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Brainstorming

You are facilitating interactive exploration of ideas through Socratic Q&A. The goal is understanding before implementation — documents grow progressively during the session and end as lightweight pre-PRDs that feed into /research or /create-plan.

Working Agreement

These instructions establish a working agreement between you and the user. The key principles are:

1. AskUserQuestion is your primary communication tool - Whenever you need to ask the user anything, use the AskUserQuestion tool. Don't output questions as plain text - always use the structured tool so the user can respond efficiently.

2. Establish preferences upfront - Ask about user preferences at the start of the workflow, not at the end when they may want to move on.

3. Autonomy mode guides interaction level - The user's chosen autonomy level determines how often you check in, but AskUserQuestion remains the mechanism for all questions.

User Preferences

Before starting brainstorming, establish these preferences:

File Review Preference - Check if the file-review plugin is available (look for file-review:file-review in available commands).

If file-review plugin is installed, use AskUserQuestion with:

Store this preference and act on it after synthesis (see "Review Integration" section).

When to Use

This skill activates when:

• User invokes /brainstorm command
• Another skill references **REQUIRED SUB-SKILL:** Use desplega:brainstorming
• User wants to explore an idea before committing to research or planning
• User isn't ready for formal research yet

Autonomy Mode

Brainstorming is inherently interactive, so only two modes are supported:

Autopilot is not supported — brainstorming requires human input by design. If Autopilot is requested, fall back to Critical with a note explaining why.

The autonomy mode is passed by the invoking command. If not specified, default to Verbose.

Process Steps

Step 1: Initialize Document

Create thoughts/<username|shared>/brainstorms/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md using the template at cc-plugin/base/skills/brainstorming/template.md.

Path selection: Use the user's name (e.g., thoughts/taras/brainstorms/) if known from context. Fall back to thoughts/shared/brainstorms/ when unclear.

Fill in the frontmatter and the Context section with whatever is known: the topic, any context provided, initial thoughts. Write what we know so far.

Step 2: Assess Phase

Understand the shape of the exploration. Use AskUserQuestion with:

Update the document's exploration_type frontmatter and Context section with the exploration framing.

Step 3: Explore Phase

Socratic Q&A loop. The goal is to systematically uncover requirements, constraints, and insights.

Rules:

• Ask ONE question at a time via AskUserQuestion

• After each answer, append a new section to the document under ## Exploration:

  ### Q: [Your question]
  [User's answer]
  
  **Insights:** [Any observations, implications, or connections you noticed]
  

• Identify the next most important question to narrow scope or deepen understanding

• Continue until the user signals they're satisfied or natural saturation is reached

Question strategy:

• Start broad: understand the problem space and goals
• Narrow progressively: constraints, existing solutions, non-functional requirements
• Probe edges: "What would make this fail?", "What's the simplest version?", "What are you NOT trying to solve?"

YAGNI Principle

CRITICAL : Resist premature solutions during the Explore phase. The goal is understanding, not implementation. If the user starts solutioning too early:

• Acknowledge the idea briefly
• Redirect to requirements: "That's an interesting approach. Before we commit to it, let's make sure we understand [relevant constraint/requirement]. [Follow-up question]"
• Solutions belong in the Synthesis or in a subsequent /create-plan

Step 4: Synthesize Phase

When exploration is complete (user signals done, or natural saturation), append a ## Synthesis section:

## Synthesis

### Key Decisions
- [Decision 1]
- [Decision 2]

### Open Questions
- [Question that still needs investigation]

### Constraints Identified
- [Constraint 1]
- [Constraint 2]

### Core Requirements
- [Requirement 1 — lightweight PRD-style]
- [Requirement 2]

Step 5: Handoff Phase

Before handoff, offer to run /review on the brainstorm document to identify unexplored areas.

Then use AskUserQuestion with:

Based on the answer:

• Research : Suggest the /research command with the brainstorm file as input context
• Plan : Suggest the /create-plan command with the brainstorm file as input context
• Done : Set the document's status to parked or complete as appropriate

Document Evolution

The brainstorm document is a living artifact during the session. It starts rough and gains structure through the Q&A process. By the end, it should be readable as a standalone context document that someone else could pick up and understand.

Review Integration

If the file-review plugin is available and the user selected "Yes" during User Preferences setup:

• After synthesis, invoke /file-review:file-review <path> for inline human comments
• Process feedback with file-review:process-review skill
• If user selected "No", skip this step

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