brainstorming

Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

Overview

Brainstorming transforms vague ideas into validated designs through structured collaborative dialogue. It bridges the gap between "I want X" and a concrete design that can be handed to the planning skill. This enhanced version integrates with the self-learning skill to build on known project context and avoid re-asking previously answered questions.

Announce at start: "I'm using the brainstorming skill to explore this idea and create a design before implementation."

Trigger Conditions

• User describes a new feature idea or goal
• User asks "how should we build X?"
• Creative work requires design exploration before planning
• /brainstorm command invoked
• Transition from a vague requirement to structured design is needed

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Phase 1: Context Loading

Goal: Load everything known about the project before asking the user anything.

1. Check memory files (project-context.md, learned-patterns.md, decisions-log.md) for known patterns, stack, and conventions
2. Read relevant existing code, docs, and recent commits
3. Review existing designs in docs/plans/ for related prior work
4. Identify constraints from the existing architecture
5. Note what you already know — do NOT re-ask the user for information you can discover

Context Sources Priority

Source	What to Extract	Priority
Memory files	Stack, conventions, past decisions	Highest
CLAUDE.md	Project structure, hard gates	High
Existing code	Current patterns, architecture	High
Recent commits	Direction of development	Medium
docs/plans/	Prior designs and decisions	Medium

STOP — Do NOT proceed to Phase 2 until:

• Memory files have been checked
• Relevant codebase areas have been explored
• You can summarize what you already know about this domain

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Phase 2: Idea Exploration

Goal: Understand the user's intent through focused, one-at-a-time questions.