Project-level overrides for the superpowers brainstorming skill. Adds scope modes (EXPAND/HOLD/REDUCE) and required design artifacts to every brainstorming session.
Installation
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Project-level overrides for the superpowers brainstorming skill. Adds scope modes (EXPAND/HOLD/REDUCE) and required design artifacts to every brainstorming session.
Brainstorming — Project Overrides
These overrides augment the base superpowers:brainstorming skill. Apply these rules IN ADDITION to the plugin's base behavior.
Scope Modes
Before diving into questions, present the user with a scope mode choice. This frames the entire brainstorming session:
What scope mode fits this work?
EXPAND — "What's the 10x version?" Push ambition, identify delight opportunities (aim for 5+ ideas), explore adjacent features and integrations
HOLD — Maximum rigor on current scope. Bulletproof edge cases, map every failure mode, build an Error & Rescue Registry
REDUCE — Surgical ruthlessness. Strip to minimum viable, defer everything non-essential with explicit rationale for each deferral
Default to HOLD if the user doesn't choose. The chosen mode influences questioning depth, approach count, and design scope throughout the session.
Mode effects:
EXPAND: Ask "what else could this enable?" after each design section. Propose at least one ambitious stretch option.
HOLD: For each component, ask "what happens when this fails?" Build an Error & Rescue Registry table.
REDUCE: After each design section, challenge: "Can we ship without this?" Defer anything non-essential.
Required Design Artifacts
Include in every design doc:
"NOT in scope" section — list each deferred item with rationale for why it's deferred. This prevents scope creep by making exclusions explicit.
"What already exists" section — reusable code, utilities, and patterns found during exploration. Prevents rebuilding what's already there.
Error & Rescue Registry (for HOLD/REDUCE modes) — table of failure modes with recovery strategies:
| Error | Trigger | Impact | Rescue |
|-------|---------|--------|--------|
| DB write fails | disk full, WAL lock | data loss | retry with backoff, surface to user |
ASCII diagrams for data flows and state machines (mandatory for non-trivial features). Keep them simple — boxes and arrows, not art.
