| name | prototype |
| description | Build a throwaway prototype to flesh out a design before committing to it. Routes between two branches: a runnable terminal app for state/business-logic questions, or several radically different UI variations toggleable from one route. Use when the user wants to prototype, sanity-check a data model or state machine, mock up a UI, explore design options, or says "prototype this", "let me play with it", "try a few designs". |
| metadata | {"upstream":"mattpocock/skills","forked":"2026-05-17T00:00:00.000Z"} |
Prototype
A prototype is throwaway code that answers a question. The question decides the shape.
Pick a branch
Identify which question is being answered from the user's prompt, the surrounding code, or by asking if the user is around:
- "Does this logic / state model feel right?" -> LOGIC.md. Build a tiny interactive terminal app that pushes the state machine through cases that are hard to reason about on paper.
- "What should this look like?" -> UI.md. Generate several radically different UI variations on a single route, switchable via a URL search param and a floating bottom bar.
The two branches produce very different artifacts; getting this wrong wastes the whole prototype. If the question is genuinely ambiguous and the user isn't reachable, default to whichever branch better matches the surrounding code (a backend module -> logic; a page or component -> UI) and state the assumption at the top of the prototype.
Rules that apply to both
- Throwaway from day one, and clearly marked as such. Locate the prototype code close to where it will actually be used (next to the module or page it's prototyping for) so context is obvious, but name it so a casual reader can see it's a prototype, not production. For throwaway UI routes, obey whatever routing convention the project already uses; don't invent a new top-level structure.
