write-ideate

name	write-ideate
description	Brainstorms article ideas and content strategies using structured ideation prompts from jeffbailey.us. Use when the user says /write:ideate, wants to brainstorm topics, generate article ideas, explore content angles, or needs creative inspiration for writing. Triggers on "brainstorm", "idea storm", "article ideas", "content ideas", "what should I write about", "topic ideas".

Writing Ideation

Generate article ideas and content strategies using structured brainstorming techniques. Fetches ideation prompts from jeffbailey.us.

Available Prompts

Prompt	Purpose	Slug
Idea Storm	Divergent thinking, perspective shifting, constraint removal, analogous thinking	idea-storm

Prompt Caching

All prompts are cached locally as markdown to avoid repeated network fetches.

Cache directory: ~/.claude/cache/writing-prompts/

To load a prompt (replace {slug} with the prompt slug from the table above):

1. Check if ~/.claude/cache/writing-prompts/{slug}.md exists
2. If it exists, read and use it
3. If it does not exist, fetch and cache it:

   mkdir -p ~/.claude/cache/writing-prompts && curl -s "https://jeffbailey.us/prompts/{slug}/raw.html" | pandoc -f html -t markdown --wrap=none -o ~/.claude/cache/writing-prompts/{slug}.md
   

4. Read the newly cached file and use it

To refresh a cached prompt: delete the cached file and re-fetch using step 3.

Workflow

1. Understand the context -- Ask the user about their subject area, audience, existing content, and goals. What gap are they trying to fill? What topics interest them?

2. Load the ideation prompt -- Load the Idea Storm prompt (slug: idea-storm) using the caching steps above.

3. Gather variables -- If the loaded prompt contains template variables in the format {{variable_name|default="value"}}:

   • Has a non-empty default: Present the default and let the user accept or override it.
   • Has an empty default or no default: The user must provide a value. Show the HTML comment examples as suggestions to choose from.

   Present all variables at once. Pre-fill any values already clear from the user's context.

4. Apply the prompt -- Substitute all gathered values, then follow the loaded prompt to run a structured brainstorming session. The prompt defines techniques for generating diverse, non-obvious ideas.

5. Filter and prioritize -- Help the user evaluate generated ideas against their goals, audience, and existing content. Identify which ideas have the most potential.

6. Recommend frameworks -- For the top ideas, suggest which writing framework from write-article would be the best fit (e.g., "This topic works best as a Diataxis Explanation" or "This is a natural AIDA piece").

7. Hand off -- When the user selects an idea, they can use /write:article to create it or /write:strategy for deeper strategic analysis first.

Reference

Ideation prompts are maintained at https://jeffbailey.us/prompts/