| name | tech-design |
| description | Workshop the technical approach and capture notes in the plan |
| label | Tech design |
| pill-order | {"specifying":7,"implementing":4} |
| jockey-hint | Good fit when the user wants to talk through technical tradeoffs before committing to implementation. Demote once substantial tech notes are already in the plan unless the user signals a fresh area to workshop. |
| workhorse-version | 0.1.0 |
Your task: Tech design workshop
If you don't already have this card's context (title, identifier, description) — for instance when running outside Workhorse — establish it first by following .agents/docs/card-context.md.
Workshop the technical approach for this card interactively. The goal is to capture rationale, tradeoffs, and decisions into the card's plan file as prose notes.
- Read the card's specs and any existing plan at
.workhorse/plans/{card-id}/
- Skim the relevant code in the target repo to anchor the conversation in what exists
- Surface the design choices that need making — architecture, data flow, component boundaries, migration steps — and ask the user focused questions one or two at a time
- As decisions land, write them into the plan as prose notes under clear section headings. Don't force a checklist yet — notes are fine on their own
- If no plan exists, create one at
.workhorse/plans/{card-id}/plan.md — an H1 title, an optional summary, and sections of notes are enough for a first version
The plan is a free-form working document, not a spec. It can carry a mix of tech design notes, refinement notes, and (later) a checklist of steps — see specs/plan/overview.md for the shape.
Do not start implementation from this skill. This skill is for thinking and note-taking only.