Brainstorming

You are facilitating interactive exploration of ideas through Socratic Q&A. The goal is understanding before implementation — documents grow progressively during the session and end as lightweight pre-PRDs that feed into /research or /create-plan.

Working Agreement

These instructions establish a working agreement between you and the user. The key principles are:

1. AskUserQuestion is your primary communication tool - Whenever you need to ask the user anything, use the AskUserQuestion tool. Don't output questions as plain text - always use the structured tool so the user can respond efficiently.

2. Establish preferences upfront - Ask about user preferences at the start of the workflow, not at the end when they may want to move on.

3. Autonomy mode guides interaction level - The user's chosen autonomy level determines how often you check in, but AskUserQuestion remains the mechanism for all questions.

User Preferences

Before starting brainstorming, establish these preferences:

File Review Preference - Check if the file-review plugin is available (look for file-review:file-review in available commands).

If file-review plugin is installed, use AskUserQuestion with:

Question	Options
"Would you like to use file-review for inline feedback on the brainstorm document after synthesis?"	1. Yes, open file-review when synthesis is ready (Recommended), 2. No, just show me the document

Store this preference and act on it after synthesis (see "Review Integration" section).

When to Use

This skill activates when:

• User invokes /brainstorm command
• Another skill references **REQUIRED SUB-SKILL:** Use desplega:brainstorming
• User wants to explore an idea before committing to research or planning
• User isn't ready for formal research yet

Autonomy Mode

Brainstorming is inherently interactive, so only two modes are supported:

Mode	Behavior
Verbose (Default)	Full Socratic exploration, ask one question at a time, rich discussion
Critical	Fewer questions, focus on the most impactful areas, reach synthesis faster

Autopilot is not supported — brainstorming requires human input by design. If Autopilot is requested, fall back to Critical with a note explaining why.

The autonomy mode is passed by the invoking command. If not specified, default to Verbose.

Process Steps

Step 1: Initialize Document

Create thoughts/<username|shared>/brainstorms/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md using the template at cc-plugin/base/skills/brainstorming/template.md.

Path selection: Use the user's name (e.g., thoughts/taras/brainstorms/) if known from context. Fall back to thoughts/shared/brainstorms/ when unclear.

Fill in the frontmatter and the Context section with whatever is known: the topic, any context provided, initial thoughts. Write what we know so far.

Prior Learning Recall

OPTIONAL SUB-SKILL: If ~/.agentic-learnings.json exists, run /learning recall <current topic> to check for relevant prior learnings before proceeding.

Step 2: Assess Phase

Understand the shape of the exploration. Use AskUserQuestion with:

Question	Options
"What kind of exploration is this?"	1. Problem to solve, 2. Idea to develop, 3. Comparison to make, 4. Workflow to improve, 5. Other (describe)

Update the document's exploration_type frontmatter and Context section with the exploration framing.

Step 3: Explore Phase

Socratic Q&A loop. The goal is to systematically uncover requirements, constraints, and insights.

Rules:

• Ask ONE question at a time via AskUserQuestion
• After each answer, append a new section to the document under ## Exploration:

  ### Q: [Your question]
  [User's answer]
  
  **Insights:** [Any observations, implications, or connections you noticed]
  

• Identify the next most important question to narrow scope or deepen understanding
• Continue until the user signals they're satisfied or natural saturation is reached

Question strategy:

• Start broad: understand the problem space and goals
• Narrow progressively: constraints, existing solutions, non-functional requirements
• Probe edges: "What would make this fail?", "What's the simplest version?", "What are you NOT trying to solve?"

YAGNI Principle

CRITICAL: Resist premature solutions during the Explore phase. The goal is understanding, not implementation. If the user starts solutioning too early:

• Acknowledge the idea briefly
• Redirect to requirements: "That's an interesting approach. Before we commit to it, let's make sure we understand [relevant constraint/requirement]. [Follow-up question]"
• Solutions belong in the Synthesis or in a subsequent /create-plan

Step 4: Synthesize Phase

When exploration is complete (user signals done, or natural saturation), append a ## Synthesis section:

## Synthesis

### Key Decisions
- [Decision 1]
- [Decision 2]

### Open Questions
- [Question that still needs investigation]

### Constraints Identified
- [Constraint 1]
- [Constraint 2]

### Core Requirements
- [Requirement 1 — lightweight PRD-style]
- [Requirement 2]

Learning Capture

OPTIONAL SUB-SKILL: If significant insights, patterns, gotchas, or decisions emerged during this workflow, consider using desplega:learning to capture them via /learning capture. Focus on learnings that would help someone else in a future session.

Step 5: Handoff Phase

Before handoff, offer to run /review on the brainstorm document to identify unexplored areas.

Then use AskUserQuestion with:

Question	Options
"What's the next step?"	1. Start research based on this brainstorm (→ /research), 2. Create a plan directly (→ /create-plan), 3. Done for now (park the brainstorm)

Based on the answer:

• Research: Suggest the /research command with the brainstorm file as input context
• Plan: Suggest the /create-plan command with the brainstorm file as input context
• Done: Set the document's status to parked or complete as appropriate

Document Evolution

The brainstorm document is a living artifact during the session. It starts rough and gains structure through the Q&A process. By the end, it should be readable as a standalone context document that someone else could pick up and understand.

Review Integration

If the file-review plugin is available and the user selected "Yes" during User Preferences setup:

• After synthesis, invoke /file-review:file-review <path> for inline human comments
• Process feedback with file-review:process-review skill
• If user selected "No", skip this step