brainstorm

A guided conversation command that turns an unclear idea into a design document and specification. It first checks whether the project is new or already has code, then asks questions one at a time.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to explore a feature or project idea, review the existing codebase, answer clarifying questions, and produce a concrete design and specification.
Why use it?
It helps replace vague goals with a shared description of what should be built and how it should work.

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/thepushkarp/brainstorm-plan/brainstorm
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/thepushkarp/brainstorm-plan
Per session 16 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 892 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 $0.00016 $0.00892
Opus 5 $0.00008 $0.00446
Sonnet 5 $0.00003 $0.00178
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00089

Measured 2d ago against content hash f2189bcb76a8, 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.

plugins/brainstorm/commands/brainstorm.md · 133 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 133 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Brainstorm: Idea to Design Doc

Help the user turn a fuzzy idea into a fully formed design and specification through structured conversation.

Initial Argument

$ARGUMENTS

Workflow

Step 1: Understand the Context

First, explore the current project state to understand where we're starting:

  1. Check if this is an existing project or a new one:

    • Look for common project indicators: package.json, pyproject.toml, Cargo.toml, go.mod, README.md, src/, etc.
    • If existing project: Use Glob and Read to understand the codebase structure, key files, and existing patterns
    • If new/empty project: Acknowledge this and note we're starting fresh
  2. Briefly summarize what you found (2-3 sentences max) before proceeding to questions.

Step 2: Capture the Initial Idea

If the user provided an argument, use that as the starting idea. Otherwise, ask: "What's the idea you'd like to explore?"

Step 3: Guided Q&A (ONE question at a time)

Ask clarifying questions to refine the idea into a concrete spec:

Rules:

  • Ask only ONE question per message
  • Prefer multiple choice questions when possible (use AskUserQuestion tool)
  • Open-ended questions are OK when choices aren't clear
  • Keep questions focused and specific
  • Build on previous answers
  • Stop when you have enough clarity to write the design

Question areas to cover:

  • Core problem being solved
  • Target users/use cases
  • Key features and behaviors
  • Technical constraints or preferences
  • Integration with existing code (if applicable)
  • Non-goals (what this explicitly won't do)
  • Edge cases and error handling

Step 4: Present the Design (in sections)

Once you understand the requirements, describe the design:

Rules:

  • Present in sections of 200-300 words each
  • After each section, ask: "Does this section look right so far?"
  • Wait for confirmation before continuing to the next section
  • Revise sections based on feedback before moving on

Suggested design doc structure:

  1. Overview - What this is and why it matters (1 paragraph)
  2. Goals - What we're trying to achieve (bullet points)
  3. Non-Goals - What we're explicitly NOT doing (bullet points)
  4. User Experience - How users will interact with this
  5. Technical Approach - High-level architecture and key decisions
  6. Key Components - Main pieces and how they fit together
  7. Open Questions - Things still to be decided

Read the full file on GitHub · 133 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 · 133 lines · 16 tokens per session scan A f2189bcb76a8

Subscribe to this mod's changes

brainstorm is a command published in the GitHub repository thepushkarp/brainstorm-plan (11 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 16 tokens to every session and 892 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.