Grill Me Skills in Codex

grill-me and grill-with-docs are community skills from mattpocock/skills. They make Codex interview you before implementation so vague ideas, hidden assumptions, and important decisions become clear.

Note

The documentation-aware skill is named grill-with-docs, although it is sometimes informally called “grill-me-doc.”

What each skill does

`grill-me`

grill-me runs a focused interview about a plan, design, or idea. Codex asks one question at a time, recommends an answer, and follows each decision until both sides share the same understanding.

Use it when:

the idea is still unclear;
you want assumptions challenged before coding;
you do not need the answers written into project documentation.

`grill-with-docs`

grill-with-docs runs the same interview and also uses domain modeling to record useful results in the repository:

resolved project terminology goes into CONTEXT.md;
important, hard-to-reverse decisions can become Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) under docs/adr/.

Use it for a real software project when the discussion should improve both the plan and the project's long-term documentation. These files are created only when useful, but this skill can modify the repository while the interview is running.

How is this different from Plan mode?

	Grill skills	Codex Plan mode
Type	Reusable community workflow	Built-in Codex mode
Main purpose	Stress-test your thinking through a deliberate interview	Gather context and produce an implementation plan
Question style	One decision at a time, with assumptions actively challenged	Clarifying questions as needed to complete the plan
Repository output	`grill-with-docs` may update `CONTEXT.md` and ADRs	Focuses on planning instead of implementing the change
Best use	The desired behavior or design is still uncertain	The goal is understood and you need a safe execution plan

They are complementary. Use a grill skill to decide what should be built and why, then use Plan mode to define how it should be implemented.

Install for Codex

The wrapper skills depend on grilling; grill-with-docs also depends on domain-modeling. Install all four so both workflows are complete.

Install globally to make them available in every project:

npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills \
    --skill grill-me \
    --skill grill-with-docs \
    --skill grilling \
    --skill domain-modeling \
    --agent codex \
    --global

For a team-shared, repository-specific installation, run the command from the repository root and omit --global:

npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills \
    --skill grill-me \
    --skill grill-with-docs \
    --skill grilling \
    --skill domain-modeling \
    --agent codex

Review third-party skill instructions before installing them. Codex normally detects new skills automatically; restart Codex if they do not appear. Run /skills in the Codex CLI to confirm that they are available.

Usage in Codex

Codex CLI and the IDE extension use $ to explicitly select a skill.

Use grill-me for an idea without documentation changes:

1 2	`$grill-me I want to add offline synchronization to my application. Interview me until the behavior and trade-offs are clear. Do not implement it.`

Use grill-with-docs inside a repository:

1 2	`$grill-with-docs Stress-test my plan to split billing from the main service. Use the existing code and documentation as context. Do not implement the change.`

Answer each question before Codex asks the next one. When the interview reaches shared understanding, review any generated CONTEXT.md or ADR changes with git diff.

Combine it with Plan mode

For a larger change:

Enter Plan mode with /plan.
Invoke $grill-me or $grill-with-docs with the idea.
Complete the interview one question at a time.
Ask Codex to turn the agreed decisions into an implementation plan.
Review the plan, leave Plan mode, and request implementation only when ready.

This combination gives you the grill skill's deeper decision interview and Plan mode's built-in planning boundary.