Pi Grill Me

A pi extension for Socratic planning sessions. It keeps a shared-understanding checkpoint, asks one focused question at a time, offers Tab-cyclable answer alternatives, forces a mandatory output-selection phase at the end of the interview, and blocks implementation mutations until output production is explicitly approved.

Install

pi install git:github.com/majorgilles/pi-grill-me

For a one-off run without adding it to settings:

pi -e git:github.com/majorgilles/pi-grill-me

Commands

• /grill <topic> — start a grill session.
• /grill — infer the topic from the current conversation and ask for confirmation/editing.
• /grill stop — stop grill mode.
• /checkpoint [edit|chat] — show the current checkpoint in an overlay by default; use edit to edit or chat to print it.
• /grill checkpoint [edit|chat] — same checkpoint controls from the /grill command.
• /grill status — show current grill state.
• /grill intensity gentle|standard|hard|adversarial — set Socratic intensity.
• /grill intent auto|plan|learn|research|content|decide — set the intent preset.
• /grill output <outputs> — set one or more preferred output formats, such as github-issues, design-doc, readme, adr, prd, summary, or design-doc,github-issues. This is a preference only; Grill Me still explicitly asks/gets approval before producing outputs.
• /grill research off|ask|auto — configure whether the assistant should inspect/research while grilling.

Behavior

While active, the extension injects Grill Me instructions into the agent context and exposes these assistant tools:

• grill_set_alternatives
• grill_update_checkpoint
• grill_enter_output_selection_phase
• grill_finish_output_selection_phase
• grill_enter_output_phase
• grill_finish_output_phase

During interview mode it blocks edit, write, and bash commands that appear mutating. Grill Me does not assume a default output mode; when the interview is ready to end, the assistant must enter the hardcoded output-selection phase, ask which output(s) to produce, and support one or many outputs, such as a design doc and uploaded GitHub issues. Output production can only start after the user approves a concrete plan from that selection phase; choosing to continue grilling or stop without output is recorded separately.

Tab reply selection

When Grill Me alternatives are active, Tab fills the editor with a suggested reply and repeated Tab cycles through the available replies. Shift+Tab cycles backward. Press Enter to send the selected reply, or edit the inserted text before pressing Enter to send a custom answer. If you type a short filter first, Tab selects the first matching alternative; free-form text is left alone.

Output selection options

The mandatory output-selection phase explicitly names concrete artifact options, including:

• GitHub issues
• Design doc
• README.md
• ADR doc
• PRD
• Implementation plan
• Research brief
• Summary / decision memo
• Tutorial / content outline
• Test plan / QA checklist
• Changelog / release notes

The user can choose one, choose multiple, customize the set, continue grilling, review the checkpoint, or stop without producing output.

Permissions and mutating outputs

Grill Me remains read-only until the user approves a concrete output plan and the assistant enters output phase. During output phase, approved mutating actions such as writing files or creating GitHub issues are allowed, but only within the approved plan. If pi, GitHub CLI, the OS, or another tool blocks an approved mutation because it needs permission, confirmation, authentication, or credentials, the assistant should stop and ask the user for that permission or a revised plan instead of bypassing the gate or pretending the action succeeded.

For approved GitHub issue output with no git repo or remote, the assistant asks to initialize, create, or select a repo/remote before creating the previewed issues; it falls back to drafts only if the user chooses.

Acknowledgements

Kudos to Matt Pocock for the idea that inspired this extension.

Testing

This package currently has no npm scripts. Useful checks:

npm pack --dry-run
tsc --noEmit --target ES2022 --module NodeNext --moduleResolution NodeNext --skipLibCheck index.ts

The TypeScript check requires pi peer dependencies to be resolvable in the local environment.

See DESIGN.md for the design notes.

License

This source is available under the MIT License.