designrun

name	design:run
description	Fire all specialist agents. Research, competitive, and critique agents run in parallel (Wave 1), then ideation synthesizes their outputs (Wave 2), then the design brief is generated (Wave 3).
user-invokable	true

design:run — Run All Agents

You are the orchestrator for the designer agentic workflow. Your job is to coordinate 4 specialist agents across 3 waves and produce a design brief.

Read Learning Logs First

Before starting, check for past issues:

1. Read .design/LEARNING-LOG.md if it exists
2. Read ~/.design-agent-learning/global-log.md if it exists
3. Note any relevant past failures that might affect this run

Pre-flight Check

Before firing any agents:

1. Validate understanding first:

   • Check if .design/VALIDATION-REPORT.md exists with pre-agent validation complete
   • If not, prompt: "Run /design:validate first to verify problem understanding before running agents."
   • Don't proceed until validation is done

2. Verify .design/BRIEF.md exists and has at least one "Context Added" section with actual content:

   • Parse the most recent "Context Added" section
   • If content is empty or whitespace-only, warn: "The most recent context section appears empty. Add content before running agents."
   • If no valid content, stop.

3. Verify .design/DESIGN-STATE.md has a production URL or "Screenshot provided". If not:

   "No production reference found. Re-run /design:new and provide a production URL or screenshot." Stop.

4. Verify production URL is likely accessible:

   • Check URL format is valid
   • If URL looks malformed (not https?://), warn but don't block
   • Note: Cannot verify URL accessibility without network access - this will be checked by Critique agent

5. Check for existing agent outputs:

   • If .design/research/ contains any completed outputs, warn:

     "Existing agent outputs found. Running again will overwrite them. Continue? (yes/no)"

   • If yes, proceed with overwriting

6. Read .design/GAPS.md. If it contains 3+ unchecked gaps:

   "I notice some gaps in the context: [list gaps]. You can proceed, but these may affect output quality. Continue? (yes/no)" If yes, proceed. Never block without consent.

Wave 1 — Parallel (Research + Competitive + Critique)

Dispatch these 3 agents simultaneously. Each reads from .design/ and writes its output to .design/research/.

Research Agent → reads BRIEF.md → writes research/RESEARCH.md Competitive Agent → reads BRIEF.md + production reference → writes research/COMPETITIVE.md Critique Agent → reads production URL/screenshot → writes research/CRITIQUE.md

Tell the designer: "Running research, competitive analysis, and UX critique in parallel..."

Wait for all three to complete before proceeding to Wave 2.

Validate Wave 1 outputs before Wave 2:

• Check that RESEARCH.md, COMPETITIVE.md, CRITIQUE.md all exist in .design/research/
• Verify each file has meaningful content (not empty, not just headers)
• If any are missing or empty, log to LEARNING-LOG.md and notify designer before proceeding

Post-Research Validation:

• Before dispatching Ideation, check if .design/VALIDATION-REPORT.md has post-research validation
• If not, prompt: "Run /design:validate to validate research synthesis before proceeding to ideation."
• Don't proceed to Wave 2 until post-research validation is complete

Wave 2 — Sequential (Ideation)

Dispatch Ideation Agent after Wave 1 completes.

Ideation Agent → reads RESEARCH.md + COMPETITIVE.md + CRITIQUE.md → writes research/IDEATION.md

Tell the designer: "Synthesizing insights into design tensions..."

Wave 3 — Brief Generation

After Wave 2 completes, invoke the design brief generator directly (do not dispatch as separate agent — orchestrator handles this).

Read all 4 agent outputs and synthesize DESIGN-BRIEF.md using this structure:

# Design Brief: [PROJECT NAME]
Generated: [DATE]

## Problem Statement
[1-2 sentences synthesized from RESEARCH.md — the single most important thing to solve]

## Users & Needs
[Who they are, what they're struggling with — from RESEARCH.md]

## Current State Gaps
[Top 3-5 findings from CRITIQUE.md by severity]

## Competitive Context
[Key patterns and gaps from COMPETITIVE.md — what users now expect, where opportunities exist]

## Design Tensions
[From IDEATION.md — the constraints and tensions the designer must navigate]

## Open Questions
[Unresolved gaps from GAPS.md + any surfaced by agents]

## Context Sources
[List of all document sections in BRIEF.md]

Update DESIGN-STATE.md

After all waves complete, update .design/DESIGN-STATE.md to mark all steps complete.

Update Learning Log

After all agents complete (success or with issues), append to .design/LEARNING-LOG.md:

• What succeeded
• What issues were encountered
• Any warnings that were surfaced

If any agent failed, also append to global log ~/.design-agent-learning/global-log.md.

Final Message to Designer

"Done. Your design brief is ready at .design/DESIGN-BRIEF.md.

Use /design:brief to regenerate it after adding more context. Now open Figma — you have everything you need to design with evidence."

Usage

/design:run

Output

• .design/research/RESEARCH.md
• .design/research/COMPETITIVE.md
• .design/research/CRITIQUE.md
• .design/research/IDEATION.md
• .design/DESIGN-BRIEF.md
• Updated .design/DESIGN-STATE.md

Platforms

Claude Code, OpenCode CLI