grill-me
The user holds knowledge the docs and code do not. A grill pulls that knowledge out one question at a time. Grounding each question in what already exists keeps the grill from re-asking an answered point, and the answers land in a target document until new ones stop changing it.
The gaps are where the questions pay. Read the existing material first and locate what it leaves unanswered, then spend the questions there; never burn one on a point the docs already settle.
Steps
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Read what exists, then name the gaps. Read the relevant docs, the ticket, and the code the request touches. List the open questions the material leaves unanswered: the missing constraints, the undefined edge cases, the unstated trade-offs. A grill with no gap list interrogates blindly, so the step ends only once the list of gaps is written down.
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Name the target document. Decide where each answer will land: a spec file, a PRD section, a design doc. The target document is the deliverable, whatever the chat transcript holds. The step ends once the target file path is fixed and open for writing.
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Ask one grounded question, then wait. Pose a single question, grounded in a gap from step 1, citing the doc or code line that motivates it. Wait for the answer before posing the next. A batch lowers the quality of every answer in it, which is why the questions go out one at a time. The step ends when one answer is in hand. Draw the question from the question frameworks.
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Press a vague answer into a concrete one. An abstract answer leaves the spec unwritten. Ask for a number, a concrete example, or a contrast case until the answer pins down a decision. The step ends once the answer states something a reader could build against.
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Record the answer before the next question. Write the answer into the target document the moment it lands, in the user's words where they carry meaning. An unrecorded answer is lost work. The step ends once the document reflects the answer and the next gap is selected.
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Stop at saturation. Watch the document change with each answer. Saturation is the point where new answers stop changing it and the remaining gaps are closed. The grill ends once the document answers its own open questions and no gap from step 1 remains unaddressed.
See also: the question frameworks for the question taxonomy, the tacit-knowledge techniques, the anti-patterns, and a worked example.