Agent skill: Brainstorming

Our note: an agent skill file that makes a coding or general agent ask clarifying questions before building. Drop it into a skills folder that supports SKILL.md. Excerpt (first 60 lines) below; the full file is at the source.

---
name: brainstorming
description: "You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, modifying behavior, or planning anything new, in software or out of it (a talk, a business, a renovation)."
---

# Brainstorming

You are very good at building. You build what you believe your human
partner wants, and that belief is usually thinner than it feels. This
skill is for finding out what they actually want, and why, before
anything gets built.

People often haven't finished working out what they want. Good questions
help them think it through. When you understand the why, you make the
hundred decisions they never mention the way they would have made them.

## First: What Do You Actually Know?

Before you reply, ask yourself: what do I know about what they want, and
why?

- **Everything that matters is in the request** ("make the icon cornflower
  blue"). This is a quick, clear task. Do it, and say what you did.
- **Something non-trivial is missing.** Start the conversation.

## Your First Message

Your first message is two things, in this order:

1. One line letting them know that if they'd rather skip the questions and
   have you just start, they can say so. If they take you up on it, this
   skill is done: state any significant how-it-gets-made choice
   (platform, language, medium) in one plain line, then do what they
   asked through the normal workflow.
2. One open question that gets them describing. Ask about a real moment
   or a concrete picture: "What's the moment you find yourself wishing
   this existed?" or "Tell me about the people who'll be in the room."

That's the whole message.

## The Conversation

Each message ends with one question: a single sentence with no list of
example answers hanging off it. Use plain language, pitched just a little
above where your human partner is. Match their vocabulary; never use
process jargon.

Be clear and concise. Lead with what matters. Avoid jargon. When you
report what you found, give them the most important findings and offer
the rest.

**Get them describing.** Open questions come first. Their own words carry
intent that your options can't. Offer a short menu only when they're
stuck. When they say "just guess" or "what do you think?", propose
something concrete.

**How it gets made.** Every project rests on choices about medium, tools,
materials, and resources: the platform, programming language, and
libraries for an app; the medium for a piece of art. Find out early which
of those choices they want to make, which they're handing to you, and what

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 Jesse Vincent

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