Ref - Up-To-Date Docs vs grill-me
Ref - Up-To-Date Docs is an MCP server published by ref-tools. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Docker MCP Catalog). grill-me is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by Alireza Rezvani. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Community GitHub marketplaces). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-24. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |  Ref - Up-To-Date Docs | |
|---|---|---|
| Docker MCP Catalog | Listed Version: sha256:8b5fcfe3e4e1 Forks (GitHub): 71 Pulls (Docker Hub): 19 323 Stars (Docker Hub): 2 Stars (GitHub): 1 183 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Community marketplace alirezarezvani/claude-skills | Not listed | Listed Version: 2.14.1 Forks (GitHub): 3 969 Stars (GitHub): 28 598 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | Ref - Up-To-Date Docs | grill-me |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it | 1 | 1 |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 1 183 (worse) | 28 598 (better) |
| Pulls (Docker Hub) (differs) | 19 323 | No figure on Docker Hub |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 71 (worse) | 3 969 (better) |
| Last release (differs) | Not published | 2026-10-23 |
| Where it runs (differs) | On your machine (mcp/ref-tools-mcp) | Installs as a plugin bundle |
| Transport (differs) | stdio | Not stated |
| Tools it declares (differs) | 2 | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | 1, secrets among them: 1 | Not published |
| Parts of the bundle (differs) | Not a bundle | 3 |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/ref-tools/ref-tools-mcp | github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills |
| Changes in the last 7 days (differs) | 0 | 2 |
| First seen (differs) | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-14 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
Ref - Up-To-Date Docs
Ref powerful search tool connets your coding tools with documentation context. It includes an up-to-date index of public documentation and it can ingest your private documentation (eg. GitHub repos, PDFs) as well.
grill-me
Relentless plan-and-design interrogator. Walks the decision tree one branch at a time, asking forcing questions sequentially with recommended answers. Explores codebase before asking. Derived from Matt Pocock's MIT-licensed grill-me with: (1) 3 stdlib Python tools (decision-tree extractor across 6 branch kinds, question generator with dependency-aware ordering, JSON-backed session tracker for multi-day grills), (2) 3 references citing 7-8 sources (6 forcing-question patterns, when to stop grilling, companion tooling), (3) cs-grill-master persona agent + /cs-grill-me slash command. Matt's relentless one-at-a-time interview discipline preserved verbatim per MIT.
How to run each
Ref - Up-To-Date Docs As a local MCP server: Docker image
claude mcp add --env "REF_API_KEY=<YOUR_REF_API_KEY>" --transport stdio ref -- docker run -i --rm -e REF_API_KEY mcp/ref-tools-mcpRequires: REF_API_KEY (secret)
grill-me As a Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add alirezarezvani/claude-skills
/plugin install grill-me@claude-code-skillsCommands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
The marketplaces of grill-me publish no list of tools, so we do not compare tools.
Settings each asks for
The marketplaces of grill-me publish no settings it asks for, so we do not compare settings.
What it can do: Ref - Up-To-Date Docs · What it can do: grill-me · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from the Docker MCP Catalog (desktop.docker.com/mcp/catalog) and Docker Hub. Data comes from public marketplace files in GitHub repositories of their authors. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.