brainstorming

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Translated

You MUST use this skill before any creative or complex work. Explores user intent, requirements and design before actually executing on the task.

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Sourcedavidkiss/smart-ai-skills

Added on2026-02-15

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npx skill4agent add davidkiss/smart-ai-skills brainstorming

SKILL.md Content

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Brainstorming Ideas Into Specs

Overview

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

Start by understanding the current project context in the project's root directory, then ask questions one at a time to refine the idea. Once you understand what you're creating, present the specs 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 git commits) using subagent(s) to minimize LLM token usage
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
Only ask questions where the answer cannot be easily inferred from the project context, etc.
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 specs:

Once you believe you understand what you're building, present the specs
Break it into sections of 200-300 words
Ask after each section whether it looks right so far
Cover all important aspects:
- for coding projects: architecture, components, data flow, performance, security, multithreading / async processing, error handling, testing
- for non-coding projects: confirm the list of aspects to cover with the user
Be ready to go back and clarify if something doesn't make sense

After the Specs

Documentation:

Write the validated specs to
```
docs/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-specs.md
```

Detailed Execution Plan (if continuing):

Ask: "Ready to continue with a detailed task breakdown?"
Use the task-breakdown skill to create detailed task breakdown

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 specs in sections, validate each
Be flexible - Go back and clarify when something doesn't make sense
AskUserQuestion tool - must use this tool to ask questions to the user