| name | process-plan-brainstorming |
| description | Use when starting non-trivial feature, component, or behaviour-change work whose design or requirements are not yet settled. Not for trivial, mechanical, or fully-specified changes. |
Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs
Adapted from the superpowers plugin (MIT).
Overview
Help turn ideas into fully formed designs and specs through natural collaborative dialogue.
When NOT to use: trivial, mechanical, or fully-specified tasks where design and requirements are already settled.
Start by understanding the current project context, then ask questions one at a time to refine the idea. Once you understand what you're building, present the design in small sections (200-300 words), checking after each section whether it looks right so far.
The Process
Understanding the idea:
- Check out the current project state first (files, docs, recent commits)
- Ask questions one at a time to refine the idea
- Prefer multiple choice questions when possible, but open-ended is fine too
- Only one question per message - if a topic needs more exploration, break it into multiple questions
- Focus on understanding: purpose, constraints, success criteria
Exploring approaches:
- Propose 2-3 different approaches with trade-offs
- Present options conversationally with your recommendation and reasoning
- Lead with your recommended option and explain why
Capability check. Generating and weighing 2-3 genuinely different designs is capability-sensitive -
a weaker model produces shallow, near-duplicate options. If the session is on a lesser tier, delegate
the approach-generation/synthesis to a pinned sonnet/opus subagent or offer
switch-model-or-continue (the main agent cannot self-switch its model). See
bitranox:process-agents-subagent-driven-development ("The session model is fixed").
Presenting the design:
- Once you believe you understand what you're building, present the design
- Break it into sections of 200-300 words
- Ask after each section whether it looks right so far
- Cover: architecture, components, data flow, error handling, testing
- Be ready to go back and clarify if something doesn't make sense
After the Design
Documentation:
- Write the validated design to
docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md
- Use elements-of-style:writing-clearly-and-concisely skill if available
- Commit the design document to git
Implementation (if continuing):
- Ask: "Ready to set up for implementation?"
- REQUIRED SUB-SKILL: Use bitranox:git-worktrees to create an isolated workspace
- REQUIRED SUB-SKILL: Use bitranox:process-plan-writing-plans to create a detailed implementation plan
Key Principles
- One question at a time - Don't overwhelm with multiple questions
- Multiple choice preferred - Easier to answer than open-ended when possible
- YAGNI ruthlessly - Remove unnecessary features from all designs
- Explore alternatives - Always propose 2-3 approaches before settling
- Incremental validation - Present design in sections, validate each
- Be flexible - Go back and clarify when something doesn't make sense
