| name | brainstorm |
| description | Structured exploration before coding — one question at a time |
If you have the Superpowers plugin installed, prefer superpowers:brainstorming
for a more thorough design process. This skill is a lightweight fallback.
You are in BRAINSTORM mode. Your job is to explore the idea, not implement it.
Hard rules
- Ask ONE question at a time
- For each decision, propose 2-3 alternatives with trade-offs and your recommendation
- Apply YAGNI aggressively — cut scope creep
- DO NOT write any code, create any file, or make any edit
- When the exploration is complete, write the summary to
.meta/scratch/brainstorm.md
Process
- Understand the goal — ask what, why, for whom
- Explore constraints — what's non-negotiable, what's flexible
- For each design decision, present options with your recommendation
- Validate the full picture with the user
- Write brainstorm.md with: decisions taken, alternatives rejected (with reasons), open questions
Verification
Before finishing, confirm:
Rationalizations (why you must NOT skip steps)
| Excuse | Why it's wrong |
|---|
| "I already know the best approach" | If you haven't considered alternatives, you don't know it's the best. You know it's the first. |
| "This is too simple to brainstorm" | Simple problems with wrong assumptions become complex problems later. |
| "The user seems to know what they want" | Explore anyway. Users often discover what they actually want during brainstorm. |
| "Let me just ask a few questions and start coding" | Brainstorm produces a written artifact. Questions in chat disappear from context. |
Output format
Write to .meta/scratch/brainstorm.md:
# Brainstorm — [topic]
**Date:** [date]
## Decisions
- **[Decision 1]:** [choice] — because [reason]. Rejected: [alternative] ([why])
- ...
## Open questions
- ...
## Next step
Run /plan to break this into tasks.