Shape

Shape

Shaped work is concrete enough to walk through and abstract enough to leave room. Appetite is a constraint you choose, not an estimate you compute. A shaped pitch has five ingredients: problem, appetite, solution, rabbit holes, and no-gos. Draw it at fat-marker altitude as a breadboard or rough sketch, never a wireframe or slogan.

Contract

Inputs

• The user's pitch or idea: raw concept, existing shaped document, or finished artifact.
• Slash override for mode: /shape build-shape | shape-check | to-good-shape | feel-shape.
• All inputs come from the user's turn or chat context; no external files required.

Procedure

Mode selection (auto-detect, override wins)

Route by phrasing:

• Raw idea, shape this, pitch this, what's the appetite → build-shape
• gut check, vibe check, does this feel right → shape-check
• Existing pitch plus fix, is this well shaped, reshape → to-good-shape
• Finished work plus did we ship the bet, match the shape, results review → feel-shape
• Anything else → build-shape

Explicit override always wins over auto-detection.

build-shape

1. State the problem. Name the core problem being solved in one or two sentences. The problem frames everything that follows: the appetite, the solution, the no-gos. Done when: the problem is stated in the user's terms.

2. Set the appetite. Choose small batch or big batch. The appetite bounds the solution; a solution that exceeds it gets cut, the appetite stands. Done when: the appetite is chosen and stated.

3. Rough the solution. Draw a breadboard (places, affordances, connections). Use the notation below. Draw one sketch per idea; a sketch that needs a legend is over-drawn. Done when: the breadboard is drawn with places, affordances, and connections.

   Breadboard notation (three elements only):

   • Places: screens, dialogs, states a user can navigate to. Written as underlined names.
   • Affordances: buttons, links, fields, controls. Written as bracketed names.
   • Connections: arrows showing flow between places.

   Worked example, "invoice autopay" bet:

     Invoice page                Set up autopay             Confirmation
     ------------                --------------             ------------
     invoice total               card on file (y/n)         autopay active note
     [turn on autopay] ───────►  [use card on file] ─────►  [back to invoice]
                                 [enter new card] ──► New card form ──► Confirmation
   

   Fat-marker altitude tests

   Raise altitude (over-shaped signals): pixel positions, spacing values, exact copy, field lists, column enumerations, task tickets, work breakdown.

   Walk a concrete path (under-shaped signals): no nouns a builder could start from, a goal statement with no places or affordances, an appetite missing or phrased as "as long as it takes".

   Right altitude: a builder could start tomorrow and still owns every design decision inside the lines.

4. Hunt rabbit holes. Walk the solution end to end; each hole is declared solved-in-principle (state how) or patched out with a stated decision. Done when: every rabbit hole is resolved or patched.

5. Write no-gos. Name what this bet deliberately excludes. Done when: the no-gos are listed.

shape-check

Conduct an interactive gut check with the user via the AskUserQuestion tool. Ask one single-select question per axis, and keep the axes separate. Put the (Recommended) option first; it carries the default, and choosing it accepts that default. Ask at most 4 questions per fire. If more axes remain, send sequential batches in dependency order. Use multiSelect only for additive picks (optional sub-scopes), never for axis-with-default semantics.

Axes: appetite right-sized? which scope cuts? each unresolved rabbit hole, patch or re-shape? no-go boundaries holding?

Done when: every axis is answered or the remaining axes are listed as open bets.

to-good-shape

Diagnose the pitch in one line, then act:

• Over-shaped (design already done: wireframes, field lists, task tickets): raise the altitude, redraw as a breadboard, discard the pixel decisions.
• Under-shaped (words without a walkthrough, unbounded appetite): force an appetite and walk one concrete path through the solution.
• Missing ingredients: add the absent ones; the other four constrain what the new one can say.

Then rewrite the pitch. Done when: the pitch is rewritten with all five ingredients at fat-marker altitude.

feel-shape

Compare a finished artifact to the shaped bet, ingredient by ingredient:

• Problem: does the result address the shaped problem?
• Appetite: bet vs actual spend.
• Solution: does the built thing follow the breadboard's places and connections?
• Rabbit holes: which ones bit, and what did they cost?
• No-gos: respected or crossed?

Emit exactly one verdict: shipped-the-bet | scope-crept | under-delivered | different-bet. Done when: the single verdict is emitted with per-ingredient evidence.

Failure and recovery

• Malformed pitch: if the user provides something that cannot be parsed into a pitch, state the failure and ask for clarification. Do not fabricate ingredients.
• No axes for shape-check: if a pitch has no resolvable axes (empty rabbit holes, no appetite), state that and fall back to build-shape to fill the gaps.
• Non-converged feel-shape: if evidence for any ingredient is ambiguous, mark it unknown and state it. The verdict must still be emitted.
• No rollback needed: no files written, no state mutated.

Output

build-shape or to-good-shape: a shaped pitch in chat with five labeled ingredients at fat-marker altitude. shape-check: a revised pitch with every answered axis folded in and unanswered axes listed as open bets. feel-shape: one verdict per ingredient with evidence, plus the single top-line verdict.