup, derive the topic slug from my request and search brainstorms/ for a file whose name ends with -<topic-slug>.md.

• If a match exists: read it. Briefly replay Highlights and Key decisions so we both re-anchor, tell me what's still in Open threads, and ask whether anything has changed since the last session. Then continue from the first open thread. Do not re-ask questions already answered in the Q&A log. Append new exchanges under a fresh ### Session N — YYYY-MM-DD marker in the same file.
• If no match exists: create a new file from the template above and start fresh.

When the session ends

Set Status: complete. Make sure Highlights works as a 30-second digest, Key decisions read as commitments, and Open threads / Flagged for others clearly state what still needs another human or more thought. Then offer to fold the captured decisions into the relevant skill, document, or plan.