Kylesnowschwartz Ralph Ban Ralph Ban

Board Brainstorming

Explore a fuzzy idea and produce a design doc that feeds into /rb-planning.

Phase 1: Context Gathering

Before asking questions, build context silently:

1. Read board state: bl ready and bl list --status backlog (never full bl list which dumps the large done column). Note existing cards to avoid duplicating work.
2. Read CLAUDE.md for project architecture and conventions.
3. Scan .agent-history/ directory listing for prior designs and investigations.
4. If $ARGUMENTS is empty, use AskUserQuestion to ask: "What are you thinking about building or solving?"

Phase 2: Structured Q&A

Ask questions one at a time using AskUserQuestion. Multiple choice preferred over open-ended when possible. Cover these areas, adapting to what's relevant:

1. Goal (always ask): "What's the goal? (1 sentence describing the outcome, not the mechanism)"
   • Examples: "Make webhook ingestion reliable", "Add card tagging to the TUI"
2. Non-goals (always ask): "What's explicitly out of scope?"
   • Examples: "Not changing the database schema", "Not building a web UI"
3. Constraints (ask if applicable): "Any constraints? (Performance budgets, compatibility requirements, forbidden approaches)"
4. Key uncertainty (ask if applicable): "What's the biggest unknown or risk?"
5. Prior art (ask if applicable): "Are there existing patterns in the codebase or reference projects to follow?"

Stop when enough context exists to differentiate approaches (typically 3-5 questions). Skip questions the user already answered in $ARGUMENTS.

Phase 3: Approach Proposal

Propose 2-3 approaches:

• Lead with the recommended approach and explain why
• Keep each approach to 3-5 sentences
• Include concrete tradeoffs (not vague "more flexible" / "simpler")
• Ask user to select via AskUserQuestion with lettered options (a/b/c)

Phase 4: Design Doc Review

Before saving, present the draft design doc to the user section by section:

• Show each section (Problem, Non-Goals, Approach, Architecture, Decisions, Open Questions)
• Ask after each: "Does this capture it correctly?"
• Revise based on feedback before moving on

This review loop catches misunderstandings before they propagate to planning and execution.

Phase 5: Design Doc Output

1. Run mkdir -p .agent-history/ (never assume it exists)
2. Write the design doc to .agent-history/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md
3. Use the template from references/design-doc-template.md
4. Present the doc path to the user

Phase 6: Handoff

Ask: "Design doc saved to <path>. Want to create board cards now with /rb-planning, or stop here to review first?"

If the user wants to continue, invoke the Skill tool: skill: "rb-planning", args: "<design-doc-path>"

Stopping is a valid end state. The design doc sits in .agent-history/ for future reference.

Principles

• Board-aware: Check existing cards to avoid duplicating work already on the board.
• One question at a time: Never ask multiple questions in a single message.
• Multiple choice preferred: Easier to answer than open-ended when options are knowable.
• The skill is not a mode: It's a one-shot interactive workflow. No hooks, no flag files.

Source: kylesnowschwartz/ralph-ban — distributed by TomeVault.