creative-phase-examples

A reference card with examples for documenting creative design work, such as comparing different algorithms or implementation approaches.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when choosing between technical approaches or exploring design alternatives before implementation.
Why use it?
It gives a clear record of the options considered, their trade-offs, and the final choice.

Cursor rule for Cursor

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 rules/kfnzero/mantis-mcp-server/creative-phase-examples
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/kfnzero/mantis-mcp-server

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 0 Nothing until a file matches its globs; then the whole rule loads.
When invoked 4,626 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.
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Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.04626
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.02313
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00925
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00463

Measured 2d ago against content hash 7cd747471eb0, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

creative-phase-examples 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.

.cursor/rules/Extended Details/creative-phase-examples.mdc · 645 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 645 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

CREATIVE PHASE EXAMPLES

TL;DR: These examples demonstrate the correct format for documenting different types of creative phases across complexity levels. Use these as templates when engaging in creative work during tasks.

⚠️ CORRECT CREATIVE PHASE EXAMPLES ⚠️

Example 1: Algorithm Design Creative Phase

🎨🎨🎨 ENTERING CREATIVE PHASE: ALGORITHM DESIGN 🎨🎨🎨
Focus: Data sorting algorithm
Objective: Efficient sorting of large datasets with minimal memory overhead
Constraints: O(n log n) performance, stable sort, memory efficient

Working on sorting algorithm for large datasets:
- Need O(n log n) performance
- Must handle duplicate values
- Should be stable sort
- Memory constraints: O(1) extra space preferred

Options being considered:
1. Modified QuickSort with median-of-three pivot
   - Pros: Very fast average case
   - Cons: Not stable, worst case O(n²)
   
2. MergeSort with in-place merging
   - Pros: Stable, guaranteed O(n log n)
   - Cons: In-place version is complex
   
3. Custom hybrid approach
   - Pros: Can optimize for specific data patterns
   - Cons: More complex implementation

Analysis:
- Standard QuickSort isn't stable and can degrade to O(n²)
- Standard MergeSort uses O(n) extra space
- In-place merge is possible but complex
- Tim Sort could be a good option but more complex to implement

Decision: Implementing modified MergeSort with block-based in-place approach
- Using block size of sqrt(n) for balanced performance
- Implementing rotation-based in-place merging
- Adding adaptive optimization for already-sorted runs

🎨 CREATIVE CHECKPOINT: Initial algorithm design
- Progress: Selected core algorithm approach
- Decisions made:
  - Block-based MergeSort as foundation
  - In-place merging with rotation technique
  - Adaptive optimization for already-sorted runs
- Open questions:
  - Optimal block size determination method
  - Thread safety considerations
- Next creative milestone: Implementation details and edge cases

[Algorithm pseudocode and implementation details...]

🎨🎨🎨 EXITING CREATIVE PHASE - RETURNING TO TASK TRACKING 🎨🎨🎨

🔄 CREATIVE PHASE SUMMARY:
- Completed: Algorithm design for large dataset sorting
- Key decisions: Modified MergeSort with block-based approach
- Next steps: 
  1. Implement the algorithm in code
  2. Create test cases for edge cases
  3. Benchmark performance
- Documentation: Algorithm design details added to systemPatterns.md

🔄 TASK UPDATE: Implement sorting algorithm - In Progress
- Updated in tasks.md ✓
- Creative work completed: Algorithm design
- Implementation details added to activeContext.md ✓

Read the full file on GitHub · 645 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 · 645 lines · 4,626 tokens per session scan A 7cd747471eb0

Subscribe to this mod's changes

creative-phase-examples is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository kfnzero/mantis-mcp-server (10 stars, last pushed 12mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 4,626 tokens. 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 2026-08-31.