Brainstorming

Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

Overview

Help turn ideas into fully formed designs and specs through natural collaborative dialogue.

Start by understanding the current project context, then ask questions one at a time to refine the idea. Once you understand what you're building, present the design in small sections (200-300 words), checking after each section whether it looks right so far.

The Process

Understanding the idea:

• Check out the current project state first (files, docs, recent commits)
• Run semantic-search to find existing similar implementations before designing new ones:
  • docker exec arsenal-semantic-search-cli code-search find "<feature concept>"
  • Check if something similar already exists (DRY principle)
• Ask questions one at a time to refine the idea
• Prefer multiple choice questions when possible, but open-ended is fine too
• Only one question per message - if a topic needs more exploration, break it into multiple questions
• Focus on understanding: purpose, constraints, success criteria

Exploring approaches:

• Propose 2-3 different approaches with trade-offs
• Present options conversationally with your recommendation and reasoning
• Lead with your recommended option and explain why

Presenting the design:

• Once you believe you understand what you're building, present the design
• Break it into sections of 200-300 words
• Ask after each section whether it looks right so far
• Cover: architecture, components, data flow, error handling, testing
• Be ready to go back and clarify if something doesn't make sense

After the Design

Documentation:

• Create folder: spec/YYYY-MM-DD-<project-name>/
• Split design into phase files:
  • 00-overview.md - Summary, key decisions, tech stack, links to phases
  • 01-<phase-name>.md - First implementation phase
  • 02-<phase-name>.md - Second phase
  • ... (one file per logical phase)
• Each phase file must include:
  • Overview of the phase
  • Technical details / code samples
  • Acceptance criteria checklist

Implementation (if continuing):

• Ask: "Ready to set up for implementation?"
• Use superpowers:using-git-worktrees to create isolated workspace
• Use superpowers:writing-plans to create detailed implementation plan

Key Principles

• One question at a time - Don't overwhelm with multiple questions
• Multiple choice preferred - Easier to answer than open-ended when possible
• YAGNI ruthlessly - Remove unnecessary features from all designs
• Explore alternatives - Always propose 2-3 approaches before settling
• Incremental validation - Present design in sections, validate each
• Be flexible - Go back and clarify when something doesn't make sense
• Specs are negotiable - Always propose modifications that reduce complexity

🚨 CRITICAL: Prefer Spec Adjustments Over New Infrastructure

Specs are starting points, not immutable requirements.

Before designing new systems, ask:

1. Can we adjust the spec slightly to reuse existing patterns?
2. Would a different approach achieve 90% of the value with 50% of the complexity?
3. Is this creating parallel infrastructure when we could extend existing?

Always present a "simplification option":

Option A: Implement spec as-is (creates new X, Y, Z)
Option B (recommended): Adjust spec to reuse existing [pattern]
  - Tradeoff: [minor limitation]
  - Benefit: Reuses proven infrastructure, less code to maintain

Example: If designing "scheduled message conditions", check if group_message_intervention_conditions_yaml logic could be extended rather than creating a new DSL.