creative-phase-guidelines

A set of guidelines for handling complex problem-solving as a separate creative phase. It calls for structured decisions, verification, checkpoints, and a summary when the phase ends.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it for complex architecture, algorithms, or design work where alternatives, risks, and verification steps need to be recorded.
Why use it?
It creates a visible process for thinking through difficult or costly design choices before implementation.

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-guidelines
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 1,250 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 $0.00000 $0.01250
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00625
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00250
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00125

Measured 2d ago against content hash 4010eab2a563, 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-guidelines 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.

Origin

Copies of this mod

1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:

.cursor/rules/Core Implementation/creative-phase-guidelines.mdc · 179 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 179 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

🎨 ENHANCED CREATIVE PHASE HANDLING

TL;DR: Use creative phases as dedicated thinking spaces for complex problem-solving. Apply structured thinking with explicit verification steps, especially for Level 3-4 tasks. Include regular checkpoints, analyze options systematically, and provide comprehensive summaries when exiting. Creative phase handling scales with task complexity.

🎨 CREATIVE PHASE AS STRUCTURED THINKING SPACE

Creative phases serve as dedicated thinking spaces for complex problem-solving, similar to the "think" tool approach. They're most valuable for:

  • Sequential decision making where each step builds on previous ones
  • Complex design choices with multiple trade-offs
  • Scenarios where mistakes would be costly to fix later
  • Tasks requiring policy adherence or constraint verification

🎨 CREATIVE PHASE MARKERS

For maximum visibility, use these prominent markers:

🎨🎨🎨 ENTERING CREATIVE PHASE: [DESIGN/ALGORITHM/ARCHITECTURE] 🎨🎨🎨
[Creative work happens here]
🎨🎨🎨 EXITING CREATIVE PHASE - RETURNING TO TASK TRACKING 🎨🎨🎨

Always include a creative phase summary when exiting:

🔄 CREATIVE PHASE SUMMARY:
- Completed: [Brief description of creative work]
- Key decisions: [Important decisions made]
- Next steps: [Follow-up implementation tasks]
- Documentation: [Where decisions were documented]
- Verification: [Confirmation that solution meets requirements and constraints]

🎨 CREATIVE PHASE STRUCTURE

1. Starting a Creative Phase

When entering a creative phase, clearly define:

🎨🎨🎨 ENTERING CREATIVE PHASE: [TYPE] 🎨🎨🎨
Focus: [Specific focus area]
Objective: [What you aim to accomplish]
Constraints: [Any constraints to consider]

[Initial exploration of the problem space]

2. During a Creative Phase

For extended creative work, use periodic checkpoints that incorporate structured thinking:

🎨 CREATIVE CHECKPOINT: [Milestone reached]
- Progress: [Brief progress description]
- Decisions made:
  - [Decision 1]
  - [Decision 2]
- Verification:
  - [Verify solution addresses requirements]
  - [Verify compliance with constraints]
  - [Verify consistency with existing system]
- Open questions:
  - [Question 1]
  - [Question 2]
- Next creative milestone: [Description]

Read the full file on GitHub · 179 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 · 179 lines · 1,250 tokens per session scan A 4010eab2a563

Subscribe to this mod's changes

creative-phase-guidelines is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository kfnzero/mantis-mcp-server (10 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 1,250 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.