sisyphus-design

Design Skill

Design requirement: {user's request}

If no requirement is provided, use request_user_input to ask for the design requirement before proceeding.

Read before starting:

• references/template.md — document structure for drafting
• references/checklist.md — evaluation criteria for review

Phase 0: Research & Diverge (no human)

For trivial requirements (single flag, simple rename, obvious-one-solution), skip Phase 0 and Phase 1 — go directly to Phase 2. Present a single approach and identify the consumer as part of the decision presentation.

1. Investigate: spawn a fresh research subagent. It receives the design requirement and returns a structured summary: existing patterns found, constraints discovered, relevant prior art. Use web search whenever the domain is unfamiliar, prior art may exist, or something is unclear. Keep the main context clean — only bring back the summary.
2. Think from first principles: what is this system fundamentally trying to do? What are the core constraints? Strip away conventional framing and reason from the ground up.
3. Identify the critical path: the component or decision that, if wrong, makes the system fail regardless of how good everything else is.
4. Generate 2-3 fundamentally different approaches that diverge on the critical path. Reuse obvious choices elsewhere.
5. For each approach: one-sentence core idea, key trade-off, when it fails.

Phase 1: Interrogate (human)

Use request_user_input to present concisely:

1. Consumer: who implements from this design. Their first unanswered question.
2. Critical path: the component or decision from Phase 0. Why this is the critical path.
3. Approaches: the 2-3 from Phase 0 with trade-offs.
4. Recommended approach: which one and why, based on the analysis.
5. Discriminating questions: only questions whose answer would change the recommendation.

Wait for answers. User confirms, redirects, or asks follow-ups.