# Brainstorming

> Use when creating or developing, before writing code or implementation plans - refines rough ideas into fully-formed designs through collaborative questioning, alternative exploration, and incremental validation. Don't use during clear 'mechanical' processes

- Skill: `tygwan/brainstorming` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tygwan/brainstorming`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tygwan/brainstorming/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: tygwan (https://skillmd.com/u/tygwan)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tygwan/brainstorming

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# Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

## Overview

Help turn ideas into fully formed designs and specs through natural collaborative dialogue.

Start by understanding the current project context, then ask questions one at a time to refine the idea. Once you understand what you're building, present the design in small sections (200-300 words), checking after each section whether it looks right so far.

## The Process

**Understanding the idea:**
- Check out the current project state first (files, docs, recent commits)
- Ask questions one at a time to refine the idea
- Prefer multiple choice questions when possible, but open-ended is fine too
- Only one question per message - if a topic needs more exploration, break it into multiple questions
- Focus on understanding: purpose, constraints, success criteria

**Exploring approaches:**
- Propose 2-3 different approaches with trade-offs
- Present options conversationally with your recommendation and reasoning
- Lead with your recommended option and explain why

**Presenting the design:**
- Once you believe you understand what you're building, present the design
- Break it into sections of 200-300 words
- Ask after each section whether it looks right so far
- Cover: architecture, components, data flow, error handling, testing
- Be ready to go back and clarify if something doesn't make sense

## After the Design

**Document Generation Preview (REQUIRED):**
Once the design is validated, ALWAYS show what will be generated:

```
📋 Document Generation Preview
─────────────────────────────────
✓ docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-{topic}-design.md
✓ docs/PRD.md
✓ docs/TECH-SPEC.md
✓ docs/PROGRESS.md

[ Submit ] - 문서 생성 진행
[ Edit ]   - 디자인 수정 후 다시 확인
[ Cancel ] - 디자인 문서만 저장
```

**User Choice Handling:**
- **Submit**: Generate all development documents using dev-docs-writer
- **Edit**: Go back to design refinement, show preview again when done
- **Cancel**: Save design document only, skip full documentation

**Documentation (after Submit):**
- Write the validated design to `docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md`
- Trigger dev-docs-writer to generate PRD, TECH-SPEC, PROGRESS
- Commit the documents to git

**Implementation (if continuing):**
- Ask: "Ready to set up for implementation?"
- Use superpowers:using-git-worktrees to create isolated workspace
- Use superpowers:writing-plans to create detailed implementation plan

## Key Principles

- **One question at a time** - Don't overwhelm with multiple questions
- **Multiple choice preferred** - Easier to answer than open-ended when possible
- **YAGNI ruthlessly** - Remove unnecessary features from all designs
- **Explore alternatives** - Always propose 2-3 approaches before settling
- **Incremental validation** - Present design in sections, validate each
- **Be flexible** - Go back and clarify when something doesn't make sense
- **Always Confirm Before Docs** - ALWAYS show document generation preview and get user confirmation before creating full documentation