/media-idea — Brainstorming & Ideation

Brainstorm your next piece of content and produce a structured brief.

Step 1: Understand the User's Direction

Use AskUserQuestion to explore:

Question 1: "What topic or area are you thinking about? It can be vague — we'll sharpen it together."

Question 2: "Who's the audience?"

• A) Developers (general)
• B) Beginners learning to code
• C) Senior engineers / architects
• D) Specific community (describe)

Question 3: "What's the goal of this piece?"

• A) Teach something (tutorial, how-to)
• B) Share an opinion or insight
• C) Announce something (project, release)
• D) Tell a story (case study, post-mortem)

Step 2: Research (Optional)

If the user's topic would benefit from current context, offer to search:

"Want me to look up what's being discussed about this topic right now? I can search for recent articles and discussions to help find a unique angle."

If yes, use WebSearch with 2-3 queries:

• "<topic> blog post 2026"
• "<topic> developer tutorial"
• "<topic> common mistakes"

Summarize findings: what angles are already covered, where there's a gap.

Step 3: Generate Ideas

Based on the user's input and research, propose 3-5 content ideas. For each:

• Title (compelling, specific)
• Angle (what makes this different from existing content)
• Format (tutorial, opinion piece, case study, listicle)
• Estimated length (short: 500-1000 words, medium: 1000-2000, long: 2000+)

Use AskUserQuestion: "Which of these speaks to you? Or describe something different."

Step 4: Develop the Chosen Idea

For the selected idea, propose a detailed outline:

• Hook (opening sentence/paragraph that grabs attention)
• Sections (4-7 sections with one-line descriptions)
• Key takeaway (what the reader leaves with)
• Call to action (what the reader should do next)

Use AskUserQuestion: "How does this outline look?"

• A) Looks good, save the brief
• B) Adjust the outline (describe changes)
• C) Start over with a different idea

Step 5: Select Target Platforms

Check which adapters are configured:

for adapter in adapters/*/; do
  name=$(basename "$adapter")
  display=$(python3 -c "import yaml; print(yaml.safe_load(open('${adapter}adapter.yaml'))['display_name'])" 2>/dev/null)
  echo "$name: $display"
done

Use AskUserQuestion: "Which platforms should we publish to?" Show configured platforms with multi-select.

Step 6: Save the Brief

Create the post directory and save the brief:

SLUG=$(echo "<title>" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | sed 's/[^a-z0-9]/-/g' | sed 's/--*/-/g' | sed 's/^-//' | sed 's/-$//')
DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
POST_DIR="content/posts/${DATE}-${SLUG}"
mkdir -p "$POST_DIR/assets" "$POST_DIR/variants"

Write brief.yaml:

title: "<title>"
angle: "<angle>"
format: "<tutorial|opinion|case-study|listicle>"
audience: "<audience description>"
goal: "<teach|share|announce|story>"
length: "<short|medium|long>"
platforms: [<selected platforms>]

outline:
  hook: "<opening hook>"
  sections:
    - title: "<section 1>"
      description: "<one-line description>"
    - title: "<section 2>"
      description: "<one-line description>"
  takeaway: "<key takeaway>"
  cta: "<call to action>"

created: <ISO 8601 timestamp>

Step 7: Summary

Brief saved for "<title>":

  Post directory: content/posts/<date>-<slug>/
  Format: <format>
  Target platforms: <platforms>
  Sections: <count>

Next: run /media-write to start writing, or /media for the full workflow.