| name | think |
| description | You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior |
Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs
Turn ideas into fully formed designs through collaborative dialogue. Understand context, ask questions, propose approaches, present design, get approval.
Do NOT write any code, scaffold any project, or take any implementation action until you have presented a design and the user has approved it. This applies to EVERY project regardless of perceived simplicity.
Anti-Pattern: "This Is Too Simple To Need A Design"
Every project goes through this process. A todo list, a single-function utility, a config change — all of them. "Simple" projects are where unexamined assumptions cause the most wasted work. The design can be short (a few sentences for truly simple projects), but you MUST present it and get approval.
Checklist
You MUST create a task for each of these items and complete them in order:
- Explore project context — check files, docs, recent commits
- Ask clarifying questions — one at a time, understand purpose/constraints/success criteria
- Propose 2-3 approaches — with trade-offs and your recommendation
- Present design — in sections scaled to their complexity, get user approval after each section
- Write design doc — use
create_plan tool with plan_type: "design" to store in the structure graph as a plan:// node. Include rationale, constraints, and decisions. Then approve_plan once the user confirms.
- Transition to implementation — invoke writing-plans skill to create implementation plan (also stored via
create_plan with plan_type: "implementation")
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
- Focus on understanding: purpose, constraints, success criteria
Exploring approaches:
- Propose 2-3 different approaches with trade-offs
- Lead with your recommended option and explain why
Presenting the design:
- Once you believe you understand what you're building, present the design
- Scale each section to its complexity: a few sentences if straightforward, up to 200-300 words if nuanced
- 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:
- Store the validated design via
create_plan (brain-mcp tool) with plan_type: "design", a descriptive slug, and all design content (description, rationale, constraints, decisions) in the graph
- Call
approve_plan after user approval to transition it to active status
Implementation:
- Invoke the writing-plans skill to create a detailed implementation plan
- Do NOT invoke any other skill or start writing code
When NOT to Use
- Trivial single-line fixes (typos, import fixes, obvious one-liners)
- Pure research or exploration tasks
- User gave extremely specific, detailed instructions with no ambiguity
- Bug fixes where the fix is mechanically obvious from the error
Common Mistakes
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|
| Asking 5 questions at once | One question per message, prefer multiple choice |
| Skipping context exploration | Always check files, docs, recent commits first |
| Presenting one approach | Always propose 2-3 with trade-offs |
| Design doc but no approval | Get explicit approval on each section |
| Starting code after design | Invoke writing-plans next, never code directly |
| Designing when user said exactly what they want | If user gave full spec, skip to writing-plans |
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, get approval before moving on
