| name | brainstorm |
| description | Use before any creative/design work (a feature, a package, an evolution) — explores intent and design via the spec-ladder with multi-peer adversarial review BEFORE implementation. |
harness/brainstorm
Native sentropic ideation. Stronger than a single-pass brainstorm: it climbs the spec-ladder and
gates each design step with ≥2 independent adversarial peers and batched owner decisions.
Open the act: harness brainstorm "<topic>" [--peers <n>] [--ladder study|vol|evol] (records a WorkEvent).
The spec-ladder
Pick the rung that matches the uncertainty, write the artifact under spec/:
- STUDY (
SPEC_STUDY_<TOPIC>.md) — open question, options, trade-offs. No commitment yet.
- VOL (volition) — the chosen direction + rationale, still reversible.
- EVOL (
SPEC_EVOL_<TOPIC>.md) — the committed design with numbered decisions (D1…Dn) ready to plan.
Don't skip rungs for a genuinely open problem; don't over-ceremony a reversible one.
Multi-peer adversarial review (the differentiator)
Before presenting decisions, get ≥2 independent reviews from distinct angles (e.g. Opus 4.8 + Codex
5.5-xhigh, or distinct lenses: correctness / risk / user-value). Reconcile divergences explicitly — a
lone reviewer rationalises; a panel surfaces failure modes. Reversible calls: decide solo. Blocking /
irreversible calls: escalate.
Batched decisions
Present owner decisions as a clean full dossier (never a delta), THEN ask in lots of ≤4 questions.
Each question carries its own context inline (source + stakes + consequence) — an id like "D5" alone
carries no meaning. Once answered, treat all answers final; do re-examination in prose, don't re-poll.
Done
A ladder artifact exists, peers reconciled, decisions captured. Hand off to harness/plan to turn the
EVOL decisions into BRANCH.md lots.
