brainstorming

Brainstorming is a mandatory software development skill designed to enforce discipline in the coding agent workflow. It acts as a gatekeeper, preventing agents from jumping into premature implementation. By mandating a Socratic dialogue between the user and the agent, this skill ensures that project context, technical constraints, and success criteria are fully understood before a single line of code is written. It is intended for software engineers and project stakeholders who prioritize accuracy, YAGNI principles, and high-quality design documentation.

• Facilitates structured exploration of user requirements and project intent through iterative, single-question conversational loops.

• Implements a strict HARD-GATE preventing execution of implementation skills like writing code, project scaffolding, or mcp-builder until design approval is secured.

• Provides a systematic framework for exploring multiple technical approaches with clear trade-offs, helping users select the most effective solution.

• Mandates the creation of a formal design document saved to the repository at docs/superpowers/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md for future reference and audit.

• Includes an anti-pattern detection mechanism to discourage the 'too simple to need a design' fallacy, ensuring all tasks, including small utilities, follow the established process.

• The workflow begins with exploring the project context, including existing files, documentation, and recent commit history to maintain consistency.

• When complex or visual topics arise, the agent offers a dedicated 'Visual Companion' to aid in design comprehension.

• Users must provide approval after each section of the design is presented, moving from architecture and components to data flow, error handling, and testing strategies.

• Once the design is validated and self-reviewed for placeholders or contradictions, the skill concludes by invoking the writing-plans skill to transition into the implementation phase.

• Constraints include strict adherence to the process flow; the skill does not support bypassing steps, ensuring that every project remains well-defined, documented, and aligned with user expectations before any development activity begins.