brainstorming

name	brainstorming
description	Explore ideas and create designs before implementation
license	MIT
compatibility	opencode
metadata	{"category":"design-and-planning","audience":"user-facing"}

Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

Overview

Turn ideas into fully formed designs through collaborative dialogue. Understand the project context, ask clarifying questions, explore approaches, and present a validated design before any implementation begins.

When to Use

Use before starting any creative or significant work: new features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying existing behavior.

The Process

1. Understand the idea:

• Check the current project state (files, docs, recent commits)
• Ask questions one at a time, preferring multiple-choice where possible
• Focus on purpose, constraints, and success criteria

2. Explore approaches:

• Propose 2–3 different approaches with trade-offs
• Lead with a recommendation and explain the reasoning

3. Present the design:

• Present in small sections (200–300 words each)
• Ask for feedback after each section
• Cover: architecture, components, data flow, error handling, testing strategy
• Present the design in the chat. Do not create files.

After the Design

• Present the final validated design in the chat
• Ask: "Ready to create an implementation plan?"
• If yes, use the writing-plans skill

Stop Conditions

• If the user already wants implementation instead of design exploration, switch to writing-plans or direct execution as appropriate
• If key requirements are unknown, ask the minimum clarifying question before proposing approaches
• If the codebase or context is missing, state what is missing and ask for it instead of inventing details

Fallbacks

• If there is not enough context for a full design, produce only the assumptions, options, and questions that can be justified
• If the user wants a quick recommendation rather than a full design session, provide a concise recommended approach with trade-offs

Key Principles

• One question at a time — avoid overwhelming
• Multiple choice preferred — make answering easier
• YAGNI ruthlessly — challenge any feature that doesn't seem necessary
• Explore alternatives — always propose and evaluate several approaches
• Incremental validation — confirm each part of the design together
• Revisit earlier decisions — when new information changes the picture, go back