Brainstorming

---
name: brainstorming
description: You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior. Explores user intent, requirements and design before implementation.
---

# Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

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 and get user approval.

<HARD-GATE>
Do NOT invoke any implementation skill, write any code, scaffold any project, or take any implementation action until you have presented a design and the user has approved it. This applies to EVERY project regardless of perceived simplicity.
</HARD-GATE>

## Anti-Pattern: "This Is Too Simple To Need A Design"

Every project goes through this process. A todo list, a single-function utility, a config change — all of them. "Simple" projects are where unexamined assumptions cause the most wasted work. The design can be short (a few sentences for truly simple projects), but you MUST present it and get approval.

## Pre-flight check — Git base assumption (P2 fix from v0.2 fixture testing)

**Before starting brainstorming flow**, verify the repo has a git base ready for `Write draft` step (Step 5):

```bash
git rev-parse HEAD 2>/dev/null && test -f .gitignore
```

If either fails(no commits yet, or no `.gitignore`):

- **Do NOT silently commit the draft later**. Ask the user explicitly first:

  > "我注意到这是空 git repo / 缺 `.gitignore`。要不要先 `git init` + 加 `.gitignore`(标准 Node/Python/etc patterns)+ first commit 再继续 brainstorming?这样 draft commit 才有 base。"

- 用户确认 → 帮加 `.gitignore` + `git init`(若需)+ first commit
- 用户拒绝 → 跳过 Step 5 commit,只 Write draft 但不 commit;提示用户"draft 已写但未 commit,完成后请手动 commit 或先建 git base"

This pre-flight prevents the v0.2 fixture-test P2 issue: brainstorming silently committing draft on a half-initialized repo.

---

## Checklist

You MUST create a task for each of these items and complete them in order:

1. **Pre-flight git base check** — see above section; gate before proceeding
2. **Explore project context** — check files, docs, recent commits
3. **Ask clarifying questions** — one at a time, understand purpose/constraints/success criteria
4. **Propose 2-3 approaches** — with trade-offs and your recommendation
5. **Present design** — in sections scaled to their complexity, get user approval after each section
6. **Write draft** — save to `forge/drafts/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md` and commit (skip commit step if pre-flight #1 declined). Do NOT save to forge/specs/(specs/ 仅由 archive 内部 sync 写入,见 spec §3.4).
7. **Spec self-review** — quick inline check for placeholders, contradictions, ambiguity, scope (see below)
8. **User reviews written draft** — ask user to review the draft file before proceeding
9. **Transition to implementation** — invoke forge:writing-plans skill via /forge:propose <change-id> --from-draft <date>-<topic>

## Process Flow

```dot
digraph brainstorming {
    "Explore project context" [shape=box];
    "Ask clarifying questions" [shape=box];
    "Propose 2-3 approaches" [shape=box];
    "Present design sections" [shape=box];
    "User approves design?" [shape=diamond];
    "Write draft" [shape=box];
    "Spec self-review\n(fix inline)" [shape=box];
    "User reviews draft?" [shape=diamond];
    "Invoke forge:writing-plans skill" [shape=doublecircle];

    "Explore project context" -> "Ask clarifying questions";
    "Ask clarifying questions" -> "Propose 2-3 approaches";
    "Propose 2-3 approaches" -> "Present design sections";
    "Present design sections" -> "User approves design?";
    "User approves design?" -> "Present design sections" [label="no, revise"];
    "User approves design?" -> "Write draft" [label="yes"];
    "Write draft" -> "Spec self-review\n(fix inline)";
    "Spec self-review\n(fix inline)" -> "User reviews draft?";
    "User reviews draft?" -> "Write draft" [label="changes requested"];
    "User reviews draft?" -> "Invoke forge:writing-plans skill" [label="approved"];
}
```

**The terminal state is invoking forge:writing-plans via /forge:propose.** Do NOT invoke any other implementation skill. The ONLY skill you invoke after brainstorming is forge:writing-plans.

## The Process

**Understanding the idea:**

- Check out the current project state first (files, docs, recent commits)
- Before asking detailed questions, assess scope: if the request describes multiple independent subsystems (e.g., "build a platform with chat, file storage, billing, and analytics"), flag this immediately. Don't spend questions refining details of a project that needs to be decomposed first.
- If the project is too large for a single spec, help the user decompose into sub-projects: what are the independent pieces, how do they relate, what order should they be built? Then brainstorm the first sub-project through the normal design flow. Each sub-project gets its own draft → plan → implementation cycle.
- For appropriately-scoped projects, 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
- Scale each section to its complexity: a few sentences if straightforward, up to 200-300 words if nuanced
- 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

**Design for isolation and clarity:**

- Break the system into smaller units that each have one clear purpose, communicate through well-defined interfaces, and can be understood and tested independently
- For each unit, you should be able to answer: what does it do, how do you use it, and what does it depend on?
- Can someone understand what a unit does without reading its internals? Can you change the internals without breaking consumers? If not, the boundaries need work.
- Smaller, well-bounded units are also easier for you to work with - you reason better about code you can hold in context at once, and your edits are more reliable when files are focused. When a file grows large, that's often a signal that it's doing too much.

**Working in existing codebases:**

- Explore the current structure before proposing changes. Follow existing patterns.
- Where existing code has problems that affect the work (e.g., a file that's grown too large, unclear boundaries, tangled responsibilities), include targeted improvements as part of the design - the way a good developer improves code they're working in.
- Don't propose unrelated refactoring. Stay focused on what serves the current goal.

## After the Design

**Documentation:**

- Write the validated draft to `forge/drafts/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md`
  - (User preferences for draft location override this default)
- Commit the draft document to git

**Spec Self-Review:**
After writing the draft document, look at it with fresh eyes:

1. **Placeholder scan:** Any "TBD", "TODO", incomplete sections, or vague requirements? Fix them.
2. **Internal consistency:** Do any sections contradict each other? Does the architecture match the feature descriptions?
3. **Scope check:** Is this focused enough for a single implementation plan, or does it need decomposition?
4. **Ambiguity check:** Could any requirement be interpreted two different ways? If so, pick one and make it explicit.

Fix any issues inline. No need to re-review — just fix and move on.

**User Review Gate:**
After the spec review loop passes, ask the user to review the written draft before proceeding:

> "Draft written and committed to `<path>`. Please review it and let me know if you want to make any changes before we start writing out the implementation plan."

Wait for the user's response. If they request changes, make them and re-run the spec review loop. Only proceed once the user approves.

**Implementation:**

- Invoke the forge:writing-plans skill via /forge:propose <change-id> --from-draft <date>-<topic> to create the change proposal + implementation plan. Do NOT invoke any other skill.

## 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, get approval before moving on
- **Be flexible** - Go back and clarify when something doesn't make sense

<!-- Visual companion 在 forge v0.1 不提供,brainstorming 全程在终端做。 -->