brainstorm

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

/sdd: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
/sdd:brainstorm Something to improve user onboarding

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

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

# Process improvement
/sdd: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 /sdd:add-task