Maestro Grill

---
name: maestro-grill
description: Use when stress-testing a plan, idea, or requirement against codebase reality before brainstorming
argument-hint: "<topic|plan> [-y] [-c] [--from <source>] [--depth shallow|standard|deep]"
allowed-tools:
  - Read
  - Write
  - Edit
  - Bash
  - Glob
  - Grep
  - Agent
  - AskUserQuestion
---
<purpose>
Socratic stress-testing of plans/ideas against codebase reality. Produces grill-report.md + terminology.md + context-package.json for downstream brainstorm/analyze/roadmap.

Pipeline position: BEFORE brainstorm (stress-test → then elaborate).
</purpose>

<required_reading>
@~/.maestro/workflows/grill.md
</required_reading>

<deferred_reading>
- [state.json](~/.maestro/templates/state.json) — read when registering artifact
</deferred_reading>

<context>
$ARGUMENTS -- topic/plan text for interactive mode, or --from source for upstream input.

**Mode selection:**
- **Interactive mode** (default): Topic text triggers full Socratic grilling with user Q&A
- **Auto mode** (`-y`): Code exploration answers questions instead of the user
- **Resume mode** (`-c` or `--session ID`): Continue from a previous grill session

**Flags:**

| Flag | Effect | Default |
|------|--------|---------|
| `-y` / `--yes` | Auto mode — CLI exploration replaces human answers | `false` |
| `-c` / `--continue` | Resume from last grill session | — |
| `--session ID` | Resume specific session | — |
| `--depth shallow\|standard\|deep` | Branch count 3/5/8 | `standard` |
| `--from <source>` | Load upstream material (`blueprint:ID`, `@file`, or path) | — |

**Output directory**: `.workflow/scratch/{YYYYMMDD}-grill-{slug}/`
**Produced files**: `grill-report.md`, `terminology.md`, `context-package.json`

### Pre-load

1. **Specs**: `maestro load --type spec --category arch` — load architecture constraints
2. **Wiki search**: `maestro search "{topic keywords}"` → load relevant entries before grilling
3. All optional — proceed without if unavailable
</context>

<interview_protocol>
Follows @~/.maestro/workflows/interview-mechanics.md standard.

**Interaction mode override**: adversarial Socratic — NOT menu-driven
**Question style**:
  - Reference specific code: "The codebase uses `{symbol}` at `{file:line}` — your proposal calls it `{term}`. Which wins?"
  - Concrete scenarios: "What happens when {action} while {condition}?"
  - Challenge contradictions: immediately surface conflicts with code evidence or prior answers
  - Escalating depth: per branch basic → specific → adversarial
**Branch traversal** (depth-gated, --depth controls count): Scope & Boundaries → Data Model & State → Edge Cases & Failure Modes → Integration & Dependencies → Scale & Performance → Security & Access Control → Observability & Operations → Migration & Rollback
**Writeback target**: grill-report.md (Q&A append per question) + terminology.md (term crystallization)
**Additional skip conditions**: none beyond standard (-y, -c)
**Exit condition**: all depth-selected branches fully walked → finalize report + context-package.json
</interview_protocol>

<execution>
Follow '~/.maestro/workflows/grill.md' completely.

### Phase Gates (MANDATORY, BLOCKING)

**GATE 1: Setup → Branch Walking** (Step 1 → Step 2)
- REQUIRED: Topic parsed and output directory created.
- REQUIRED: Initial codebase scan completed — at least one code reference identified for grounding.
- BLOCKED if missing: cannot grill without code reality baseline.

**GATE 2: Branch Walking → Synthesis** (Step 2 → Step 3)
- REQUIRED: All depth-selected branches walked (shallow=3, standard=5, deep=8).
- REQUIRED: Each branch has ≥2 Q&A pairs with evidence (code reference or explicit user input).
- REQUIRED: Every locked decision has evidence — NOT just orchestrator inference.
- BLOCKED if branches incomplete: continue walking before synthesizing.

**GATE 3: Synthesis → Completion** (Step 3 → Report)
- REQUIRED: `grill-report.md` written with Branch Log table + all Q&A entries + synthesis section.
- REQUIRED: `terminology.md` written with ≥5 terms.
- REQUIRED: `context-package.json` generated.
- BLOCKED if any artifact missing: produce it before reporting completion.

</execution>

<completion>
### Standalone report

=== GRILL READY === Topic: {topic} Branches walked: {count}/{depth_target} Decisions locked: {locked_count} Open risks: {risk_count} Output: {output_dir} Artifact: GRL-{id} === END GRILL ===

### Ralph-invoked completion

End the step by calling the CLI (no text block output):

maestro ralph complete --status {STATUS} [--evidence {path}]

Status verdicts:
- **DONE** — Normal completion
- **DONE_WITH_CONCERNS** — Completed with caveats; pass `--concerns`
- **NEEDS_RETRY** — Tooling error / transient issue; ralph will retry
- **BLOCKED** — External hard blocker; pass `--reason`

### Next-step routing

| Condition | Suggestion |
|-----------|-----------|
| Need multi-role elaboration | `Skill({ skill: "maestro-brainstorm", args: "{topic} --from grill:{artifact_id}" })` |
| Need deep technical analysis | `Skill({ skill: "maestro-analyze", args: "{topic} --from grill:{artifact_id}" })` |
| Scope is clear, ready for roadmap | `Skill({ skill: "maestro-roadmap", args: "--from grill:{artifact_id}" })` |
| Need formal spec package | `Skill({ skill: "maestro-blueprint", args: "--from grill:{artifact_id}" })` |
| More branches to walk | `Skill({ skill: "maestro-grill", args: "{topic} -c" })` |
</completion>

<error_codes>
| Code | Severity | Condition | Recovery |
|------|----------|-----------|----------|
| E001 | error | No topic/plan and no --from/--continue flag | Prompt user for topic text |
| E002 | error | --session ID not found | Show available sessions |
| W001 | warning | Codebase scan failed or returned empty | Continue without code grounding, note limitation |
| W002 | warning | CLI exploration timeout in auto mode | Skip question, mark as open |
| W003 | warning | Max branch depth reached without resolution | Force synthesis, offer cont