Improve AI Answers with /grill-me

Turn vague AI prompts into precise plans using Matt Pocock's grilling skills.

Introduction

30 Second Summary

You tell your AI coding agent to build a feature, and it builds something you never asked for. The gap between what you meant and what the agent understood is where most AI-generated code goes wrong.

In this project, you will install Matt Pocock's grilling skills and try /grill-me inside a real repo. Then you will use /grill-with-docs to save the decisions your agent should remember.

What You'll Build

You open a real project, watch your agent turn a vague request into focused questions, and see the resulting vocabulary appear inside the repo.

By the end of this project, you'll have:

Visible grilling commands in your coding agent, ready for future projects.
A repo-based interview where /grill-me turns one feature request into questions you can steer.
A persistent project glossary in CONTEXT.md that future agent sessions can read.
Secret Mission: Start a blank agent session and test whether CONTEXT.md can reconstruct the notification model and produce an implementation brief.

Are there any prerequisites?

You need access to a supported AI coding agent. The starter-repo path uses Git, while the skills CLI installation route requires Node.js 20 or later.

Before We Start

Before you jump in, take a moment to lock in what you're about to learn and why it matters.

Install Matt Pocock's Skills

Set Up the Grilling Skills

Your AI coding agent needs the grilling skills before it can question vague requests. This step gets the commands into your agent without starting a full session.

You will choose the installation route for your agent. A command check at the end confirms that the one-time setup skill and both grilling commands are available.

In this step, get ready to:

Install Matt Pocock's skills on your AI coding agent.
Confirm that the repository setup command appears in your agent.
Confirm that both grilling commands appear in your agent.

Open your terminal

Press Cmd+Space (macOS) or the Windows key (Windows) to open system search.
Type Terminal (macOS) or Windows Terminal (Windows).
Press Enter to open it.

A terminal window ready to run the skills installation commands.

You will see a command prompt with a blinking cursor. Keep this window open for the installation.

Install the skills for your agent

The installation route depends on your coding agent. Pick one tab because installing both routes creates duplicate skills.

Claude Code

Install the managed Claude Code plugin by running this command:

claude plugins install mattpocock-skills

The download can take about a minute. You should see confirmation that the plugin was installed.

Plugin not installing?

Confirm that Claude Code is installed and your internet connection is active. Then run the command again.

Help me install the Matt Pocock skills plugin in Claude Code.

Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, or Gemini CLI

This route uses the skills CLI and requires Node.js 20 or later.

Check your Node.js version by running this command:

node -v

✔️ I see v20 or higher

Your Node.js version is ready for the skills installer.

ⓧ I see an older version

Open the Node.js download page.
Install Node.js 20 or later using the installer for your operating system.
Run node -v again in a new terminal window.

ⓧ Command not found

Open the Node.js download page.
Install Node.js 20 or later using the installer for your operating system.
Open a new terminal window after the installation finishes.
Run node -v to confirm that you now see version 20 or later.

Start the interactive installer by running this command:

npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills

Select grill-me, grill-with-docs, grilling, domain-modeling, triage, and setup-matt-pocock-skills when the skill list appears.
Select the coding agent you use when the agent list appears.

The skills installer with the grilling and supporting engineering skills selected.

You should see confirmation that the selected skills were installed.

Installer not completing?

Confirm that node -v reports version 20 or later. Then rerun the installer in a new terminal window.

Help me troubleshoot the skills installer.

Confirm the commands appear

Start Claude Code from your terminal by running this command:

claude

If you installed the skills in Cursor, open Cursor instead.
Start a blank conversation instead of reopening an earlier chat.

A blank coding-agent conversation ready to check the newly installed commands.

If Claude Code is already open, clear its current conversation with /clear.
Type /setup-matt without sending it.

You should see /setup-matt-pocock-skills in the available command suggestions. This command configures each repository before you use the engineering skills there.

Replace the typed text with /grill without sending it.

You should see /grill-me and /grill-with-docs in the available command suggestions.

The command menu confirms that /grill-me and /grill-with-docs are available.

Commands not appearing?

Restart your agent so it reloads newly installed skills. If the commands still do not appear, rerun the installation route you chose.

Why are the grilling commands missing from my agent?

Your agent can now find both grilling commands. Next, you will try /grill-me inside a real project.

Run Your First Grilling Session

Try /grill-me in a Real Project

Your agent can now find the grilling commands. The quickest way to understand /grill-me is to use it on a change that could exist in a real project.

You can use the Team Tasks starter repo or bring an existing repo of your own. Both paths lead to the same short experiment: one round of questions and one chance to steer the agent.

In this step, get ready to:

Open the Team Tasks starter repo or an existing repo of your own.
Configure Matt Pocock's engineering skills for the repository.
Run /grill-me on one feature request.

Choose a project and start grilling

The starter path gives everyone the same project and request. The own-repo path lets you test the technique on work you already care about.

Use the Team Tasks starter repo

Team Tasks is a small app with users and an event log, but no notifications. You will ask the agent to explore that missing feature.

Open a new terminal window by pressing Cmd+N (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+N (Windows).

A second terminal window keeps the starter-repo setup separate from your existing agent session.

Move to your Desktop by running this command:

cd ~/Desktop

The terminal is now on the Desktop, where the starter repository will be easy to find.

Download the GitHub starter repo and enter its folder by running these commands:

git clone https://github.com/nextwork-projects/grilling-starter.git
cd grilling-starter

The Git clone output confirms that the Team Tasks starter repository downloaded to your Desktop.

Confirm the repo downloaded by running this command:

ls

The repository listing shows README.md, server.js, and src/, confirming that the starter files are present.

You should see README.md, server.js, and src/ in the output.

Before you design notifications, run Team Tasks so you can see the product your decisions will shape. The app requires Node.js 20 or later.

Keep using the second terminal inside the grilling-starter folder.

Start the Team Tasks app by running this command:

npm start

This command keeps the terminal busy while the local server runs. Leave the window open until you finish previewing the app.

Open http://localhost:3000 in your web browser.

The Team Tasks sign-in screen is running locally at http://localhost:3000.

Choose one of the sample users to sign in.

You should see the Team Tasks workspace with sample users and tasks. There are no notifications yet, which gives your grilling session a real design gap to explore.

The Team Tasks workspace provides a real app with users and tasks, but no notification feature yet.

Local app not opening?

Confirm that the terminal still shows the server running. If npm start reports a Node.js error, check that node -v reports version 20 or later.

Help me open Team Tasks on localhost.

Return to the second terminal window where Team Tasks is running.
Press Ctrl+C to stop the app.
Keep this terminal window open for the next instruction.

Use the first terminal

Return to the first terminal window where Claude Code is already running.
Move Claude Code into the starter repo by entering this command:

/cd ~/Desktop/grilling-starter

Approve the workspace trust prompt if Claude Code shows one.
Confirm that you can see Claude Code's input prompt.

Use the second terminal

Stay in the second terminal window after stopping Team Tasks.
Start Claude Code inside the grilling-starter folder by running this command:

claude

Confirm that you can see Claude Code's input prompt.

Use a desktop agent

Return to your desktop coding agent.
Click Open Folder.
Navigate to your Desktop.
Select the grilling-starter folder.
Click Open.
Start a blank conversation in the agent's chat panel.

Configure the skills for this repo

The engineering skills store repository-specific rules before they create issues or documentation. Run this setup once inside each repository you use with them.

Start the repository setup by sending this command to your agent:

/setup-matt-pocock-skills

Under Tracker, select Local markdown (Recommended).

The repository setup uses Local markdown (Recommended) as its tracker.

Under Labels, select Yes (Recommended).
Under Config file, select CLAUDE.md.
Open Submit.
Review the selected setup options.
Submit the configuration.
Approve the generated configuration after your agent shows its draft.

You should see confirmation that the repository setup is complete. The agent can now read its issue-tracker, triage-label, and domain-document rules from the repo.

Start the first grilling session by sending this request to your agent:

/grill-me We need to add notifications to the app. Users should be notified when important things happen.

The first /grill-me request starts a structured interview about the app's missing notification feature.

Starter repo not opening?

Confirm that Git is installed and that the grilling-starter folder does not already exist on your Desktop.

Help me open the Team Tasks starter repo.

Use my own repo

Use this path when you already have a repo with a feature, refactor, or design question worth exploring.

Use your agent's Open Folder control to open an existing project repo.
Write the change you want to explore here: your feature request.
Start a blank conversation in your agent's chat panel.

Configure the skills for this repo

The engineering skills store repository-specific rules before they create issues or documentation. Run this setup once inside each repository you use with them.

Start the repository setup by sending this command to your agent:

/setup-matt-pocock-skills

Under Tracker, select Local markdown (Recommended).
Under Labels, select Yes (Recommended).
Under Config file, select CLAUDE.md.
Open Submit.
Review the selected setup options.
Submit the configuration.
Approve the generated configuration after your agent shows its draft.

You should see confirmation that the repository setup is complete. The agent can now read its issue-tracker, triage-label, and domain-document rules from the repo.

Start the first grilling session by sending this request to your agent:

/grill-me [[FEATURE_REQUEST="your feature request"]]

What are frontier questions?

The agent maps your request as a design tree. It asks only the frontier questions whose earlier decisions are ready to settle.

Each question includes a recommendation. Your job is to accept it, challenge it, or add context that the repo cannot reveal on its own.

Steer one round

Read the recommendation under each question in the first round.
Answer each question in that round with your decision.
Challenge at least one recommendation if it does not match your goal.
Send your answers to the agent.

The agent uses your answers to calculate the next frontier. You should see a new round whose questions build on the decisions you just made.

Questions not appearing in rounds?

If you see a wall of questions without recommendations, restart the session and confirm that the grilling skill is installed alongside grill-me.

Help me fix the question format in my grilling session.

You have seen how /grill-me turns one vague request into decisions you can steer. Those decisions still live only in this conversation, so the next step moves them into your repo.

Write Docs While You Grill with /grill-with-docs

Capture Decisions with /grill-with-docs

You used /grill-me to turn a feature request into better questions. The answers improved the conversation, but they did not create a lasting record in your repo.

Now you will run /grill-with-docs in the same project. It saves agreed vocabulary in CONTEXT.md so future agents and teammates do not have to reconstruct your decisions from an old chat.

In this step, get ready to:

Return to the repository you configured in the previous step.
Run /grill-with-docs on the same feature request.
Inspect the vocabulary saved in CONTEXT.md.

Return to your configured repo

The setup from Step 2 is stored in the repository. Keep using the same repo and coding agent so /grill-with-docs can reuse those settings.

I used the Team Tasks starter repo

Return to the coding agent session you used in the previous step.
Confirm that the session is still open inside the grilling-starter repository.

I used my own repo

Return to the coding agent session you used in the previous step.
Confirm that the session is still open inside your existing project repository.

Run the persistent interview

/grill-with-docs is useful when a feature depends on vocabulary that future work must interpret consistently. It runs the same design interview and writes settled terms as they crystallize, giving later sessions durable context instead of a transcript to search.

I used the Team Tasks starter repo

Start the documented grilling session by sending this request to your agent:

/grill-with-docs We need to add notifications to the app. Users should be notified when important things happen.

I used my own repo

Start the documented grilling session with the request you saved in the last step:

/grill-with-docs [[FEATURE_REQUEST="your feature request"]]

The /grill-with-docs request begins the interview while preserving settled vocabulary in the repository.

Answer the frontier questions as they appear.
Accept recommendations that match your goal.
Challenge recommendations that would take the project in the wrong direction.
Continue until the agent says at least one domain term has crystallized.

Once the first term crystallizes, you should see a CONTEXT.md file appear in the repo.

CONTEXT.md appears in the project as soon as the first domain term crystallizes.

What does CONTEXT.md preserve?

CONTEXT.md is the repo's shared glossary. In Team Tasks, it might define exactly what counts as an important event or which user is the notification recipient.

Future agents and teammates can read those definitions before planning or changing code. Everyone starts from the same meaning instead of guessing from the original request or searching an old chat.

A decision becomes an Architecture Decision Record under docs/adr/ only when it is hard to reverse, surprising without context, and a real trade-off. Most sessions create no ADRs because the glossary is enough.

Inspect the saved context

Open Finder (macOS) or File Explorer (Windows).
Open the grilling-starter folder on your Desktop if you used Team Tasks.
Open your existing project folder instead if you used your own repo.
Double-click CONTEXT.md to open it in your default text editor.

CONTEXT.md records the notification vocabulary and definitions agreed during the grilling session.

Find one term that came directly from your grilling answers.
Confirm that its definition matches the decision you made.

That term now survives beyond the conversation. Any future agent working in this repo can read the same shared vocabulary before changing the code.

CONTEXT.md not appearing?

Confirm that both the grilling and domain-modeling skills are installed. A good interview with no file output usually means domain-modeling did not load.

Why is CONTEXT.md missing from my repo?

You have moved your decisions out of a temporary chat and into the repo itself. Your next agent session can begin with the vocabulary you already settled.

Secret mission

Test a Fresh-Agent Handoff

A project glossary only matters if a new agent can use it without seeing the conversation that created it. Start a blank session, ask the agent to reconstruct the notification model from the repo, then turn that understanding into an implementation brief.

Clean Up Your Resources

This project runs entirely locally with free, open-source tools, so there are no ongoing costs. Decide whether to keep your resources, pause them to come back later, or delete them entirely.

Resources you used:

Matt Pocock's grilling skills installed through the Claude Code plugin or the skills CLI.
The grilling-starter folder on your Desktop, if you chose the starter-repo path.

Keep everything running

No action needed. Choose this if you plan to keep using the grilling skills in your daily workflow.

Keep the skills installed for future agent sessions.
Keep CONTEXT.md and any ADRs in the repo so future agents can read them.
Keep the Team Tasks starter folder if you want another practice repo.

Pause - I'll come back to this later

Nothing from this project runs in the background. Your installed skills and repo files remain idle until you use them again.

Close your coding agent sessions.
Keep the repo files on disk for your next session.

Delete - I don't want to use this again

Remove the installed skills and the optional starter repo if you no longer want them. You can reinstall the skills later using the same commands from Step 1.

Remove the installed skills

Claude Code plugin

Uninstall the plugin from your terminal by running this command:

claude plugin uninstall mattpocock-skills

You should see confirmation that the plugin was removed.

Skills CLI

The remover is interactive, so it will show your installed skills and ask which ones to delete.

Open the skills remover by running this command:

npx skills remove

Select grill-me, grill-with-docs, grilling, domain-modeling, and setup-matt-pocock-skills.
Confirm the removal when prompted.

You should see confirmation that the selected skills were removed.

Delete the starter repo if used

Deleting the starter folder removes only your local practice copy. Skip this part if you used your own repo.

macOS

Delete grilling-starter from your Desktop by running this command:

rm -rf ~/Desktop/grilling-starter

You should no longer see grilling-starter on your Desktop.

Windows

Delete grilling-starter from your Desktop by running this command:

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$HOME\Desktop\grilling-starter"

You should no longer see grilling-starter on your Desktop.

Nice Work!

Great work! You have installed the grilling skills, tested them in a real project, and saved shared vocabulary inside the repo.

You've learned how to:

Set up the grilling skills and confirmed that /grill-me and /grill-with-docs are available.
Used a real project request to experience frontier questions and steer the agent's recommendations.
Created a persistent project glossary in CONTEXT.md for future agent sessions.
Secret Mission: Proved that a fresh agent could reconstruct the notification model from CONTEXT.md and create an implementation brief.

Ready to quiz yourself?