stacks-prototype

# Prototype A prototype is **throwaway code that answers a question**. The question decides the shape. Credit: adapted from Matt Pocock's `prototype` skill (MIT), <https://github.com/mattpocock/skills>. ## 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 or state model feel right?"** goes to [LOGIC.md](LOGIC.md). A single shareable HTML file, free-play buttons plus tabbed guided walkthroughs, that pushes the state machine through cases that are hard to reason about on paper and that a non-developer can drive. - **"What should this look like?"** goes to [UI.md](UI.md). Several radically different stx variants of one view, switchable in the browser. The two branches produce very different artifacts, so getting this wrong wastes the whole prototype. If the question is genuinely ambiguous and the user is not reachable, default by where the code lives (a model, action or job means logic, a view or component means UI) and state the assumption at the top of the prototype. ## Rules that apply to both 1. **Throwaway from day one, and marked as such.** Put the prototype next to what it is prototyping for, so context is obvious, and name it so a casual reader can see it is not production. 2. **Trivial to run.** A UI prototype starts from `buddy dev`. A logic demo is a single HTML file the user double-clicks. No thinking required to start it. 3. **No persistence by default.** State lives in memory. Persistence is the thing the prototype is *checking*, not something it should depend on. If the question genuinely involves the database, point it at the testing SQLite file or a clearly named scratch one. 4. **Skip the polish.** No tests, no error handling beyond what makes it runnable, no abstractions. The point is to learn something fast. 5. **Surface the state.** After every action, or on every variant switch, render the full relevant state so the user can see what changed. 6. **Capture it when done.** Fold the validated decision into the real code, then keep the prototype itself as a **primary source**: commit it to a `prototype/<name>` branch, out of `main`, and leave a pointer to that branch on the issue. Capture the answer too, the verdict and the question it settled. `main` keeps only the validated decision. ## What a prototype is not Not a spike you promote. The code was written under prototype constraints, so rewrite it properly when you fold it in. Not a design deliverable either: for production UI quality, `stacks-design-taste` and the aesthetic skills own that bar, and this skill only answers "which direction". ## Downstream > Answer in hand? Take it into `/stacks-plan-review` or `/stacks-new-feature`. > If the winning variant is the one you will build, `/stacks-design-taste` sets > the bar for the real implementation.