Ideation

Critical: Use AskUserQuestion Tool

AskUserQuestion

Workflow Pipeline

INTAKE → CONTRACT FORMATION → PRD GENERATION → SPEC GENERATION
              ↓
         confidence < 95%?
              ↓
         ASK QUESTIONS
              ↓
         (loop until ≥95%)

Phase 1: Intake

• Scattered thoughts and half-formed ideas
• Voice dictation transcripts (messy, stream-of-consciousness)
• Bullet points mixed with rambling
• Topic jumping and tangents
• Contradictions and unclear statements

Phase 2: Contract Formation

2.1 Analyze the Brain Dump

1. Problem signals: What pain point or need is being described?
2. Goal signals: What does the user want to achieve?
3. Success signals: How will they know it worked?
4. Scope signals: What's included? What's explicitly excluded?
5. Contradictions: Note any conflicting statements

2.2 Calculate Confidence Score

references/confidence-rubric.md

2.3 Confidence Thresholds

2.4 Ask Clarifying Questions

AskUserQuestion

• "What specific problem are you trying to solve?"
• "Who experiences this problem and how often?"

• "What does success look like for this project?"
• "What specific metrics should improve?"

• "How will you know when you're done?"
• "What tests would prove this feature works?"

• "What is explicitly NOT part of this project?"
• "What's the MVP vs. nice-to-have?"

• "You mentioned [X] but also [Y]. Which takes priority?"

2.5 Generate Contract

1. Use

   AskUserQuestion

   to confirm project name
2. Convert to kebab-case for directory name
3. Create output directory:

   ./docs/ideation/{project-name}/

4. Write

   contract.md

   using

   references/contract-template.md

5. Get approval before proceeding to PRD

Phase 3: PRD Generation

3.1 Determine Phases

• Dependencies (what must be built first?)
• Risk (tackle high-risk items early)
• Value delivery (can users benefit after each phase?)

3.2 Generate PRDs

prd-phase-{n}.md

references/prd-template.md

3.3 Present for Review

AskUserQuestion

Phase 4: Spec Generation

4.1 Generate Implementation Specs

spec-phase-{n}.md

references/spec-template.md

• Technical approach
• File changes (new and modified)
• Implementation details with code patterns
• Testing requirements
• Validation commands

Output Artifacts

./docs/ideation/{project-name}/

contract.md              # Lean contract
prd-phase-1.md           # Phase 1 requirements
prd-phase-2.md           # Phase 2 requirements
spec-phase-1.md          # Phase 1 implementation spec
spec-phase-2.md          # Phase 2 implementation spec

Important Notes

• ALWAYS use

  AskUserQuestion

  tool for clarifications and approvals.
• Never skip the confidence check.
• Always write artifacts to files.
• Each phase should be independently valuable.
• Specs should be detailed enough to implement without re-reading PRDs.