/brainstorm - Idea Refinement

Transform rough ideas into fully-formed designs through collaborative dialogue, incremental validation, and design documentation.

• Purpose - Refine vague ideas into actionable designs
• Output - Design document in .specs/plans/<topic>.design.md

/brainstorm initial feature concept

Arguments

Optional initial concept to explore. Can be vague: "something to help with user onboarding" or more specific: "real-time notification system".

How It Works

1. Context Understanding:

   • Reviews current project state (files, docs, recent commits)
   • Asks questions one at a time to refine the idea
   • Prefers multiple choice questions when possible
   • Focuses on: purpose, constraints, success criteria

2. Approach Exploration:

   • Proposes 2-3 different approaches with trade-offs
   • Leads with recommended option and reasoning
   • Presents options conversationally

3. Design Presentation:

   • Breaks design into 200-300 word sections
   • Asks after each section if it looks right
   • Covers: architecture, components, data flow, error handling, testing
   • Ready to clarify if something doesn't make sense

4. Documentation:

   • Writes validated design to .specs/plans/<topic>.design.md
   • Commits the design document to git

5. Implementation Handoff (optional):

   • Asks if ready to set up for implementation
   • Can create isolated workspace with git worktrees
   • Can create detailed implementation plan

Key Principles

• One question at a time - Don't overwhelm with multiple questions
• Multiple choice preferred - Easier than open-ended when possible
• YAGNI ruthlessly - Remove unnecessary features from designs
• Explore alternatives - Always propose 2-3 approaches before settling
• Incremental validation - Present design in sections, validate each

Usage Examples

# Start with vague idea
/brainstorm Something to improve user onboarding

# More specific concept
/brainstorm Real-time collaboration features for document editing

# Technical exploration
/brainstorm Caching strategy for our product catalog API

# Process improvement
/brainstorm Automated deployment pipeline for our microservices

Best practices

• Start with the problem - Describe what you're trying to solve
• Be open to alternatives - The first idea isn't always best
• Engage with questions - Your answers shape the design
• Validate incrementally - Catch issues early in design sections
• Save the design - Use as input for /add-task