brainstorming

Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

Overview

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

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

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.

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 — in focused batches, understand purpose/constraints/success criteria
3. Propose 2-3 approaches — with trade-offs and your recommendation
4. Phase 1: Architecture + Components — present high-level structure, get user approval
5. Edge case discovery — invoke superpowers:edge-case-discovery to systematically enumerate failure modes against the approved architecture
6. Phase 2: Data flow, error handling, testing — present these informed by the discovered edge cases, get user approval
7. Write design doc — save to docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md and commit
8. Transition to implementation — invoke writing-plans skill to create implementation plan

Process Flow

digraph brainstorming {
    "Explore project context" [shape=box];
    "Ask clarifying questions" [shape=box];
    "Propose 2-3 approaches" [shape=box];
    "Phase 1: Architecture + Components" [shape=box];
    "Phase 1 approved?" [shape=diamond];
    "Edge case discovery" [shape=box, style=filled, fillcolor="#ffeecc"];
    "Edge cases reviewed?" [shape=diamond];
    "Phase 2: Data flow, error handling, testing" [shape=box];
    "Phase 2 approved?" [shape=diamond];
    "Write design doc" [shape=box];
    "Invoke writing-plans skill" [shape=doublecircle];

    "Explore project context" -> "Ask clarifying questions";
    "Ask clarifying questions" -> "Propose 2-3 approaches";
    "Propose 2-3 approaches" -> "Phase 1: Architecture + Components";
    "Phase 1: Architecture + Components" -> "Phase 1 approved?";
    "Phase 1 approved?" -> "Phase 1: Architecture + Components" [label="no, revise"];
    "Phase 1 approved?" -> "Edge case discovery" [label="yes"];
    "Edge case discovery" -> "Edge cases reviewed?";
    "Edge cases reviewed?" -> "Edge case discovery" [label="no, revise"];
    "Edge cases reviewed?" -> "Phase 2: Data flow, error handling, testing" [label="yes"];
    "Phase 2: Data flow, error handling, testing" -> "Phase 2 approved?";
    "Phase 2 approved?" -> "Phase 2: Data flow, error handling, testing" [label="no, revise"];
    "Phase 2 approved?" -> "Write design doc" [label="yes"];
    "Write design doc" -> "Invoke writing-plans skill";
}

The terminal state is invoking writing-plans. Do NOT invoke frontend-design, mcp-builder, or any other implementation skill. 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)
• Ask questions in focused batches — group related questions together rather than one at a time
• Ask questions as plain text in the conversation, not using the AskUserQuestion tool
• Focus on understanding: purpose, constraints, success criteria

Exploring approaches:

• Propose 2-3 different approaches with trade-offs
• Present options conversationally with your recommendation and reasoning
• Lead with your recommended option and explain why

Presenting the design:

• Once you believe you understand what you're building, present the design in two phases with edge case discovery between them
• Phase 1: Architecture + Components — present the high-level structure and the pieces that make it up together, then get user approval before continuing
• Edge case discovery — once Phase 1 is approved, invoke superpowers:edge-case-discovery to systematically enumerate failure modes, boundary conditions, and adversarial inputs against the approved architecture. Present the results to the user for review.
• Phase 2: Data flow, error handling, testing — once edge cases are reviewed, present these together as one cohesive section. Error handling must address the specific edge cases discovered, not generic platitudes.
• Scale each phase to its complexity: a few sentences if straightforward, up to 200-300 words if nuanced
• Be ready to go back and clarify if something doesn't make sense

After the Design

Documentation:

• Write the validated design to docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md
• Use elements-of-style:writing-clearly-and-concisely skill if available
• Commit the design document to git

Implementation:

• Invoke the writing-plans skill to create a detailed implementation plan
• Do NOT invoke any other skill. writing-plans is the next step.

Key Principles

• Batch related questions - Group related questions together to reduce round-trips
• Plain text questions - Ask in conversation, not via the AskUserQuestion tool
• YAGNI ruthlessly - Remove unnecessary features from all designs
• Explore alternatives - Always propose 2-3 approaches before settling
• Three-phase validation - Phase 1 (architecture + components), then edge case discovery, then Phase 2 (data flow, error handling, testing)
• Be flexible - Go back and clarify when something doesn't make sense