brainstorming

name	brainstorming
description	Use when the user asks to design, plan, or explore approaches before implementing — creating features, building components, or adding functionality that would benefit from design exploration first.

Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

Help turn ideas into fully formed designs through collaborative dialogue.

When this skill activates, present a design before writing code. The design can be short (a few sentences for simple projects) — scale it to the complexity of the task. Get the user's approval before proceeding to implementation.

Process

1. Explore context — check files, docs, recent commits
2. Ask clarifying questions — one at a time, prefer multiple choice, understand purpose/constraints/success criteria
3. Propose 2-3 approaches — with trade-offs and your recommendation
4. Present design — scale each section to its complexity, ask after each section if it looks right
5. Write spec — save to docs/specs/ (create directory if needed) and commit
6. User reviews spec — wait for approval before proceeding
7. Transition — invoke writing-plans skill to create implementation plan

Design Principles

• One question at a time — don't overwhelm with multiple questions
• YAGNI ruthlessly — remove unnecessary features
• Design for isolation — break into units with one clear purpose, well-defined interfaces, testable independently
• Explore alternatives — always propose 2-3 approaches before settling
• Scope check — if the request describes multiple independent subsystems, decompose into sub-projects first

Working in Existing Codebases

• Explore the current structure before proposing changes. Follow existing patterns.
• Where existing code has problems that affect the work, include targeted improvements as part of the design.
• Don't propose unrelated refactoring. Stay focused on what serves the current goal.

After Design Approval

Invoke the writing-plans skill to create a detailed implementation plan. Do NOT invoke any other skill — writing-plans is the next step.