oracle-grillme

Grill Me

Relentless questioning of your plan against the project's domain model, sharpening terminology and updating documentation (CONTEXT.md, ADRs) inline as decisions crystallise.

When to Use

• Stress-testing a plan — "I want to add a refund flow to the Order service"
• Clarifying fuzzy language — "We're calling it 'account' but is that a Customer or a User?"
• Onboarding to a domain — "Walk me through how the Billing context relates to Ordering"
• Before writing specs — Ensuring the domain language is solid before spec-research begins
• After code review — "The PR introduces 'cancellation' but our glossary says..."

When NOT to Use

• Simple implementation questions — Use oracle-challenge or oracle-architect instead
• Debugging — Use code-debug
• Testing strategy — Use oracle-testing
• Already in spec workflow — Use spec-research + oracle-architect for domain discovery during the spec process

How It Works

<interview-loop>

Interview me relentlessly about every aspect of this plan until we reach a shared understanding. Walk down each branch of the design tree, resolving dependencies between decisions one-by-one. For each question, provide your recommended answer.

Ask the questions one at a time, waiting for feedback on each question before continuing.

If a question can be answered by exploring the codebase, explore the codebase instead.

</interview-loop>

Domain Awareness

Discovering Context

Most repos have a single context:

/
├── CONTEXT.md
├── docs/
│   └── adr/
│       ├── 0001-event-sourced-orders.md
│       └── 0002-postgres-for-write-model.md
└── src/

If a CONTEXT-MAP.md exists at the root, the repo has multiple contexts. The map points to where each one lives:

/
├── CONTEXT-MAP.md
├── docs/
│   └── adr/                          ← system-wide decisions
├── src/
│   ├── ordering/
│   │   ├── CONTEXT.md
│   │   └── docs/adr/                 ← context-specific decisions
│   └── billing/
│       ├── CONTEXT.md
│       └── docs/adr/

Create files lazily — only when you have something to write. If no CONTEXT.md exists, create one when the first term is resolved. If no docs/adr/ exists, create it when the first ADR is needed.

During the Session

Challenge Against the Glossary

When the user uses a term that conflicts with the existing language in CONTEXT.md, call it out immediately.

"Your glossary defines 'cancellation' as X, but you seem to mean Y — which is it?"

Sharpen Fuzzy Language

When the user uses vague or overloaded terms, propose a precise canonical term.

"You're saying 'account' — do you mean the Customer or the User? Those are different things."

Discuss Concrete Scenarios

When domain relationships are being discussed, stress-test them with specific scenarios. Invent scenarios that probe edge cases and force the user to be precise about the boundaries between concepts.

Cross-Reference With Code

When the user states how something works, check whether the code agrees. If you find a contradiction, surface it:

"Your code cancels entire Orders, but you just said partial cancellation is possible — which is right?"

Update CONTEXT.md Inline

When a term is resolved, update CONTEXT.md right there. Don't batch these up — capture them as they happen. Use the format in [references/CONTEXT-FORMAT.md](./references/CONTEXT-FORMAT.md).

CONTEXT.md should be totally devoid of implementation details. Do not treat CONTEXT.md as a spec, a scratch pad, or a repository for implementation decisions. It is a glossary and nothing else.

Offer ADRs Sparingly

Only offer to create an ADR when all three are true:

1. Hard to reverse — the cost of changing your mind later is meaningful
2. Surprising without context — a future reader will wonder "why did they do it this way?"
3. The result of a real trade-off — there were genuine alternatives and you picked one for specific reasons

If any of the three is missing, skip the ADR. Use the format in [references/ADR-FORMAT.md](./references/ADR-FORMAT.md).

Usage Examples

Stress-Test a New Feature

/grillme "I want to add a refund flow to the Order service"

"Before we go further — your glossary defines 'Order' as a completed purchase. A refund implies the Order is no longer complete. Is 'refund' a state on Order, or a new concept entirely?"

Clarify Ambiguous Terms

/grillme "We need to handle 'account' deletions"

"You said 'account' — your CONTEXT.md has both Customer and User. Which one are we deleting, and what happens to their Orders?"

Validate Against Existing Decisions

/grillme "I'm switching the write model from Postgres to DynamoDB"

"ADR-0002 says we chose Postgres for the write model because of ACID requirements. Have those requirements changed, or is this a new trade-off?"

Onboard to a Domain

/grillme "Explain how Billing relates to Ordering"

"Ordering emits OrderPlaced events. Billing consumes them to create Invoices. But your CONTEXT.md says Invoice is a request for payment — who decides when payment is actually processed?"

Relationship to Other Skills

| Skill | Use When | |-------|----------| | oracle-grillme | Questioning domain assumptions, sharpening terminology, updating docs inline | | oracle-challenge | Critically evaluating a technical approach or decision | | oracle-architect | Designing components, data models, API contracts during spec-research | | spec-research | Structured discovery + architecture → spec.md (use grillme before this to solidify language) |

Key distinction:

• oracle-challenge = "Is this approach valid?" (critical evaluation)
• oracle-grillme = "What do we mean by these words?" (domain interrogation)