Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs
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npx agentalley add brainstormingWho is stuck, and on what
You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior. Explores user intent, requirements and design before implementation.
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Frontmatter — 2 properties
| name | brainstorming |
|---|---|
| description | You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior. Explores user intent, requirements and design before implementation. |
| 1 | --- |
| 2 | name: brainstorming |
| 3 | description: "You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior. Explores user intent, requirements and design before implementation." |
| 4 | ---A5 — No allowed-tools declared — no way to tell what this skill may touch |
| 5 | |
| 6 | # Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs |
| 7 | |
| 8 | Help turn ideas into fully formed designs and specs through natural collaborative dialogue. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Start by classifying how much process the request needs, then work |
| 11 | through your path: understand the context, refine the idea, present a |
| 12 | design, and get your human partner's approval. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | <HARD-GATE> |
| 15 | Do NOT invoke any implementation skill, write any code, scaffold any |
| 16 | project, or take any implementation action until you have told your |
| 17 | human partner what you intend and they have approved it. This applies |
| 18 | to EVERY task on EVERY path below — the ceremony scales with the task; |
| 19 | the approval gate never does. |
| 20 | </HARD-GATE> |
| 21 | |
| 22 | ## Three Paths |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Before your first question, classify the request and say the |
| 25 | classification out loud — "this looks bounded, so I'll present a short |
| 26 | design here rather than write a spec" — so your human partner can |
| 27 | override it: |
| 28 | |
| 29 | - **Spike** — a feasibility question ("can we...", "is it possible...", |
| 30 | "quick and dirty is fine") whose output is an answer, not code you |
| 31 | keep. Present the question and what you'll try in 2-3 sentences, get |
| 32 | a nod, then find out as cheaply as correctness allows. No design |
| 33 | doc, no spec file. Report findings as a recommendation; anything you |
| 34 | built stays labeled throwaway. |
| 35 | - **Bounded** — a well-scoped change to code that already exists in |
| 36 | this repo: a new flag, a small endpoint, a one-file fix. |
| 37 | Understanding the kind of app is not enough — bounded means the flow |
| 38 | you are changing is already here to read. If there is no existing |
| 39 | flow to change, the task is not bounded. Ask the clarifying |
| 40 | questions that matter, present a short design IN CHAT (a few |
| 41 | sentences to a few short paragraphs), and STOP. Implementation |
| 42 | starts only after your human partner says yes to that design — a |
| 43 | bounded task's approval is as hard a gate as an architectural |
| 44 | one. No spec file, no implementation plan document. |
| 45 | - **Architectural** — new projects, new subsystems, changes that |
| 46 | restructure how components fit together or alter interfaces others |
| 47 | depend on. Follow the full process: questions, approaches, sectioned |
| 48 | design, written spec, then the writing-plans skill. |
| 49 | |
| 50 | When in doubt between two paths, take the heavier one. The ratchet is |
| 51 | one-way: hidden complexity discovered mid-task upgrades the path — |
| 52 | stop, say so, and step up. Nothing downgrades mid-task. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | ## Anti-Pattern: "Too Simple To Need Approval" |
| 55 | |
| 56 | Every path ends with your human partner approving your intent before |
| 57 | implementation. A todo list, a single-function utility, a config |
| 58 | change — the design may be two sentences in chat, but you MUST present |
| 59 | it and get approval. "Simple" tasks are where unexamined assumptions |
| 60 | cause the most wasted work. What scales with simplicity is the |
| 61 | artifact, never the approval. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | ## Red Flags |
| 64 | |
| 65 | | Thought | Reality | |
| 66 | |---------|---------| |
| 67 | | "This is too simple to need a design" | Simple means a short design, not no design. Two sentences in chat, then approval. | |
| 68 | | "I'll call it bounded and skip the spec" | Reaching for a label to skip work IS the doubt — take the heavier path. | |
| 69 | | "It's bounded and the design is obvious — I'll start while they read it" | The gate is the approval, not the design's length. Present, then stop until you hear yes. | |
| 70 | | "I understand this kind of app, so it's bounded" | Bounded measures the repo, not your familiarity. A new project has no existing flow — it is architectural. | |
| 71 | | "The spike works, so I'll keep the code" | A spike's output is an answer. Keeping the code is a new request — classify it. | |
| 72 | | "It grew, but I'm almost done — no need to re-classify" | Hidden complexity upgrades the path mid-task. Stop and say so. | |
| 73 | | "They approved the spike, so the follow-up change is approved too" | Each task gets its own classification and its own approval. | |
| 74 | |
| 75 | ## Checklist |
| 76 | |
| 77 | Classify first, announce the path, then create a task for each item on |
| 78 | your path and complete them in order. |
| 79 | |
| 80 | **Spike:** |
| 81 | 1. **Explore project context** — enough to frame the probe |
| 82 | 2. **Present question + probe plan** — 2-3 sentences |
| 83 | 3. **Get approval** — a nod is enough |
| 84 | 4. **Investigate** — as cheaply as correctness allows |
| 85 | 5. **Report findings** — a recommendation; label anything built as throwaway |
| 86 | |
| 87 | **Bounded:** |
| 88 | 1. **Explore project context** — check files, docs, recent commits |
| 89 | 2. **Ask clarifying questions** — one at a time, the ones that matter |
| 90 | 3. **Present short design in chat** — approach, files touched, testing |
| 91 | 4. **Get approval** — STOP and wait for an explicit yes; presenting the design and starting in the same breath is skipping the gate |
| 92 | 5. **Implement** — proceed with the normal development workflow (TDD applies); no plan document |
| 93 | |
| 94 | **Architectural:** |
| 95 | 1. **Explore project context** — check files, docs, recent commits |
| 96 | 2. **Offer the visual companion just-in-time** — NOT upfront. The first time a question would genuinely be clearer shown than described, offer it then (its own message); on approval its browser tab opens for you. If no visual question ever arises, never offer it. See the Visual Companion section below. |
| 97 | 3. **Ask clarifying questions** — one at a time, understand purpose/constraints/success criteria |
| 98 | 4. **Propose 2-3 approaches** — with trade-offs and your recommendation |
| 99 | 5. **Present design** — in sections scaled to their complexity, get user approval after each section |
| 100 | 6. **Write design doc** — save to `docs/superpowers/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md` and commit |
| 101 | 7. **Spec self-review** — quick inline check for placeholders, contradictions, ambiguity, scope (see below) |
| 102 | 8. **User reviews written spec** — ask user to review the spec file before proceeding |
| 103 | 9. **Transition to implementation** — invoke writing-plans skill to create implementation plan |
| 104 | |
| 105 | ## Process Flow |
| 106 | |
| 107 | ```dot |
| 108 | digraph brainstorming { |
| 109 | "Classify: spike / bounded / architectural" [shape=diamond]; |
| 110 | "Present question + probe (2-3 sentences)" [shape=box]; |
| 111 | "Ask clarifying questions (bounded)" [shape=box]; |
| 112 | "Present short design in chat" [shape=box]; |
| 113 | "Human approves?" [shape=diamond]; |
| 114 | "Investigate; report recommendation" [shape=doublecircle]; |
| 115 | "Implement via normal workflow (no plan doc)" [shape=doublecircle]; |
| 116 | "Explore project context" [shape=box]; |
| 117 | "Ask clarifying questions" [shape=box]; |
| 118 | "Propose 2-3 approaches" [shape=box]; |
| 119 | "Present design sections" [shape=box]; |
| 120 | "User approves design?" [shape=diamond]; |
| 121 | "Write design doc" [shape=box]; |
| 122 | "Spec self-review\n(fix inline)" [shape=box]; |
| 123 | "User reviews spec?" [shape=diamond]; |
| 124 | "Invoke writing-plans skill" [shape=doublecircle]; |
| 125 | "Hidden complexity? Upgrade path" [shape=box]; |
| 126 | |
| 127 | "Classify: spike / bounded / architectural" -> "Present question + probe (2-3 sentences)" [label="spike"]; |
| 128 | "Classify: spike / bounded / architectural" -> "Ask clarifying questions (bounded)" [label="bounded"]; |
| 129 | "Classify: spike / bounded / architectural" -> "Explore project context" [label="architectural"]; |
| 130 | "Present question + probe (2-3 sentences)" -> "Human approves?"; |
| 131 | "Ask clarifying questions (bounded)" -> "Present short design in chat"; |
| 132 | "Present short design in chat" -> "Human approves?"; |
| 133 | "Human approves?" -> "Investigate; report recommendation" [label="spike: yes"]; |
| 134 | "Human approves?" -> "Implement via normal workflow (no plan doc)" [label="bounded: yes"]; |
| 135 | "Hidden complexity? Upgrade path" -> "Classify: spike / bounded / architectural"; |
| 136 | "Explore project context" -> "Ask clarifying questions"; |
| 137 | "Ask clarifying questions" -> "Propose 2-3 approaches"; |
| 138 | "Propose 2-3 approaches" -> "Present design sections"; |
| 139 | "Present design sections" -> "User approves design?"; |
| 140 | "User approves design?" -> "Present design sections" [label="no, revise"]; |
| 141 | "User approves design?" -> "Write design doc" [label="yes"]; |
| 142 | "Write design doc" -> "Spec self-review\n(fix inline)"; |
| 143 | "Spec self-review\n(fix inline)" -> "User reviews spec?"; |
| 144 | "User reviews spec?" -> "Write design doc" [label="changes requested"]; |
| 145 | "User reviews spec?" -> "Invoke writing-plans skill" [label="approved"]; |
| 146 | } |
| 147 | ``` |
| 148 | |
| 149 | **Terminal states are path-bound.** Architectural: the ONLY skill you |
| 150 | invoke after brainstorming is writing-plans — never frontend-design, |
| 151 | mcp-builder, or any other implementation skill. Bounded: after |
| 152 | approval, implementation proceeds directly through the normal |
| 153 | development workflow; no plan document. Spike: the terminal state is a |
| 154 | reported recommendation. |
| 155 | |
| 156 | ## The Process |
| 157 | |
| 158 | The subsections below serve the bounded and architectural paths (a |
| 159 | spike stops at "present the probe, get a nod"). Sections from |
| 160 | **Exploring approaches** onward are architectural-path depth — for |
| 161 | bounded work, context plus a few questions plus a short in-chat design |
| 162 | is the whole process. |
| 163 | |
| 164 | **Understanding the idea:** |
| 165 | |
| 166 | - Check out the current project state first (files, docs, recent commits) |
| 167 | - Before asking detailed questions, assess scope: if the request describes multiple independent subsystems (e.g., "build a platform with chat, file storage, billing, and analytics"), flag this immediately. Don't spend questions refining details of a project that needs to be decomposed first. |
| 168 | - If the project is too large for a single spec, help the user decompose into sub-projects: what are the independent pieces, how do they relate, what order should they be built? Then brainstorm the first sub-project through the normal design flow. Each sub-project gets its own spec → plan → implementation cycle. |
| 169 | - For appropriately-scoped projects, ask questions one at a time to refine the idea |
| 170 | - Prefer multiple choice questions when possible, but open-ended is fine too |
| 171 | - Only one question per message - if a topic needs more exploration, break it into multiple questions |
| 172 | - Focus on understanding: purpose, constraints, success criteria |
| 173 | |
| 174 | **Exploring approaches:** |
| 175 | |
| 176 | - Propose 2-3 different approaches with trade-offs |
| 177 | - Present options conversationally with your recommendation and reasoning |
| 178 | - Lead with your recommended option and explain why |
| 179 | - YAGNI ruthlessly - remove unnecessary features from every approach and design |
| 180 | |
| 181 | **Presenting the design:** |
| 182 | |
| 183 | - Once you believe you understand what you're building, present the design |
| 184 | - Scale each section to its complexity: a few sentences if straightforward, up to 200-300 words if nuanced |
| 185 | - Ask after each section whether it looks right so far |
| 186 | - Cover: architecture, components, data flow, error handling, testing |
| 187 | - Be ready to go back and clarify if something doesn't make sense |
| 188 | |
| 189 | **Design for isolation and clarity:** |
| 190 | |
| 191 | - Break the system into smaller units that each have one clear purpose, communicate through well-defined interfaces, and can be understood and tested independently |
| 192 | - For each unit, you should be able to answer: what does it do, how do you use it, and what does it depend on? |
| 193 | - Can someone understand what a unit does without reading its internals? Can you change the internals without breaking consumers? If not, the boundaries need work. |
| 194 | - Smaller, well-bounded units are also easier for you to work with - you reason better about code you can hold in context at once, and your edits are more reliable when files are focused. When a file grows large, that's often a signal that it's doing too much. |
| 195 | |
| 196 | **Working in existing codebases:** |
| 197 | |
| 198 | - Explore the current structure before proposing changes. Follow existing patterns. |
| 199 | - Where existing code has problems that affect the work (e.g., a file that's grown too large, unclear boundaries, tangled responsibilities), include targeted improvements as part of the design - the way a good developer improves code they're working in. |
| 200 | - Don't propose unrelated refactoring. Stay focused on what serves the current goal. |
| 201 | |
| 202 | ## After the Design (architectural path) |
| 203 | |
| 204 | **Documentation:** |
| 205 | |
| 206 | - Write the validated design (spec) to `docs/superpowers/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md` |
| 207 | - (User preferences for spec location override this default) |
| 208 | - Use elements-of-style:writing-clearly-and-concisely skill if available |
| 209 | - Commit the design document to git |
| 210 | |
| 211 | **Spec Self-Review:** |
| 212 | After writing the spec document, look at it with fresh eyes: |
| 213 | |
| 214 | 1. **Placeholder scan:** Any "TBD", "TODO", incomplete sections, or vague requirements? Fix them. |
| 215 | 2. **Internal consistency:** Do any sections contradict each other? Does the architecture match the feature descriptions? |
| 216 | 3. **Scope check:** Is this focused enough for a single implementation plan, or does it need decomposition? |
| 217 | 4. **Ambiguity check:** Could any requirement be interpreted two different ways? If so, pick one and make it explicit. |
| 218 | |
| 219 | Fix any issues inline. No need to re-review — just fix and move on. |
| 220 | |
| 221 | **User Review Gate:** |
| 222 | After the spec review loop passes, ask the user to review the written spec before proceeding: |
| 223 | |
| 224 | > "Spec written and committed to `<path>`. Please review it and let me know if you want to make any changes before we start writing out the implementation plan." |
| 225 | |
| 226 | Wait for the user's response. If they request changes, make them and re-run the spec review loop. Only proceed once the user approves. |
| 227 | |
| 228 | **Implementation:** |
| 229 | |
| 230 | - Invoke the writing-plans skill to create a detailed implementation plan |
| 231 | - Do NOT invoke any other skill. writing-plans is the next step. |
| 232 | |
| 233 | ## Visual Companion |
| 234 | |
| 235 | A browser-based companion for showing mockups, diagrams, and visual options during brainstorming. Available as a tool — not a mode. Accepting the companion means it's available for questions that benefit from visual treatment; it does NOT mean every question goes through the browser. |
| 236 | |
| 237 | **Offering the companion (just-in-time):** Do NOT offer it upfront. Wait until a question would genuinely be clearer shown than told — a real mockup / layout / diagram question, not merely a UI *topic*. The first time that happens, offer it then, as its own message: |
| 238 | > "This next part might be easier if I show you — I can put together mockups, diagrams, and comparisons in a browser tab as we go. It's still new and can be token-intensive. Want me to? I'll open it for you." |
| 239 | |
| 240 | **This offer MUST be its own message.** Only the offer — no clarifying question, summary, or other content. Wait for the user's response. If they accept, start the server with `--open` so their browser opens to the first screen automatically. If they decline, continue text-only and don't offer again unless they raise it. |
| 241 | |
| 242 | **Per-question decision:** Even after the user accepts, decide FOR EACH QUESTION whether to use the browser or the terminal. The test: **would the user understand this better by seeing it than reading it?** |
| 243 | |
| 244 | - **Use the browser** for content that IS visual — mockups, wireframes, layout comparisons, architecture diagrams, side-by-side visual designs |
| 245 | - **Use the terminal** for content that is text — requirements questions, conceptual choices, tradeoff lists, A/B/C/D text options, scope decisions |
| 246 | |
| 247 | A question about a UI topic is not automatically a visual question. "What does personality mean in this context?" is a conceptual question — use the terminal. "Which wizard layout works better?" is a visual question — use the browser. |
| 248 | |
| 249 | If they agree to the companion, read the detailed guide before proceeding: |
| 250 | `skills/brainstorming/visual-companion.md` |
| 251 |
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