Throwaway code that answers a design question before real implementation — slots between /orc:plan and /orc:start. Use when feeling out whether logic, a state machine, or a data shape holds up, or when comparing radically different UI variants on one route before committing to a design.
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---
name: prototype
description: "Throwaway code that answers a design question before real implementation — slots between /orc:plan and /orc:start. Use when feeling out whether logic, a state machine, or a data shape holds up, or when comparing radically different UI variants on one route before committing to a design."
license: MIT
metadata:
author: Matt Pocock
source: Vendored from https://github.com/mattpocock/skills @ 2ffb184
---
# Prototype
A prototype is **throwaway code that answers a question**. The question decides the shape.
## Pick a branch
Identify which question is being answered — from the user's prompt, the surrounding code, or by asking if the user is around:
- **"Does this logic / state model feel right?"** → [references/LOGIC.md](references/LOGIC.md). Build a single shareable HTML file — free-play buttons plus tabbed guided walkthroughs — that pushes the state machine through cases that are hard to reason about on paper, and that a non-developer can drive.
- **"What should this look like?"** → [references/UI.md](references/UI.md). Generate several radically different UI variations on a single route, switchable via a URL search param and a floating bottom bar.
The two branches produce very different artifacts — getting this wrong wastes the whole prototype. If the question is genuinely ambiguous and the user isn't reachable, default to whichever branch better matches the surrounding code (a backend module → logic; a page or component → UI) and state the assumption at the top of the prototype.
## Rules that apply to both
1. **Throwaway from day one, and clearly marked as such.** Locate the prototype code close to where it will actually be used (next to the module or page it's prototyping for) so context is obvious — but name it so a casual reader can see it's a prototype, not production. For throwaway UI routes, obey whatever routing convention the project already uses; don't invent a new top-level structure.
2. **Trivial to run.** A UI prototype starts from one command in the project's task runner — `pnpm <name>`, `python <path>`, `bun <path>`, etc. A logic demo is a single HTML file the user double-clicks. Either way, no thinking required to start it.
3. **No persistence by default.** State lives in memory. Persistence is the thing the prototype is _checking_, not something it should depend on. If the question explicitly involves a database, hit a scratch DB or a local file with a clear "PROTOTYPE — wipe me" name.
4. **Skip the polish.** No tests, no error handling beyond what makes the prototype _runnable_, no abstractions. The point is to learn something fast.
5. **Surface the state.** After every action (logic) or on every variant switch (UI), print or render the full relevant state so the user can see what changed.
6. **Capture it when done.** Fold any validated decision into the real code, then capture the prototype itself as a **primary source**: commit it to a throwaway branch, out of main, and leave a context pointer to that branch on the implementation issue. Capture the answer too — the verdict and the question it settled — in the issue or a commit. The main branch keeps only the validated decision.
