Whiteboard Help

Whiteboard Help

Display the guide below to the user, adapted to what they asked. If they asked a specific question ("how do I close a board?"), answer it from the guide and show just the relevant part. If they asked generally, show the whole thing. Do not start any work — this skill is a cheat-sheet, nothing else. If they want to actually begin, tell them what to say and let them say it.

The one-liner

Big fuzzy idea → put it on the whiteboard → work the tickets, stopping only when it needs you → snapshot the board into a spec when nothing's left to decide.

The flow

1. Draw — one session, run once per effort Say: "whiteboard this: [your idea]" (in a repo with GitHub Issues) What happens: Claude hot-seats you to pin the destination, creates the board issue + tickets, parks the blurry stuff in the parking lot. Then stops.

2. Work — repeat until nothing's left to decide Say: "work the board" — or "run the board" when you're walking away, or "work one ticket" for exactly one. What happens: Claude claims the next open ticket and resolves it. Ticket type decides the tool, and whether it needs you:

• hot-seat ticket → Claude questions you, one at a time, with its pick attached — needs you
• napkin ticket → Claude builds a throwaway sketch; the verdict is yours — build alone, judge with you
• research ticket → Claude reads docs alone, links a summary — doesn't need you
• task ticket → a prep chore that unblocks a decision; the ticket says Runs: agent or Runs: human

Then it updates the board and checks what's next. Next ticket needs nobody → it just keeps going. Next ticket needs you → it stops and tells you what it wants. You should never come back to a session idling on a ticket it could have done itself.

3. Snapshot — one session, run once at the end Say: "snapshot the board" What happens: Claude verifies nothing's left (no open tickets, empty parking lot), writes the spec from all the decisions, links it, closes the board. Done — hand the spec to whoever builds.

Solo use (no board needed)

• "hot seat me on [decision]" — stress-test any plan, one question at a time
• "napkin this: [design question]" — throwaway code that answers one question
• "connotation-cop: [term fight]" — settle what a word means, book it in the glossary

The rules that matter

• The sticky test: can you write the question on one sticky note, precisely? Yes → it's a ticket. Still a paragraph of maybes → parking lot.
• It stops for you, not for tickets. A session ends when you're the blocker — never just because a ticket closed. Between every ticket it re-reads the board, so the picture stays current.
• The board plans, it doesn't build. Open decision left? That's the next ticket. None left? Snapshot.
• Claim before work. Assignee on the ticket = claimed. Unassigned + unblocked = up for grabs.
• Decisions live on tickets. The board only gists and links — never holds detail.
• Every stop ends with a sign-off: board count, what got done, why it stopped, what's waiting on you, and what to say. You should never have to ask "what's next" — if a session stops without the sign-off, say "sign off" and you'll get it.

Where things live

• The board: a GitHub issue labelled whiteboard:map; tickets are its sub-issues
• Decisions: resolution comments on closed tickets, indexed on the board
• Big permanent decisions: ADRs in docs/adr/ (connotation-cop writes them)
• Vocabulary: CONTEXT.md at the repo root
• The final spec: wherever the board's Destination says

Stuck?

• "Which ticket next?" → say "work the board" — Claude picks the first unblocked, unclaimed one
• "It stopped and I don't know why" → the sign-off's Stopped because line says: you're the blocker, the board is fanning out faster than it's closing, a ticket drifted off the destination, or context ran thin. Only the first one needs an answer from you — the rest just need "run the board" again
• "It stopped on something it could have done itself" → that's a bug now, not the design. The rule is: needs you → stop, doesn't → keep going
• "Ticket feels huge" → it was mis-sized; Claude splits it into sharp sub-tickets
• "Someone abandoned a ticket" → claimed + 3 days silent = presumed dead; Claude asks you before unclaiming
• "New idea mid-effort but it's past the destination" → it goes to Out of scope, not the board