ideate

Brainstorming Skill

Overview

Collaborative design exploration for new features, architecture decisions, and complex problem-solving. In the collapsed flow, there is no separate design phase — /exarchos:ideate authors the ## Design & Rationale section of one unified docs/specs/ artifact, then auto-chains to /exarchos:plan, which adds the ## Decomposition section to the same document. The single approval point is plan-review (a dispatched, fresh-context adversarial pass over the unified doc).

The artifact shape is owned by the unified spec template — author against it, do not restate it: see @skills/plan/references/spec-template.md.

Triggers

Activate this skill when:

• User says "let's brainstorm", "let's ideate", or "let's explore"
• User runs /exarchos:ideate command
• User wants to discuss design rationale before decomposition
• A problem has multiple valid solutions needing evaluation (the deep rung)

For a complete worked example, see references/worked-example.md.

Planning depth (one-pass by default; deep gates the divergent loop)

The design section is authored at one of three depths, resolved-then-frozen per feature as designDepth on PLAN entry (the per-feature analog of per-task riskTier). The resolver proposes a depth from brief signals (uncertainty, blast-radius, task count); the author confirms or overrides. A higher rung is a strict superset of the lower.

designDepth	This skill's behavior	When
thin	One-pass: Problem Statement + the DR-N list. No alternatives, no exploration.	Trivial, low-blast features where the decomposition is the substance.
standard	One-pass: full rationale (Problem, Chosen Approach, DR-N with acceptance criteria, Technical Design, Alternatives). (default)	Most features.
deep	The divergent loop below: 2-3 genuinely distinct approaches with honest trade-offs and human back-and-forth, plus the opt-in discover bridge.	High-uncertainty / high-blast-radius features where the open-design path is warranted.

The 2-3 approach exploration is the deep rung — not a default ceremony. At thin/standard, converge in one pass; do not manufacture alternatives the problem does not warrant.

Process

Phase 0: Constraint anchoring (first turn, before Phase 1)

Goal: Surface the architectural invariants relevant to the proposal before the clarifying questions, so the design is anchored to load-bearing constraints from the first turn.

Load the core invariants catalog at .exarchos/invariants.md (entries marked cost-of-load: always-load) and surface a Constraints section naming the relevant invariants — e.g. a CLI / agent-first surface proposal anchors on INV-5a (input ergonomics) and INV-5c (Aspire verbs). The full selection rules — always-load baseline vs reference-only on-demand vs archivable not-surfaced, the proposal-shape → anchor-invariant table, the emit format, and the invariants.devCatalog gating — are the single shared source of truth for the design-time Constraints step used by /ideate, /refactor, and /debug. See @skills/ideate/references/constraint-anchoring.md.

Emit the Constraints section (per that reference) before Phase 1 so the clarifying questions can probe the proposal against the load-bearing invariants instead of re-discovering them mid-design.

Phase 1: Understanding

Goal: Deeply understand the problem before proposing a design.

Rules:

• Ask ONE question at a time
• Wait for response before asking next question
• Focus on: goals, constraints, existing patterns, user preferences
• Maximum 5 questions before moving on

Question Types:

1. "What problem are we solving?" (core need)
2. "What constraints exist?" (time, tech, compatibility)
3. "What patterns already exist in the codebase?" (consistency)
4. "Who/what will consume this?" (users, APIs, other systems)
5. "What does success look like?" (acceptance criteria)

Phase 2: Exploration — deep rung only

Goal (when designDepth: 'deep'): Present 2-3 distinct approaches with honest trade-offs, recommend one, and converge through human back-and-forth.

Use the approach format from references/design-template.md. Present genuinely different approaches; recommend one with rationale. Opt-in discover bridge: at the deep rung the runtime publishes a discover-bridge affordance via next_actions (DR-7) — an event-linked, correlationId-stitched escalation to the /exarchos:discover research workflow. It never auto-runs; surface it to the author and only escalate on confirmation. Cite the discover report by path and correlationId in the Exploration section so provenance spans both documents.

At thin/standard, skip this phase — converge directly in Phase 3.

Phase 3: Author the Design & Rationale section

Goal: Write the ## Design & Rationale section of the unified docs/specs/ artifact, at the resolved depth, using the structure in @skills/plan/references/spec-template.md. Sections of 200-300 words max; diagrams for complex flows.

Requirements format (MANDATORY):

• Use numbered requirement identifiers: DR-1, DR-2, ..., DR-N, under the ### Requirements (DR-N) heading
• Each requirement MUST have an **Acceptance criteria:** block with concrete, testable criteria (thin may use a single bullet)
• At least one requirement MUST address error handling, failure modes, or edge cases
• These DR-N identifiers are provenance anchors — the ## Decomposition section traces tasks to them within this same document (no second file)

Save location: docs/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-<feature>.md. Capture the path as $SPEC_PATH.

Iteration Limits

Design iterations: max 3 (the deep divergent loop). If Phase 2 cycles through 3 rounds without the user converging, pause and summarize the trade-offs for a final decision.

The user can override: /exarchos:ideate --max-iterations 5

Anti-Patterns

Don't	Do Instead
Jump to a solution immediately	Ask clarifying questions first
Manufacture 2-3 options at thin/standard	Reserve the divergent loop for the deep rung
Hide drawbacks of the preferred option	Be transparent about trade-offs
Write walls of text	Use 200-300 word sections max
Ignore existing patterns	Reference codebase conventions
Write a separate docs/designs/ doc	Author the Design & Rationale § of the one docs/specs/ artifact
Auto-escalate to discover	Surface the bridge; escalate only on author confirmation

State Management

This skill manages workflow state for context persistence.

On Start (before Phase 1)

Initialize workflow state using mcp__plugin_exarchos_exarchos__exarchos_workflow with action: "init", workflowType: "feature", and the featureId. The feature workflow's initial phase is plan (the former ideate/GATHER phase was collapsed into PLAN) — there is no phase to transition into here.

On Design-Section Save (after Phase 3)

Persist the unified-spec path as artifacts.spec (NOT artifacts.design — the new flow produces one docs/specs/ artifact):

action: "update", featureId: "<id>", updates: { "artifacts": { "spec": "<docs/specs/...>" } }

Do not transition the phase here — /exarchos:plan finalizes the unified doc with the ## Decomposition section and transitions plan → plan-review.

Phase Transitions and Guards

This skill is the entry point for the feature workflow (workflowType: "feature"). The collapsed lifecycle is:

plan → plan-review → delegate ⇄ review → synthesize → completed

/exarchos:ideate and /exarchos:plan both author the one docs/specs/ artifact within the initial plan phase. For the full transition table, consult @skills/checkpoint/references/phase-transitions.md.

Schema Discovery

Use exarchos_workflow({ action: "describe", actions: ["update", "init"] }) for parameter schemas and exarchos_workflow({ action: "describe", playbook: "feature" }) for phase transitions, guards, and playbook guidance.

Completion & Coverage

There is no separate design-completeness gate in the collapsed flow — check_design_completeness is a deprecated alias. The design section's acceptance-criteria coverage is validated as part of check_plan_coverage over the unified artifact, run by /exarchos:plan once the ## Decomposition section exists. Before chaining, confirm each DR-N carries acceptance criteria and at least one DR-N covers error handling / edge cases.

Transition

After the Design & Rationale section is authored, auto-continue to decomposition (no user confirmation):

Pre-Chain Validation (MANDATORY)

Before invoking /exarchos:plan:

1. Verify artifacts.spec exists in workflow state
2. Verify the spec file exists on disk: test -f "$SPEC_PATH"
3. If steps 1 or 2 fail: "Spec artifact not found, cannot auto-chain to /exarchos:plan"

Chain Steps

1. Update state: action: "update", featureId: "<id>", updates: { "artifacts": { "spec": "<docs/specs/...>" } }
2. Output: "Design & Rationale section saved to the unified spec. Auto-continuing to decomposition..."
3. Invoke immediately:

   Skill({ skill: "exarchos:plan", args: "$SPEC_PATH" })
   

This is NOT a human checkpoint. The single human checkpoint occurs at plan-review (the dispatched adversarial pass over the unified artifact) and at synthesize (merge confirmation).

Workflow continues: /exarchos:ideate -> /exarchos:plan -> plan-review -> [HUMAN CHECKPOINT] -> /exarchos:delegate -> /exarchos:review -> /exarchos:synthesize -> [HUMAN CHECKPOINT]

Exarchos Integration

When Exarchos MCP tools are available:

1. At workflow start: Auto-emitted by exarchos_workflow action: "init" — do NOT manually append workflow.started