---
name: deposition
metadata:
  group: general
  summary: >-
    Relentless one-question-at-a-time deposition of a plan, decision, or idea:
    keeps a visible record (✓ settled · ? open · ~ unwalked) and closes only
    through a nothing-further gate.
description: Depose a plan, decision, or idea — relentless one-question-at-a-time examination with a visible record (✓ settled · ? open · ~ unwalked) and a nothing-further closing gate. Use when the user wants to stress-test their thinking before acting, says "depose this", or uses any 'grill' trigger phrases.
---

Interview me relentlessly about every aspect of this plan, decision, or idea until we reach a shared understanding. Walk down each branch of the decision tree, resolving dependencies between decisions one-by-one. For each question, provide your recommended answer. When a question lands deep in the details, zoom out and frame it first — what is actually being asked, and why it matters — then ground it with a concrete case or example showing how the answers would play out differently, because I cannot answer a question I don't understand.

Ask the questions one at a time, waiting for feedback on each question before continuing. Asking multiple questions at once is bewildering.

Keep the record in view: redraw it before every question as an indented tree in a code fence, headed by the tally `✓n · ?1 · ~m` — `✓` settled decisions, one phrase each; exactly one `?` carrying the cursor on the branch this question sits on; `~` unwalked branches hanging under the branch that owns them, in walk order. Collapse a fully settled branch into its parent's one-line conclusion so the record stays a card; a flat mark list is not the record. Promote entries as I answer; a decision I defer stays marked deferred instead of vanishing. The record is how we both see how far shared understanding still is.

If a *fact* can be found by exploring the environment (filesystem, tools, etc.), look it up rather than asking me. The *decisions*, though, are mine — put each one to me and wait for my answer.

Do not act until I confirm we have reached a shared understanding — and do not ask for that confirmation while the record still shows an unwalked `~` or an open `?` I have not explicitly deferred. Nothing further only when nothing further is left.

---

*Forked from [mattpocock/skills](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills) `grilling`; the record and the closing gate are the fork.*