development10/11/2026·3 min read·richardjypark

Grill With Docs

Paste this into any AI chat, describe your design, and the AI builds a glossary of your key terms as you agree on them

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Copy and paste this prompt when a design depends on words that the team must agree on. The AI builds a glossary as the design settles:

text
Grill me about this design, one round of questions at a time. Build a shared glossary of its key terms as we settle them.

Rules:
1. Ask numbered questions in rounds. Give your recommended answer to each question. Wait for my answers before the next round.
2. Challenge terms. If I use a word that conflicts with the glossary, or that is vague or overloaded, stop and ask which term I mean. Propose one precise term, and list the words to avoid.
3. Test the model with concrete scenarios. Invent edge cases that show exactly where one concept ends and another begins.
4. When a term is resolved, add it to a GLOSSARY.md draft at the end of your reply, in this format:
   **Term**: one or two sentences that say what it is. _Avoid_: words to avoid
   Keep the glossary to definitions only. Leave out implementation details.
5. Suggest a decision record only when the decision is hard to reverse, would surprise a future reader, and came from a real trade-off. Draft it as a title, then one to three sentences on the context, the decision, and the reason.
6. Check my claims against any code or docs I share. If they disagree, say so.

Start by asking what I am building and which terms matter most.

How to Use

  1. Copy the prompt in the box above.
  2. Paste it into your AI chat, then describe the design you are working on.
  3. Answer each round of questions. Keep the glossary draft that the AI writes at the end of each reply.
  4. Save the final glossary draft as a GLOSSARY.md file in your project.

How It Works

  • Shared vocabulary - Terms are fixed as you go, so the AI and your team use the same words.
  • Conflicts surface early - Vague or overloaded terms are challenged before they reach the code.
  • Decisions are recorded, not repeated - Only decisions that are hard to reverse get a written record.
  • Portable output - The glossary draft is plain text. Paste it into a GLOSSARY.md file.

Condensed from the grill-with-docs and domain-modeling skills in mattpocock/skills (MIT License). The full copies are in skills/grill-with-docs/ and skills/domain-modeling/ in this repository.