Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

Help turn ideas into fully formed designs and specs through natural collaborative dialogue.

Start by understanding the current project context, then ask questions one at a time to refine the idea. Once you understand what you're building, present the design and get user approval.

<HARD-GATE> Do NOT invoke any implementation skill, write any code, scaffold any project, or take any implementation action until you have presented a design and the user has approved it. This applies to EVERY project regardless of perceived simplicity. </HARD-GATE>

Anti-Pattern: "This Is Too Simple To Need A Design"

Every project goes through this process. A todo list, a single-function utility, a config change — all of them. "Simple" projects are where unexamined assumptions cause the most wasted work. The design can be short (a few sentences for truly simple projects), but you MUST present it and get approval.

Checklist

You MUST create a task for each of these items and complete them in order:

1. Explore project context — check files, docs, recent commits
2. Ask clarifying questions — one at a time, understand purpose/constraints/success criteria
3. Propose 2-3 approaches — with trade-offs and your recommendation
4. Present design — in sections scaled to their complexity, get user approval after each section
5. Write design doc — save to docs/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md and commit
6. Spec self-review — quick inline check for placeholders, contradictions, ambiguity, scope
7. User reviews written spec — ask user to review the spec file before proceeding
8. Transition to implementation — invoke writing-plans skill to create implementation plan

Process Flow

graph TD
    Explore["Explore project context"]
    Ask["Ask clarifying questions"]
    Propose["Propose 2-3 approaches"]
    Present["Present design sections"]
    ApproveDesign{"User approves design?"}
    WriteDoc["Write design doc"]
    SpecReview["Spec self-review<br/>(fix inline)"]
    ReviewSpec{"User reviews spec?"}
    InvokePlans((("Invoke writing-plans skill")))

    Explore --> Ask
    Ask --> Propose
    Propose --> Present
    Present --> ApproveDesign
    ApproveDesign -->|"no, revise"| Present
    ApproveDesign -->|"yes"| WriteDoc
    WriteDoc --> SpecReview
    SpecReview --> ReviewSpec
    ReviewSpec -->|"changes requested"| WriteDoc
    ReviewSpec -->|"approved"| InvokePlans

The terminal state is invoking writing-plans. Do NOT invoke any other implementation skill directly. The ONLY skill you invoke after brainstorming is writing-plans.

The Process

Understanding the idea:

• Check out the current project state first (files, docs, recent commits)
• Before asking detailed questions, assess scope: if the request describes multiple independent subsystems, flag this immediately
• If the project is too large for a single spec, help the user decompose into sub-projects
• For appropriately-scoped projects, ask questions one at a time to refine the idea
• Only one question per message — if a topic needs more exploration, break it into multiple questions
• Focus on understanding: purpose, constraints, success criteria

Exploring approaches:

• Propose 2-3 different approaches with trade-offs
• Lead with your recommended option and explain why

Presenting the design:

• Once you understand what you're building, present the design
• Scale each section to its complexity: a few sentences if straightforward, up to 200-300 words if nuanced
• Ask after each section whether it looks right so far
• Cover: architecture, components, data flow, error handling, testing

Design for isolation and clarity:

• Break the system into smaller units that each have one clear purpose
• For each unit: what does it do, how do you use it, what does it depend on?
• Smaller, well-bounded units are easier to test and change

After the Design

Documentation:

• Write the validated design to docs/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md
• Commit the design document to git

Spec Self-Review: After writing the spec document, look at it with fresh eyes:

1. Placeholder scan: Any "TBD", "TODO", incomplete sections? Fix them.
2. Internal consistency: Do any sections contradict each other?
3. Scope check: Is this focused enough for a single implementation plan?
4. Ambiguity check: Could any requirement be interpreted two different ways?

User Review Gate: After the spec review passes, ask the user to review the written spec before proceeding:

"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."

Wait for the user's response. Only proceed once the user approves.

Implementation:

• Invoke the writing-plans skill to create a detailed implementation plan

Key Principles

• One question at a time - Don't overwhelm with multiple questions
• Multiple choice preferred - Easier to answer than open-ended when possible
• YAGNI ruthlessly - Remove unnecessary features from all designs
• Explore alternatives - Always propose 2-3 approaches before settling
• Incremental validation - Present design, get approval before moving on