brainstorming

brainstorming is a skill for Claude Code from a-ariff/ariff-claude-plugins. It costs 13 tokens per session (475 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guided design process that turns a rough idea into an actionable plan by asking questions, comparing approaches, and describing the design in stages.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to explore product ideas, system designs, architecture choices, data flow, error handling, and testing plans.
Why use it?
It helps clarify the problem, users, constraints, and success conditions before implementation begins.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: when-to-use in frontmatter.

Part of the brainstorming plugin — 1 skill shipped together

Good fit Use it to explore product ideas, system designs, architecture choices, data flow…

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/a-ariff/ariff-claude-plugins/brainstorming
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.

Any agent
npx skills add a-ariff/ariff-claude-plugins --skill brainstorming
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/a-ariff/ariff-claude-plugins

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install brainstorming, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 1 skill.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for brainstorming

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/a-ariff/ariff-claude-plugins/brainstorming.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/a-ariff/ariff-claude-plugins/brainstorming)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/a-ariff/ariff-claude-plugins/brainstorming"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/a-ariff/ariff-claude-plugins/brainstorming.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 13 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 475 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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 5.1 $0.00013 $0.00475
Opus 5 $0.00006 $0.00237
Sonnet 5 $0.00003 $0.00095
Haiku 4.5 $0.00001 $0.00047

Measured 7d ago against content hash 84b67f71b972, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

brainstorming 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 7d 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/brainstorming/skills/brainstorming/SKILL.md · 86 lines

What it actually says

Brainstorming → Design

Purpose

Turn vague ideas into actionable designs through Socratic questioning.

"I'm using the Brainstorming skill to refine your idea into a design."

The Flow

[Idea] → Phase 1: Understand → Phase 2: Explore → Phase 3: Design → [Plan]

Phase 1: Understanding (Ask Questions)

One question at a time. Prefer multiple choice.

Questions to ask:

  • What problem does this solve?
  • Who's the user?
  • What's success look like?
  • Any constraints (time, tech, integrations)?
  • What's already built that this touches?

Before asking: Check working directory for existing context.

Phase 2: Exploration (Present Options)

Present 2-3 approaches:

### Approach A: [Name]
- Architecture: [how it works]
- Pros: [benefits]
- Cons: [tradeoffs]
- Complexity: [low/medium/high]

### Approach B: [Name]
...

Ask: "Which approach resonates? Or should we explore others?"

Phase 3: Design (Incremental)

Present design in 200-300 word chunks:

  1. Architecture overview
  2. Key components
  3. Data flow
  4. Error handling
  5. Testing strategy

After each chunk: "Does this look right?"

Phase 4: Handoff

When design approved:

"Ready to create the implementation plan?"

If yes → Use writing-plans skill

Going Backwards

It's okay to revisit earlier phases:

  • New constraint discovered → Back to Phase 1
  • Design doesn't feel right → Back to Phase 2
  • Missing requirements → Back to Phase 1

Don't force linear progress.

Principles

  • YAGNI - Don't design what's not needed
  • Explore alternatives - Never settle on first idea
  • Validate incrementally - Small chunks, frequent feedback
  • Document decisions - Why, not just what
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. 7d ago First seen · 86 lines · 13 tokens per session scan A 84b67f71b972

Subscribe to this mod's changes

brainstorming is a skill published in the GitHub repository a-ariff/ariff-claude-plugins (14 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 13 tokens to every session and 475 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.

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