| name | brainstorm |
| description | ALWAYS invoke when the user wants creative ideas, brainstorming, multi-perspective thinking, or diverse viewpoints on a problem. Triggers: "brainstorm", "creative ideas for", "think about this from different angles", "diverse perspectives on". |
Creative Brainstorming Pipeline
Overview
You orchestrate a multi-lens brainstorming session. A curated panel of 5 thinkers from 16 available lenses generates ideas from diverse perspectives, a synthesizer merges them, and the panel votes iteratively until consensus or max rounds.
When to Use
Invoke when the user wants creative ideation, multi-perspective thinking, or diverse viewpoints on an open problem. Trigger phrases: "brainstorm", "creative ideas for", "think about this from different angles", "diverse perspectives on".
When NOT to use
- The user wants a single concrete decision or implementation — use
build or explain instead.
- The user wants verification of an existing idea — use
debug certainty:low instead.
- The problem has one objectively correct answer knowable from docs — look it up instead of ideating.
Input
$ARGUMENTS — The topic, problem, or question to brainstorm. If empty, ask the user.
Constants
- MAX_ITERATIONS: 5
- PANEL_SIZE: 5
- TOTAL_LENSES: 16
- MAJORITY_THRESHOLD: 3
- TASK_DIR:
.mz/task/
Available Lenses
| Agent | Lens | Best for |
|---|
| lens-engineer | Systems thinking, technical feasibility, scalability | Technical problems, product design, architecture |
| lens-artist | Aesthetics, form, visual communication, experience | Design, branding, UX, presentation, media |
| lens-philosopher | Meaning, ethics, cultural impact, narrative framing | Ethics, purpose, messaging, social impact |
| lens-mathematician | Patterns, optimization, formal logic, structure | Algorithms, processes, strategy, quantitative |
| lens-scientist | Hypotheses, experiments, evidence, natural systems | Research, validation, methodology, bio-inspired |
| lens-economist | Incentives, markets, game theory, resource allocation | Business models, pricing, strategy, growth |
| lens-storyteller | Narrative, metaphor, emotional arcs, audience | Marketing, pitching, content, communication |
| lens-futurist | Emerging trends, disruption, long-term trajectories | Innovation, strategy, roadmaps, future-proofing |
| lens-psychologist | Cognition, bias, motivation, behavior, UX | User research, adoption, persuasion, habits |
| lens-historian | Precedent, patterns of change, cultural context | Risk, lessons learned, positioning, analogies |
| lens-cto | Architecture, build-vs-buy, tech-debt, org impact | Technology strategy, platform leverage, delivery risk |
| lens-data | Measurement, experimentation, instrumentation, growth | Metrics design, A/B tests, analytics, growth loops |
| lens-devops | Reliability, SLOs, observability, capacity, cost | Production systems, on-call, rollout, operational burden |
| lens-product | PMF, jobs-to-be-done, prioritization, kill criteria | Roadmap, MVP scoping, user value, backlog tradeoffs |
| lens-security | Threat modeling, attack surface, authZ, compliance | Appsec review, data handling, trust boundaries |
| lens-seo | Search intent, content strategy, technical SEO | Organic growth, content planning, indexing decisions |
Core Process
Phase Overview
| # | Phase | Details | Loop? |
|---|
| 0 | Setup | Inline below | -- |
| 1 | Panel Selection | Inline below | -- |
| 1.5 | User Approval | Inline gate | -- |
| 2 | Ideation | phases/ideation.md | -- |
| 3 | Synthesis + Voting | phases/voting_and_report.md | max 5 iterations |
| 4 | Report | phases/voting_and_report.md | -- |
Techniques
Techniques: delegated to phase files — see Phase Overview table above.
Common Rationalizations
N/A — collaboration/reference skill, not discipline.
Red Flags
- You collapsed into one-voice output instead of running multiple personas.
- You skipped the critique/voting phase and jumped straight to a report.
- Output lacks persona attribution — ideas cannot be traced to their originating panelist.
Verification
Before completing, output a visible block showing: selected panel (5 names), iteration count, voting rounds, majority verdict or tie status, and the absolute path of the written report. Confirm the report contains per-persona attributions and voting history.
Phase 0: Setup
Derive task name as <YYYY_MM_DD>_brainstorm_<slug> where <YYYY_MM_DD> is today's date (underscores) and slug is a snake_case summary (max 20 chars) of the topic; on same-day collision append _v2, _v3. Create .mz/task/<task_name>/. Write state.md with schema_version: 2, Status: started, Phase: setup, Started: timestamp, phase_complete: false, what_remains: [], Iteration: 0.
Phase 1: Panel Selection
Analyze the topic and select the PANEL_SIZE (5) best-suited lenses from the table above. Consider:
- What lenses are most relevant to this topic?
- What complementary perspectives would create productive tension?
- Favor diversity of approach over obvious relevance — a historian on a tech problem or an artist on a business problem often produces the most surprising ideas.
Write .mz/task/<task_name>/panel.md with the 5 selected agents and a one-sentence justification for each.
Update state phase to panel_selected.
Phase 1.5: User Approval Gate
This orchestrator (not a subagent) presents this gate. This step is interactive and must not be delegated.
Pre-read: Read .mz/task/<task_name>/panel.md with the Read tool. Capture the full file contents (5 selected panelist agents with one-sentence justifications) into context. Also derive the 11 not-selected lenses from the 16-lens table minus the 5 in panel.md.
Surface 1 — emit the plan message. Output the panel verbatim as a normal markdown chat message. Emit the full verbatim contents of .mz/task/<task_name>/panel.md plus the inline list of not-selected lenses — do not substitute a path, summary, or placeholder. Structure:
## Panel ready for review — brainstorm
Panel assembled for "<topic>".
Selected (with justifications):
<verbatim panel.md contents>
Not selected: <comma-separated list of 11 remaining lens names>
---
**Approve** → proceed to Phase 2 (Ideation), dispatch panel in parallel · **Reject** → mark task aborted, stop processing · reply with feedback to revise
Surface 2 — call AskUserQuestion. A short selector — do not re-embed the panel contents in the question body, they live in the plan message above:
- question:
The panel above is ready for review.
- options: Approve — proceed to Phase 2 (Ideation) · Reject — abort the task, nothing dispatched
Response handling:
- Approve → update state, proceed to Phase 2.
- Reject → update state to
aborted_by_user and stop. Do not proceed.
- Any other reply (feedback) → adjust panel per feedback, overwrite
panel.md, return to Surface 1, re-read panel.md, and re-emit the entire plan message from scratch with the full new contents — never diff-only, never summary-only, since context compaction may have destroyed the user's memory of earlier iterations. This is a loop — repeat until the user explicitly approves. Never proceed to Phase 2 without explicit approval.
Phase 2: Ideation
Dispatch the 5 selected personality agents in parallel. See phases/ideation.md for dispatch prompt template and idea collection. Update state phase to ideation_complete, increment iteration.
Phase 3: Synthesis + Voting
A randomly-selected panelist synthesizes all ideas, then all 5 vote.
See phases/voting_and_report.md → Phase 3 for synthesis, voting, and convergence check.
If majority reached → proceed to Phase 4. If not and iteration < MAX_ITERATIONS → loop back to Phase 2 with disagreement context. If MAX_ITERATIONS hit → proceed to Phase 4 with best available.
Phase 4: Report
Compile final report with winning ideas, all perspectives, and voting history. See phases/voting_and_report.md → Phase 4 for report template. Write to .mz/reports/<YYYY_MM_DD>_brainstorm_<topic_slug>.md (append _v2, _v3 if exists). Present summary to user.
Error Handling
- Empty topic: ask via AskUserQuestion. Never guess.
- Agent returns empty/off-topic: retry once with clarified prompt. If still empty, exclude from voting and note in report.
- All iterations exhausted without majority: report the top 2-3 ideas with vote distribution and all personality feedback. Let the user decide.
- Tie in votes: report both tied ideas equally, include all justifications.
State Management
After each phase, update .mz/task/<task_name>/state.md. Track current phase, iteration count, votes per round, and participating agents. Persist all ideas and votes in .mz/task/<task_name>/history.md for later rounds.
State persists to .mz/task/<task_name>/state.md. Schema is v2: the file's first line is schema_version: 2, and alongside the skill's existing Status / Phase / Started keys it carries phase_complete (boolean) and what_remains (YAML list of strings). Set phase_complete: false on phase entry and true once the phase's artifacts are written and its gates pass; refresh what_remains on every phase transition; what_remains MUST be [] when Status: complete. On reading a schema_version: 1 or unversioned file, add the missing keys, set schema_version: 2, and log the upgrade.
Critical: never proceed past the approval gate without explicit user approval. Never skip voting. Never fabricate votes.
