brainstorm

A guided question-and-answer workflow for defining what a software project should build or change. It uses an existing project definition when one is available.

In plain words
What is it for?
It helps explore scope, constraints, performance, security, accessibility, and success criteria through structured questions.
Why use it?
It helps turn vague ideas into agreed requirements, limits, priorities, and signs of success before development begins.

Command

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add commands/lgbarn/shipyard/brainstorm
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/lgbarn/shipyard
Per session 11 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 1,017 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00011 $0.01017
Opus 5 $0.00005 $0.00508
Sonnet 5 $0.00002 $0.00203
Haiku 4.5 $0.00001 $0.00102

Measured 2d ago against content hash d66d2fe27464, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

brainstorm scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

commands/brainstorm.md · 108 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 108 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

/shipyard:brainstorm - Requirements Exploration

You are executing the Shipyard brainstorming workflow. Follow these steps precisely and in order.

Step 1: Check Project Exists

Verify .shipyard/ directory exists. If not, tell the user:

"No Shipyard project found. Run /shipyard:init first to create a project."

Then stop.

Step 2: Check Existing Project Definition

Check if .shipyard/PROJECT.md already exists.

  • If it exists: Use AskUserQuestion to ask: "A project definition already exists. What would you like to do?"
    • Update existing — Load the current PROJECT.md and use it as starting context for the brainstorming dialogue. The user can refine, expand, or modify the existing definition.
    • Start fresh — Ignore the existing PROJECT.md and begin a new brainstorming session from scratch.

Step 3: Socratic Dialogue

Invoke the shipyard:shipyard-brainstorming skill to conduct a Socratic dialogue with the user.

  • Explore what they want to build or change
  • Ask clarifying questions about scope, constraints, and priorities
  • Identify non-functional requirements (performance, security, accessibility)
  • Determine success criteria
  • If a topic argument was provided, focus the dialogue on that area

Continue the dialogue until the user indicates they are satisfied with the requirements exploration.

Step 4: Capture Project Definition

When the user is satisfied, capture all decisions into .shipyard/PROJECT.md with these sections:

  • Project Name
  • Description (1-2 paragraphs)
  • Goals (numbered list)
  • Non-Goals (explicitly out of scope)
  • Requirements (functional, grouped by area)
  • Non-Functional Requirements
  • Success Criteria
  • Constraints (technical, timeline, budget)

Step 5: Offer Roadmap Creation

Follow Model Routing Protocol (select the correct model for each agent role using model_routing from config; see docs/PROTOCOLS.md) -- read model_routing from config for architect model selection.

Read the full file on GitHub · 108 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 108 lines · 11 tokens per session scan A d66d2fe27464

Subscribe to this mod's changes

brainstorm is a command published in the GitHub repository lgbarn/shipyard (65 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 11 tokens to every session and 1,017 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.