Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

A guided method for turning a rough idea into a detailed software design through questions, alternatives, and step-by-step review.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to clarify an idea, compare 2–3 possible architectures, and document components, data flow, error handling, and testing.
Why use it?
It helps uncover goals, constraints, and missing decisions before implementation begins.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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 skills/obra/superpowers-skills/brainstorming
Any agent
npx skills add obra/superpowers-skills --skill brainstorming
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/obra/superpowers-skills

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 21 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 618 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 $0.00021 $0.00618
Opus 5 $0.00010 $0.00309
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00124
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00062

Measured yesterday against content hash 466eaf7ff494, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs 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 yesterday.

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:

skills/collaboration/brainstorming/SKILL.md · 76 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 76 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

Overview

Transform rough ideas into fully-formed designs through structured questioning and alternative exploration.

Core principle: Ask questions to understand, explore alternatives, present design incrementally for validation.

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

The Process

Phase 1: Understanding

  • Check current project state in working directory
  • Ask ONE question at a time to refine the idea
  • Prefer multiple choice when possible
  • Gather: Purpose, constraints, success criteria

Phase 2: Exploration

  • Propose 2-3 different approaches
  • For each: Core architecture, trade-offs, complexity assessment
  • Ask your human partner which approach resonates

Phase 3: Design Presentation

  • Present in 200-300 word sections
  • Cover: Architecture, components, data flow, error handling, testing
  • Ask after each section: "Does this look right so far?"

Phase 4: Worktree Setup (for implementation)

When design is approved and implementation will follow:

  • Announce: "I'm using the Using Git Worktrees skill to set up an isolated workspace."
  • Switch to skills/collaboration/using-git-worktrees
  • Follow that skill's process for directory selection, safety verification, and setup
  • Return here when worktree ready

Phase 5: Planning Handoff

Ask: "Ready to create the implementation plan?"

When your human partner confirms (any affirmative response):

  • Announce: "I'm using the Writing Plans skill to create the implementation plan."
  • Switch to skills/collaboration/writing-plans skill
  • Create detailed plan in the worktree

When to Revisit Earlier Phases

You can and should go backward when:

  • Partner reveals new constraint during Phase 2 or 3 → Return to Phase 1 to understand it
  • Validation shows fundamental gap in requirements → Return to Phase 1
  • Partner questions approach during Phase 3 → Return to Phase 2 to explore alternatives
  • Something doesn't make sense → Go back and clarify

Read the full file on GitHub · 76 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. yesterday First seen · 76 lines · 21 tokens per session scan A 466eaf7ff494

Subscribe to this mod's changes

Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs is a skill published in the GitHub repository obra/superpowers-skills (744 stars, last pushed 10mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 21 tokens to every session and 618 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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