Interview Question: Superpowers vs. grill‑me – Why You Should Use Both

Interview Dialogue

Interviewer: Your résumé says you are proficient with AI coding tools. Which would you choose, superpowers or grill‑me? Me: They are not competing products. grill‑me handles "think before you code", superpowers handles "execute precisely" – I want both. Interviewer (frowning): … then elaborate?

Let’s dive into this topic.

Even the strongest superpowers cannot solve the fundamental problem – you must clarify your requirements before AI can help you write code.

This is exactly why grill‑me exists.

Quick Comparison

grill‑me : clarifies requirements / asks design questions; intervenes before coding.

superpowers : provides a full‑process development methodology; intervenes during coding.

One ensures you think clearly, the other ensures you get it right. Together they form a complete AI‑coding workflow.

grill‑me Overview

grill‑me is a skill from the renowned TypeScript community author Matt Pocock , part of the mattpocock/skills repository, which has earned over 178k stars on GitHub, making it a top‑rated AI‑coding skill.

Core Idea

The philosophy is simple: before AI starts writing code, let it interview you like an interviewer, probing every branch of your plan or design until a shared understanding is reached.

Typical Problems It Solves

Ask AI to "build a login feature" and it generates unnecessary OAuth code.

Ask AI to design a database and it adds unwanted fields.

Realize halfway through coding that the direction is wrong and have to start over.

All these stem from starting development without aligned requirements.

grill‑me addresses this by structuring the interview, asking layered questions until all key decisions are agreed upon.

Skill Definition

---
name: grill-me
description: Interview the user relentlessly about a plan or design until reaching shared understanding, resolving each branch of the decision tree. Use when user wants to stress‑test a plan, get grilled on their design, or mentions "grill me".
---

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.

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

For each question, provide your recommended answer.

Despite its brevity, the skill works remarkably well because the final line "provide your recommended answer" lets the AI suggest answers that you can simply confirm or correct, making the dialogue highly efficient.

Applicable Scenarios

Before writing a PRD, clarify exactly what needs to be built.

Before AI implements a feature, align design decisions.

Before finalizing a data model or API shape, stress‑test the choices.

When multiple design decisions depend on each other, decouple them one by one.

Relationship to superpowers

Some may wonder whether superpowers already includes a brainstorming skill. The difference is:

grill‑me : a lightweight stress‑test that focuses on rapid Q&A to converge design decisions.

superpowers brainstorming : a full‑process brainstorming that generates visual companions, architecture diagrams, data models, and a complete set of artifacts.

They are not mutually exclusive; you can chain them: use grill‑me to quickly converge core decisions, then use superpowers to flesh out detailed designs.

Installation

Install with a single command: npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills The mattpocock/skills repository is a collection of skills; after running the command you can select the grill‑me skill for installation.

Choose the target AI agent (e.g., Claude Code) and whether the skill applies to a specific project or globally.

After installation, invoke the skill with the command /grill-me.

Usage Example

We will develop a Markdown editor to demonstrate grill‑me’s questioning process.

In Claude Code, type /grill-me I want to build a Markdown editor.. The AI then assumes the role of an interviewer and begins probing your plan.

Example question 5 asks about preferred editing style, offering four options with pros and cons.

Example question 10 asks about the front‑end framework and build tools, presenting four solutions and recommending the most suitable one.

In total, grill‑me asked 14 questions covering all aspects of the project, taking about ten minutes.

Claude Code reached full consensus and proceeded to implementation without rework.

The final editor supports live preview, syntax highlighting, and synchronized dual‑pane scrolling, fully covering the requirements identified during the interview.

Effect Comparison

Without grill‑me: You ask AI to "build a Markdown editor" and it may produce a full‑stack solution with user authentication, cloud sync, and collaborative editing – features you don’t need, wasting time.

With grill‑me: Fourteen rounds of questioning in ten minutes align all design decisions, allowing the AI to write code that hits the target on the first try, eliminating rework.

This demonstrates the power of "think clearly before you act".

Conclusion

Returning to the opening interview question – which to choose?

The answer: you don’t need to choose . They solve different stages:

grill‑me : a pre‑coding "requirement stress‑test" that eliminates rework.

superpowers : an in‑coding "full‑process methodology" that guides planning, execution, and testing.

The combined workflow looks like this:

grill‑me (clarify) → superpowers brainstorming (add detail) → writing‑plans (task breakdown) → tdd / subagent (execution)

As the saying goes, "Only children make choices – I want them all!"

Project Repository

https://github.com/mattpocock/skills