grill

What the source does

• FilesystemNone observedNo reads or writes in the source
• NetworkNone observedNo outbound calls in the source
• ShellNone observedNo commands run in the source
• DependenciesPinnedNothing floats
• SecretsNone foundNo keys in source

Five audit layers

Gates applied: no behavioural pass.

Audit 0.4.1 · source sha 4ddfda34b42a · 24 Oct 2026Report an issue or request a re-scan

• Publisherjuliusbrussee GitHub userOwner of the repository this skill is read from
• Source folderjuliusbrussee/cavekit/skills/grillThe exact folder we audited
• LicenceMITAs the repository states it
• Commit pinned for this verdict4ddfda34b42aA new audit runs when the source changes
• Repository statusNot archivedLast push 70 days ago
• Sandboxed runNot runSkills are read, not executed; layer L4 is skipped

Its description: Calibrated interrogation of a fuzzy idea before it becomes a spec. Asks one question at a time, recommends an answer, and lands each answer in §G (goal) or §C (constraints) — unknowns parked as `?` items, never guessed.…

---
name: grill
description: |
  Calibrated interrogation of a fuzzy idea before it becomes a spec. Asks one
  question at a time, recommends an answer, and lands each answer in §G (goal)
  or §C (constraints) — unknowns parked as `?` items, never guessed. The
  cheapest place to kill a bad idea is before §T exists. Triggers when the user
  has a vague idea, says "grill me", "stress-test this", "challenge my plan",
  "interview me before I spec", or invokes /ck:grill. Defers the actual write to
  the spec skill.
---

# grill — sharpen idea before spec

**One question at a time. Every answer lands in a § or gets parked `?`. Never guess a constraint into existence.**

Plan-then-execute guesses the fuzzy parts & builds the wrong thing.
Grill drags the fuzz into §G/§C *before* a single §T row exists.
A bad assumption caught here costs one question. Caught in §B it costs a bug.

## WHEN TO GRILL

- Idea is one sentence & you can feel the holes.
- Multiple readings of the goal exist & you are about to pick one silently.
- Before `/spec new` on anything non-trivial.
- User asks to be challenged / stress-tested.

Skip for a typo or a one-line fix. Grill scales to uncertainty, ⊥ to ego.

## CALIBRATE FIRST

One opening read, not a quiz:
1. How well does user know this domain? (sets question depth)
2. How locked is the idea? (exploring vs committed)
3. Pressure wanted: light / normal / brutal.

Match it. Brutal grilling on a half-formed idea just demoralizes. Light
grilling on a committed plan misses the load-bearing flaw.

## QUESTION LADDER

Climb in order. Each rung, ask **one** question, **recommend** an answer, wait.

1. **Goal** — what must the code *do*, in one line? (→ §G)
2. **Done** — how do we know it works? name the observable. (→ §C / future §V)
3. **Boundary** — what is explicitly out of scope? (→ §C)
4. **Lock** — what tech/lib/pattern is non-negotiable? what is forbidden? (→ §C)
5. **Surface** — what does the outside world touch — cmd, api, file, env? (→ §I)
6. **Edge** — the one input that breaks the happy path? (→ future §V)
7. **Unknown** — what do we *not* know yet? (→ park as `?` §C bullet)

Stop climbing the moment the spec would be unambiguous. Do not ask all seven by reflex.

## ANSWER FORMAT

Each question carries a recommended answer so the user can grunt "yes" & move:

> Q: auth — session cookie or JWT?
> rec: JWT — stateless, you named horizontal scaling as a §C.
> (a) JWT  (b) cookie  (c) something else?

## HANDOFF

When done, emit a compact block — goal line, constraint bullets, surfaced
unknowns as `?` — and hand to the **spec** skill to write §G/§C. Grill proposes;
spec is the sole mutator. Never write SPEC.md directly.

## WHEN TO STOP

Done when ALL hold:
- §G is one line, one reading, zero "or maybe".
- §C covers every non-negotiable the user stated or implied.
- Every blocking unknown is either answered or parked as an explicit `?`.

Unresolved blocking unknown that needs the outside world → recommend `/research`, not a guess.

## BOUNDARIES

- ⊥ make product decisions for the user. Recommend, never decide.
- ⊥ write SPEC.md. Hand structured answers to spec.
- ⊥ ask in bulk. One question, one recommendation, wait.
- ⊥ grill a trivial change. Right-size or skip.

Excerpt, first 3,246 characters of SKILL.md, verbatim from the audited commit. It is text from someone else’s repository, quoted so you can judge it before your agent reads it.

git clone https://github.com/juliusbrussee/cavekit
git -C cavekit checkout 4ddfda34b42a

Works in

1. 2026-10-24
   ✓SAFE B 89 / 100

   first audit · source 4ddfda34b42a

Questions about grill

• github.com/juliusbrussee/cavekit/tree/main/skills/grill — the audited source at commit 4ddfda34b42a and every finding aboveObserved · 24 Oct 2026

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