Brainstorming

Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

Goal

Clarify requirements and produce a design before jumping to code. Reduces wasted work from unexamined assumptions.

Design Review

Present a design and get user feedback before implementation. The design can be brief for simple tasks. For trivial changes (rename, typo fix), skip directly to implementation.

Checklist

1. Explore project context — check files, docs, recent commits
2. Ask clarifying questions — one at a time; prefer multiple-choice over open-ended
3. Propose 2-3 approaches — with trade-offs; lead with your recommendation
4. Present design — scale detail to complexity; check after each section
5. Save design doc — docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md
6. Transition — invoke writing-plans skill to create implementation plan

Guidelines

• Scale sections to complexity — a few sentences if straightforward, more if nuanced
• Cover: architecture, components, data flow, error handling, testing
• Apply YAGNI — remove unnecessary features from designs

After Approval

1. Save the design to docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md
2. Commit the design document
3. Invoke writing-plans to create the implementation plan