SKILL.md
/brainstorm — Clarify Goals Before Planning
Purpose: Separate WHAT from HOW. Explore the problem space before committing to a solution.
Loop position
Upstream of move 1 (shape intent as BDD) of the operating loop. Consumes a free-text goal; produces Given/When/Then-shaped acceptance examples that /discovery can fold into a BDD intent issue. The Capture step (phase 4 below) is not complete until at least one happy path and one critical edge are written as testable Gherkin — "it should work" is not a captured example.
Two modes
/brainstorm runs in one of two modes. They are complementary, not exclusive — a session may start in ideation mode, pick one idea, and hand it to goal-clarification for HOW-exploration.
| Mode | Use when | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| Goal-clarification (default; the four phases below) | The goal names ONE specific capability ("add JWT auth", "fix the login bug") |
Sharpen the WHAT, explore the HOW for that single goal. |
| Ideation (open-ended; see Ideation Mode) | The goal is open-ended ("improve the project", "what should we build next") OR Phase 1 returns exploring with no single goal emerging OR --ideate is passed |
Generate MANY candidate improvements, winnow ruthlessly, operationalize the survivors. |
The full mode-selection table lives in references/ideation-mode.md.