brainstorminglisted

# Brainstorming Use BEFORE entering plan mode or starting any implementation. Prevents building the wrong thing. ## When to Use This Skill - Designing a new feature or behavior - Deciding between approaches - Any time the right solution isn't obvious ## Steps 1. **Search existing context** — grep the codebase, check docs, read relevant files before forming opinions. Never brainstorm in a vacuum when prior context exists. 2. **State the problem** — one sentence. What are we actually solving? 3. **Generate 3 approaches** — for each: name it, state the core tradeoff in one sentence. 4. **Recommend one** — which and why in 2 sentences. 5. **Flag constraints** — does this touch areas with known gotchas (auth, migrations, external APIs, hooks, config)? Note them. 6. **Stop** — do not implement until the user confirms the approach. ## Rules - Context search first. Never brainstorm blind. - Three approaches minimum. Two is lazy, four is stalling. - Constraints are hard gates, not suggestions. - Step 6 is not optional. "I'll just start" skips the whole point. ## Tips - The tradeoff line in step 3 is the most important part. If you can't state the tradeoff in one sentence, you don't understand the approach yet. - The recommendation in step 4 should be opinionated. "Either could work" is not a recommendation. - If the user rejects all three approaches, that's data — ask what's missing before generating more.