Mindstorming

Mindstorming: Brainstorming for Knowledge Work

Overview

mindpowers does one loop: shape, draft, review, fact-check, and remember what you like. This skill is the "shape" step.

Help turn rough ideas into locked specs for knowledge-work deliverables (memos, business reviews, decision docs, PRDs, briefing docs, comms, frameworks, talking points, post-mortems) through Socratic dialogue.

The skill enforces a verbal design-approval gate and a final approval of the written spec on disk. For routine reuse of a prior locked spec, the user's explicit reuse instruction plus answers to every stated delta satisfies the verbal gate; do not ask for a second verbal approval. Drafting begins only after the applicable verbal gate and the written-spec approval.

Do NOT draft any deliverable, write any prose, or otherwise produce output until you have presented a design, written it to disk, and the user has approved the written spec. This applies to EVERY task regardless of perceived simplicity.

Anti-Pattern: "This is too simple to need a spec"

Every task goes through this process. A Slack reply, a one-paragraph note, a routine update, all of them. Simple tasks are where unexamined assumptions cause the most wasted work and miscommunication. The spec can be short (3-5 lines for trivially simple tasks), but you MUST write it and get user approval.

Shared Reasoning and Language Contract

Think precisely; respond plainly. In user-facing responses, prefer common words and short sentences. Explain an unavoidable technical term on first use. When a rule could be misunderstood, give one short, concrete example. If the user says an explanation is unclear, explain it again from scratch rather than defining the same jargon with more jargon.

For a material conclusion about evidence, readiness, a recommendation, or a blocker, give a compact reasoning receipt:

• the recommendation or conclusion;
• what you checked;
• the main reasons;
• what remains uncertain; and
• the next step.

Keep this natural and proportional. Do not dump the internal rubric, expose a scorecard, or turn the response into a checklist.

Before reaching that conclusion, judge evidence internally by:

• relevance to the claim and intended action;
• recency;
• coverage of the stated users and scope;
• reliability, including where it came from and how it was collected;
• limitations; and
• counterevidence or a plausible alternative explanation.

Evidence is sufficient only for a stated scope and the next important action the deliverable is meant to support. Evidence presence, evidence type, directness, or user acceptance does not by itself prove sufficiency. An early, reversible discussion and an irreversible rollout can require different evidence. Use judgment rather than a visible scoring system or one universal sample-size rule. Keep detailed problem-validation methods in validating-problems.

Internally track the full set of assumptions that could materially change the claim, direction, scope, product behaviour, measurement, or risk. Do not stop after finding one defensible assumption. In exploratory dialogue, preserve the one-information-target-per-turn rule while resolving that set.

The 10-Step Process

Track these steps as todos if your harness has a task list, and complete them in order:

1. Explore context. Check recent specs in docs/mindpowers/specs/, sorted by filename descending (the date prefix keeps them in chronological order); read the frontmatter of the 5-10 most recent. Also check docs/mindpowers/preferences.md if it exists; it holds per-template-type notes on what this user likes. Also scan legacy docs/brainstorm/ if it exists; always write new files under docs/mindpowers/. If the user supplies a problem brief, or the topic matches one under docs/mindpowers/problems/, read it before elicitation and apply the "Optional Problem Brief" rules below. Do not scan unrelated problem briefs. Follow "Source Boundaries" for every other source.
2. Detect template match. Does the task fit one of the 9 templates? (See "Template Selection" below.) If yes, load that template's reference file. Also classify: is this routine (a template type with prior locked specs and/or a recorded preference in preferences.md) or exploratory (first time, novel or personal topic)?
3. Offer visual companion (if applicable). Defer until the dialogue is heading into visually-shaped territory. May not happen at all for text-only tasks.
4. Adaptive elicitation. Batched only when template match AND routine. Otherwise one-question-at-a-time.
5. Propose 2-3 approaches. When self-shaping, before presenting the design, propose alternatives with trade-offs and your recommendation. (For template-matched routine tasks, this often happens inside the template's elicitation.)
6. Present design sections. Scaled to complexity, get verbal approval after each section. Exception: when routine reuse of a prior locked spec is explicit and the user has supplied every stated delta, skip this step entirely: do not present design sections in chat and do not ask another verbal approval question; proceed directly to writing the spec. If the user rejects a structure, invoke Research as Recovery before re-proposing.
7. Write spec to file. At docs/mindpowers/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-<type>-<slug>.md with YAML frontmatter. Before writing, if the working folder is a shared or public git repo, warn the user that specs often contain sensitive content (leadership comms, OKR politics, exec briefings) and suggest adding docs/mindpowers/ to .gitignore or choosing a private location.
8. Self-review and report. Inline check for placeholders, contradictions, ambiguity, scope creep, source attribution, readiness, material blockers, and required external approval. Report the checklist results to the user when handing the file over.
9. User reviews written spec. Explicitly ask the user to read the file and approve before drafting.
10. Type-aware handoff. On approval, flip the spec's status to locked. For brief-style specs ask "draft now, hand back, or stop?". For spec-is-the-deliverable specs (frameworks, post-mortems) ask "stop, draft a derivative, or pause?".

Process Flow

digraph mindpowers_mindstorming {
    "Explore context" [shape=box];
    "Template match?" [shape=diamond];
    "Routine vs exploratory?" [shape=diamond];
    "Self-shape" [shape=box];
    "Visual questions ahead?" [shape=diamond];
    "Offer visual companion (own message)" [shape=box];
    "Batched elicitation" [shape=box];
    "Routine reuse complete?" [shape=diamond];
    "One-at-a-time elicitation" [shape=box];
    "Propose 2-3 approaches" [shape=box];
    "Present design sections" [shape=box];
    "Verbal approval?" [shape=diamond];
    "Research as recovery" [shape=box];
    "Write spec to file" [shape=box];
    "Self-review and report inline" [shape=box];
    "User reviews written spec" [shape=box];
    "Final approval?" [shape=diamond];
    "Type-aware handoff" [shape=doublecircle];

    "Explore context" -> "Template match?";
    "Template match?" -> "Routine vs exploratory?" [label="yes"];
    "Template match?" -> "Self-shape" [label="no"];
    "Routine vs exploratory?" -> "Visual questions ahead?";
    "Self-shape" -> "Visual questions ahead?";
    "Visual questions ahead?" -> "Offer visual companion (own message)" [label="yes"];
    "Visual questions ahead?" -> "Batched elicitation" [label="no, template+routine"];
    "Visual questions ahead?" -> "One-at-a-time elicitation" [label="no, exploratory or self-shape"];
    "Offer visual companion (own message)" -> "Batched elicitation" [label="template+routine"];
    "Offer visual companion (own message)" -> "One-at-a-time elicitation" [label="exploratory or self-shape"];
    "Batched elicitation" -> "Routine reuse complete?";
    "Routine reuse complete?" -> "Write spec to file" [label="yes, explicit reuse + all deltas"];
    "Routine reuse complete?" -> "Present design sections" [label="no"];
    "One-at-a-time elicitation" -> "Propose 2-3 approaches";
    "Propose 2-3 approaches" -> "Present design sections";
    "Present design sections" -> "Verbal approval?";
    "Verbal approval?" -> "Research as recovery" [label="rejected as too generic"];
    "Verbal approval?" -> "Present design sections" [label="no, minor revise"];
    "Verbal approval?" -> "Write spec to file" [label="yes"];
    "Research as recovery" -> "Present design sections";
    "Write spec to file" -> "Self-review and report inline";
    "Self-review and report inline" -> "User reviews written spec";
    "User reviews written spec" -> "Final approval?";
    "Final approval?" -> "Self-review and report inline" [label="no, revise"];
    "Final approval?" -> "Type-aware handoff" [label="yes"];
}

Template Selection

Nine templates plus a self-shape fallback for novel tasks.

To select the right template:

1. Examine the user's request and recent context.
2. If the language clearly matches a template (e.g., "weekly product update" implies business-review, "should we build X or buy" implies decision-doc), load that template's reference file from references/<type>.md.
3. If two templates could fit (e.g., a briefing doc that contains a decision), pick the one that better matches the primary deliverable shape and ask the user to confirm.
4. If genuinely novel, self-shape.

When the match is ambiguous, unfamiliar, or consequential, visibly recommend the deliverable and explain why, then say you will use it unless the user wants another. For example:

I recommend a decision document because you are comparing live alternatives and need a durable record of the choice. I will use that shape unless you want a different deliverable.

Do not add a confirmation interruption when the requested format and intended outcome are already unambiguous.

Read the matching template file from skills/mindstorming/references/<type>.md to load its sections, elicitation prompts, and standards. Do NOT improvise the section structure when a template exists. The templates encode learned standards; deviating loses that.

Source Boundaries

Inspect material the user supplies, connected sources the user points toward, and relevant workspace artifacts already inside the stated task scope without asking for another confirmation. A repository or folder the user places in scope may be searched for relevant artifacts.

Do not broaden an internal search merely because a connector is available. Before searching connected or internal material outside the stated scope, or when no scoped source can be identified, ask the user to point to the source or location. When a decision-critical evidence gap remains and the user has named no other source, offer broader internet research without blocking progress. If the user declines, continue with the claim at its honest evidence status.

Optional Problem Brief

A problem brief is optional context, not a prerequisite. Never require the user to run validating-problems, create a brief, or validate the problem before Mindstorming. When no relevant brief exists, continue the normal context exploration and elicitation flow.

When the deliverable depends on a customer or business problem claim, first inspect whether the problem is solution-free, who experiences it, what supports it, what remains assumed, and whether another explanation could change the direction. This is a lightweight premise check, not a mandatory validation exercise.

If a central claim is unsupported or contradicted, state the evidence gap and why it matters, recommend validating-problems, and ask the user to confirm before switching skills. In the same turn, offer to continue provisionally with the claim at its honest evidence status. If a relevant problem brief already exists, preserve its findings and offer to resume or update only the material gap. Do not restart validation or re-ask settled questions.

If the user declines validation and continues provisionally, make the next premise-check question atomic: ask either which user is affected or what observable failure occurs, never both. Gather the other target in a later turn only if it remains material.

When the user supplies a brief or the topic matches a file under docs/mindpowers/problems/:

1. Read the brief before asking elicitation questions.
2. Treat its recorded scope, as_of date, evidence statuses, limitations, unsupported claims, and conflicts as context for the spec.
3. Do not re-ask questions whose answers are settled by the brief. Ask only about missing or genuinely unresolved inputs needed for the selected template, and let the user correct or update the brief's context.
4. When writing a one-pager or PRD spec, link the source with the optional frontmatter field problem: docs/mindpowers/problems/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md.

Apply evidence status exactly as recorded:

• supported: may be stated within recorded scope.
• partially-supported: preserve the qualification.
• unsupported: discuss only as a hypothesis.
• contradicted: warn and require reframing before using it as the pitch premise.

Validation does not imply prioritisation, approval, or permission to build. A workflow decision such as ready-to-socialise does not override the evidence status of any claim.

Optional Upstream One-Pager

A PRD may consume an approved one-pager, but never require one. When a relevant one-pager exists, read it before PRD elicitation, carry forward its selected direction and constraints, and focus questions on unresolved product decisions needed for a build-ready handoff. Do not reopen prioritisation inside the PRD.

Link the consumed source in PRD frontmatter:

one_pager: docs/mindpowers/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-one-pager-<slug>.md

If the upstream direction is still one option among live alternatives, use a decision-doc instead. If the direction has not earned alignment yet, use a one-pager. A PRD specifies a selected direction; it does not select or prioritise one.

Adaptive Elicitation

The elicitation rhythm depends on TWO axes: template match (yes/no) and topic familiarity (routine/exploratory).

Template matches AND topic is routine (user has done this template before, e.g. weekly BR, recurring decision doc): Use batched questions. Read the template's elicitation prompts and ask 3-5 of them in one message. Faster because the structure is known and the user is filling in known slots.

Template matches BUT topic is exploratory (first time using this template, novel subject, personal or unfamiliar territory): Fall back to one-question-at-a-time even though the template is loaded. Justification: batching is justified when "structure is known and user has answered similar questions before." Neither holds for exploratory topics. Better to surface the user's actual thinking through dialogue than blast through with assumed familiarity.

No template match (self-shape): One question per message. Multiple-choice preferred when possible. Focus on understanding purpose, audience, constraints, success criteria. Only after the shape is clear, propose 2-3 approaches with trade-offs.

For one-question-at-a-time work, ask for one information target per turn. Do not pack multiple unresolved fields into one grammatical question joined by and or or. A shared topic or contract label does not make independently answerable clauses, stages, or dimensions one target; split them across turns. Treat who, where, when, what behavior, and why as separate targets: for example, ask either who is affected or where the failure occurs, never both in the same turn. Before sending an exploratory question, test whether the user could answer one requested clause while leaving another unanswered. If so, split the question and send only the highest-value clause.

Do not disguise a batch behind an umbrella noun. Questions such as "What is the operating context?", "What must happen in this branch?", "What recovery behavior should the customer see?", or "How should this workflow behave?" usually invite several independent answers even though they contain one question mark. Narrow context to one dimension (for example, device state, location, timing, or connectivity). Narrow a flow or recovery branch to one observable contract field (for example, its retained state, next state, user message, retry trigger, retry action, failed-retry fallback, owner, response time, or access rule). Ask the remaining dimensions in later turns only when they are still decision-critical. Different responsibilities are different targets: product owner, approver, operational owner, rollout decision owner, and rollback owner remain separate even if one person may eventually hold more than one role. Never join two responsibility questions behind one "who owns..." prompt.

Use a mechanical pre-send check: if a prompt says either or both, names more than one condition, branch, or measure, or asks broadly for "behavior" or "what happens," rewrite it to request exactly one observable field for exactly one condition or branch. Do this even when the combined items share a contract label or are usually implemented together.

Heuristic for "routine vs exploratory": Does docs/mindpowers/specs/ contain a prior locked spec of this template type, or does docs/mindpowers/preferences.md have a recorded entry for it? Routine. Is this the first spec of this type on file, or is the subject highly personal, philosophical, or open-ended? Exploratory. This file-based check replaces guessing from conversation history, which doesn't persist across sessions. When in doubt, default to one-at-a-time, since over-batching costs more than under-batching.

For routine work, an explicit request to reuse a prior locked spec plus the user's answers to every stated delta input counts as verbal approval of the unchanged sections and that supplied delta. Do not ask another approval question that merely restates those inherited or just-supplied choices. Ask again only when presenting a new decision or trade-off the user did not supply.

Either way:

• Lead with your recommended option when proposing alternatives, then explain why
• Be ready to back up and clarify when something doesn't make sense
• YAGNI ruthlessly. Remove unnecessary sections from the spec
• Be flexible. Templates are starting points, not straitjackets. If the user wants to deviate from a template, deviate.

Research as Recovery

When the user rejects a proposed structure as "too generic," "doesn't capture the connections," or "needs more specificity," do not just propose another variant of the same generic shape. That's the failure mode this section exists to prevent.

The right move: pause the structure decision and research adjacent existing frameworks, then return with a revised proposal informed by the research.

When to invoke:

• User explicitly rejects a structure (not just a small tweak)
• User asks for connections, specificity, or research-informed alternatives
• The dialogue has surfaced principles that map to known thinkers, but you haven't yet attributed or compared against established frameworks
• The proposed structure feels too clean to actually be true (often a sign of generic placeholders)

How to invoke:

1. Acknowledge the pushback explicitly. Name what's missing (specificity, connections, research grounding).
2. Identify 2-3 adjacent frameworks worth researching. Bias toward established sources the user is likely to recognise (e.g., for life frameworks: Naval, Housel, Stoic/Buddhist; for technical decision frameworks: established engineering principles, well-known papers; for product frameworks: pyramid principle, jobs-to-be-done, etc.).
3. Run the research. Use your web search/fetch tools, with 2-4 targeted queries.
4. Synthesise briefly: 3-5 bullets of what the research surfaced, focused on what's relevant to the user's principles.
5. Propose a revised structure that genuinely incorporates the research. Attribute sources. Show connections.
6. Re-render or re-present and ask if it lands.

Anti-pattern: Doing research as a stalling tactic without using it. The research must visibly shape the new proposal. If the new proposal looks the same as the old one, the research wasn't actually useful and the structure is still wrong.

Visual Companion

When to offer: Defer until the dialogue is heading into visually-shaped territory. Step 3 in the process flow says "offer when upcoming questions involve visual content," and that's deliberate. Don't offer the companion before the elicitation has warmed up. Common offer points:

• Just before the structure question (frameworks, PRDs, decision-docs often need diagrams here)
• Before a comparison or trade-off question (decision matrices)
• Before a system or flow question (PRDs especially)
• When the user explicitly asks for a visual

If the dialogue stays text-shaped throughout (a comms-draft, a short briefing-doc, a routine BR), you may never offer the companion at all. That's fine.

When you do offer, this message MUST be its own turn. Do not combine with clarifying questions, context summaries, or any other content:

"Some of what we're working on might be easier to see. I can render decision matrices, flows, comparison tables, or simple diagrams alongside our chat — [in a browser tab that opens for you | as inline artifacts | as tables in chat, pick per the fallback ladder]. Want me to use visuals where they help?"

If the user accepts, decide per-question whether to render visually or stay in chat:

• Render visually: 2x2 matrices, scoring grids, swimlane flows, side-by-side comparison tables, simple wireframes, layered structure diagrams
• Stay in chat: requirements questions, conceptual choices, tradeoff lists, audience clarification, anything text-shaped

On acceptance, follow skills/_shared/companion/COMPANION.md for the mechanism: mode detection and fallback ladder, server lifecycle, screen pushing, reading browser events, and the shared rules (board is the chooser; a typed reply always wins over a click).

Acceptance does NOT mean every question goes through the visual companion. Per-question judgement applies.

File Contract

mindpowers is one loop across six skills: validate (validating-problems) -> shape (mindstorming, this skill) -> draft (drafting) -> review (reviewing-docs) -> fact-check (fact-checking) -> remember (calibrating). All paths below are relative to the working folder (see "no filesystem / Cowork" note in "Spec File Format").

• Specs, written by this skill: docs/mindpowers/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-<type>-<slug>.md. Flat, no type subdirectories; the type lives in the filename. YAML frontmatter is authoritative (see "Spec File Format" below).
• Drafts, written by drafting: docs/mindpowers/drafts/YYYY-MM-DD-<type>-<slug>.md, same stem as the spec it came from, so the pair sorts together. Draft frontmatter carries spec: <path>, type, and status: draft | final.
• Reviews, written by reviewing-docs and fact-checking: docs/mindpowers/reviews/YYYY-MM-DD-<type>-<slug>.md.
• Preferences, written by calibrating: docs/mindpowers/preferences.md, entries keyed by template type.

Status protocol: a spec's status moves draft -> locked -> (optionally) superseded. This skill writes new specs as draft and flips them to locked on final approval. drafting consumes ONLY specs with status: locked; never draft from an unapproved spec. reviewing-docs can review any doc regardless of status and may recommend flipping a spec to superseded if it's since been reworked. calibrating only appends to preferences.md.

Lifecycle status is separate from content readiness. A locked spec may remain not-ready; drafting may continue, but its provisional state and material blockers remain visible. A gap blocks readiness only when leaving it unresolved could materially change what the audience decides, does, builds, measures, or understands. Keep optional improvements as non-blocking notes.

Content readiness never implies external approval. Record an explicitly required approval separately and never claim it was received without evidence.

Also scan legacy docs/brainstorm/ if it exists; always write new files under docs/mindpowers/.

Spec File Format

Save to: docs/mindpowers/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-<type>-<slug>.md

Where:

• <type> is one of the 9 template types or self-shape, and lives in the filename (no subdirectories)
• <slug> is a short kebab-case description (e.g., q1-product-business-review, vendor-selection-decision)
• Date is the date of the brainstorming session

Confidentiality: these specs often contain sensitive content (leadership comms, OKR politics, exec briefings). If the working folder is a shared or public git repo, warn the user before writing and suggest adding docs/mindpowers/ to .gitignore or choosing a private location.

No filesystem / Cowork: the paths above are relative to the working folder; in Cowork that's the user's shared folder. If no writable folder exists, present the full spec in chat (or as an artifact) instead, and say plainly that it was NOT saved to disk. Still require explicit approval of that written spec before drafting: the approval gate doesn't relax just because there's no file.

Frontmatter:

---
type: business-review | decision-doc | one-pager | prd | briefing-doc | comms-draft | framework | talking-points | post-mortem | self-shape
date: YYYY-MM-DD
topic: <kebab-case slug>
owner: <user name or handle>
audience: <primary audience for the eventual deliverable>
status: draft | locked | superseded
readiness: ready | not-ready
draft: <path to the drafts/ file, once one exists, optional>
---

Every not-ready spec names its material blockers. status: locked means the user approved the working brief; it does not erase blockers or imply that the eventual artifact is ready for its consequential action.

Use these user-facing labels while keeping frontmatter readiness as ready or not-ready:

Optional upstream links for one-pager and PRD specs:

problem: docs/mindpowers/problems/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md
one_pager: docs/mindpowers/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-one-pager-<slug>.md

Use problem only when a problem brief is actually consumed. Use one_pager only for a PRD that consumes that approved source.

Body structure depends on template (see references/<type>.md). For self-shape, default sections:

• Audience
• Intent or claim (one sentence)
• Key context
• Options considered (when applicable)
• Recommendation or main point
• Risks and counter-arguments
• Open questions

Self-Review Checklist

Before writing the spec, and again before locking it, diff the written contract against the user's supplied decisions and the explicitly accepted design. Trace every requirement behavior, acceptance detail, threshold, target, window, sample, event name, owner, cadence, rollout gate, and rollout action. Also account for every required field in each triggered conditional module. Make this audit field-by-field: copy the required field names from the triggered module and mark each one resolved with its supplied or accepted source, an exact blocking OD-###, or not applicable with a reason. A module-level summary does not count. resolved(source) is valid only when that source entails the entire field. Names or members do not imply their relationships, order, transitions, or behavior; one supplied item does not resolve the rest of a list or category. Mark uncovered remainder as an exact blocking OD-### or not applicable with a reason. A value or required field that has no supplied or explicitly accepted source is not completion: return to elicitation or create an exact blocking open decision and withhold readiness. A deadline, pressure to look complete, or blanket approval of the written spec never authorizes filling or silently omitting it.

Before showing the spec to the user, run through:

• Are there any TODO or [TBD] placeholders? Replace or flag explicitly.
• Are there contradictions between sections?
• Is the scope clear, or did it creep during dialogue?
• Is the audience explicit?
• Is the recommendation or claim crisp (one sentence if possible)?
• Are open questions surfaced rather than buried?
• Does readiness reflect every material blocker without treating optional improvements as blocking?
• Is any required external approval recorded separately and supported by evidence?
• For BRs, decision-docs, and one-pagers: is the insight, recommendation, or ask up front, not buried?
• For PRDs: are evidence claims scoped, every requirement linked to a verifiable acceptance criterion, and readiness honest about blocking open decisions?
• For PRDs: did any threshold, window, sample, event, rollout value, date, or owner get invented rather than supplied or explicitly accepted?
• For PRDs: does every material target or decision threshold have an understandable basis? If the basis is a deliberate trade-off, is it labelled as a business decision, with the trade-off visible rather than presented as evidence-backed?
• When principles or claims map to existing thinkers' work, are sources attributed?

Fix issues inline before presenting. If a section needs more work, return to elicitation and ask the user.

Reporting the review: When you hand the spec to the user for review, list the checklist results inline so the user can see what was checked. Format: a short bulleted summary saying which items passed and which were fixed during self-review. This makes the review visible rather than implicit, and lets the user catch anything you missed.

Handoff

The handoff prompt is type-aware. Some specs are briefs for a separate downstream deliverable (BR, decision-doc, briefing-doc, comms-draft, talking-points, prd). Some specs ARE the deliverable themselves and have no separate downstream artefact (framework, post-mortem, and any other spec-is-the-deliverable subtype). The handoff text should match.

Before presenting either handoff option below, flip the spec's status from draft to locked. drafting only reads locked specs, so this step makes the handoff available. It does not change readiness, erase blockers, or imply external approval.

For brief-style specs (BR, decision-doc, one-pager, briefing-doc, comms-draft, talking-points, prd):

"Spec approved. Want me to draft now, hand it back to you, or stop here?"

Then:

• Draft now: Invoke the mindpowers drafting skill (skills/drafting). It reads this locked spec and writes the deliverable to docs/mindpowers/drafts/ using the same date-type-slug stem, with frontmatter cross-linking the two files. Exception: for short comms (a Slack message, a brief email), present the draft in chat instead and only save a file if the user wants a record. Once a draft exists, reviewing-docs is the natural next step if the user wants a second pass on it.
• Hand back: Provide the file path (or the in-chat spec, if there's no filesystem) and stop. The user will draft elsewhere.
• Stop: Acknowledge and end the session. The spec stays on disk for later.

For spec-is-the-deliverable specs (framework, post-mortem):

The spec itself is the artefact. There is no separate downstream draft. So the standard handoff doesn't fit. Instead:

"Spec locked. For framework-style specs the spec is the deliverable. Three options: stop here (you'll refer back to the file), draft a derivative artefact from this (e.g., an annual review template, daily habit checklist, or a public-facing essay), or pause and discuss next steps."

Then:

• Stop: Acknowledge and end. The spec is the artefact.
• Draft derivative: Ask which derivative artefact, then invoke the drafting skill with this spec as the brief, same path convention as above.
• Pause: Engage in whatever follow-on discussion the user wants.

Key Principles

• Two approval gates. Verbal then written. Never collapse to one.
• One question per message when self-shaping or when the topic is exploratory. Forces actual reflection between turns.
• Batched questions only when template matches AND the topic is routine. Faster when the user is filling in known slots; otherwise revert to one-at-a-time.
• YAGNI ruthlessly. Every section in the spec must justify its presence.
• Lead with the recommendation. When proposing alternatives, state your view first.
• Incremental validation. Present design sections and get approval before moving on. In the routine-reuse exception defined above, skip section presentation and proceed directly to the written-spec approval gate.
• Research as recovery. When structure feedback is "too generic," research before re-proposing.
• Source attribution. When principles map to existing thinkers, cite.
• Confirmed routing. Recommend a skill handoff with a reason and wait for the user to confirm before switching.
• Be flexible. Go back and clarify when something doesn't make sense.

Anti-Patterns (Never Do)

• Drafting the deliverable before the written spec is approved
• Skipping the written spec because "verbal approval was enough"
• Asking 5 questions in one message during self-shape
• Burying open questions in the body of the spec instead of surfacing them
• Reproducing the user's original request as the "claim" or "recommendation" without refinement
• Producing a spec longer than it needs to be (a Slack reply spec is 3-5 lines, not 30)
• Loading a template and ignoring its standards (e.g., putting data before insight in a BR)
• Exposing internal template coverage as a batch questionnaire
• Silently searching broad connected sources outside the user's stated scope
• Treating locked, ready, and externally approved as synonyms