brainstorm-beagle

Brainstorm: Ideas Into Specs

Turn a fuzzy idea into a comprehensive, implementation-free project spec through collaborative dialogue.

The output is a standalone spec document — structured enough for any agentic system to consume, clear enough for a human to act on. It captures WHAT and WHY, never HOW.

<hard_gate> Do NOT write any code, create implementation plans, scaffold projects, or take any implementation action. This skill produces a SPEC DOCUMENT only. Every project goes through this process regardless of perceived simplicity — "simple" projects are where unexamined assumptions waste the most work. </hard_gate>

Workflow

Complete these steps in order:

1. Check for a concept brief — if .beagle/concepts/<slug>/brief.md exists for this idea, ingest it and skip most of steps 2-4 (see Concept brief ingestion below)
2. Explore context — read project files, docs, git history, existing specs (lighter pass if a brief is present)
   • Prior art check (brownfield only): before specing a feature onto an existing codebase, run a neutral capability sweep to confirm the thing doesn't already exist (see Prior Art Check below). Runs regardless of whether a brief is present.
3. Assess scope — is this one spec or does it need decomposition?
4. Ask clarifying questions — one at a time, follow the thread (few to none if a brief is present)
5. Propose 2-3 directions — high-level product approaches with tradeoffs
6. Draft spec — write the structured spec document
7. Self-review — check for completeness, contradictions, implementation leakage (see references/spec-reviewer.md)
8. User review — present for approval, iterate if needed
9. Write to disk — save to .beagle/concepts/<slug>/spec.md

Brief present? ──→ Yes → Ingest brief (skip most discovery) ──┐
                ──→ No  → Explore context → Assess scope       │
                                            ├─ Too large? → Decompose → Brainstorm first sub-project
                                            └─ Right size? → Clarifying questions ─┘
                                                                                   │
Brownfield? ──→ Yes → Prior art check (neutral capability sweep) ─→ Already exists? ─→ surface, reshape/kill spec
            ──→ No  → skip ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
                                                                                                  │
Both paths converge → Propose directions → Draft spec → Self-review (fix inline) → User review
                                                                                        ├─ Changes? → Revise
                                                                                        └─ Approved? → Write to concept folder