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Agent skill

Brainstorming

by davekilleen in davekilleen/Dex

This skill should be used before implementing features, building components, or making changes.

MITAuto-check passedAgent Workflows

Install Brainstorming

skills CLI
$ npx skills add davekilleen/Dex --skill brainstorming -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install davekilleen/Dex brainstorming --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/davekilleen/Dex.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/plugins/compound-engineering/skills/brainstorming .claude/skills/brainstorming && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
brainstorming
GitHub stars
493
Token cost
~1.5k tokens
SKILL.md length
657 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
61
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

This skill should be used before implementing features, building components, or making changes.

  • Works in 5 steps: Assess Requirement Clarity → Understand the Idea → Explore Approaches → …
  • Lets brainstorm
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use This Skill, Core Process, YAGNI Principles and Incremental Validation, plus 2 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Brainstorming is an agent skill from davekilleen/Dex. This skill should be used before implementing features, building components, or making changes. It guides exploring user intent, approaches, and design decisions before planning. Triggers on "let's brainstorm", "help me think through", "what should we build", "explore approaches", ambiguous feature requests, or when the user's request has multiple valid interpretations that need clarification.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.5k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Agent Workflows, covering Brainstorming and Architecture decision records. The repository describes itself as: Your AI Chief of Staff — a personal operating system starter kit that adapts to your role. No coding required. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Lets brainstorm
  • Help me think through
  • What should we build
  • Explore approaches

Example prompts

  • “s brainstorm”
  • “help me think through”
  • “what should we build”
  • “/brainstorming”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Assess Requirement Clarity
  2. Understand the Idea
  3. Explore Approaches
  4. Capture the Design
  5. Handoff

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 227f78e. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are markdown).

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Brainstorming loads about 1.5k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 103 tokens; SKILL.md has 657 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~103
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.5k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from davekilleen/Dex at commit 227f78e, republished under its MIT licence (© davekilleen). 657 words, ~1,523 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/brainstorming/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
brainstorming
description
This skill should be used before implementing features, building components, or making changes. It guides exploring user intent, approaches, and design decisions before planning. Triggers on "let's brainstorm", "help me think through", "what should we build", "explore approaches", ambiguous feature requests, or when the user's request has multiple valid interpretations that need clarification.

Brainstorming

This skill provides detailed process knowledge for effective brainstorming sessions that clarify WHAT to build before diving into HOW to build it.

When to Use This Skill

Brainstorming is valuable when:

  • Requirements are unclear or ambiguous
  • Multiple approaches could solve the problem
  • Trade-offs need to be explored with the user
  • The user hasn't fully articulated what they want
  • The feature scope needs refinement

Brainstorming can be skipped when:

  • Requirements are explicit and detailed
  • The user knows exactly what they want
  • The task is a straightforward bug fix or well-defined change

Core Process

Phase 0: Assess Requirement Clarity

Before diving into questions, assess whether brainstorming is needed.

Signals that requirements are clear:

  • User provided specific acceptance criteria
  • User referenced existing patterns to follow
  • User described exact behavior expected
  • Scope is constrained and well-defined

Signals that brainstorming is needed:

  • User used vague terms ("make it better", "add something like")
  • Multiple reasonable interpretations exist
  • Trade-offs haven't been discussed
  • User seems unsure about the approach

If requirements are clear, suggest: "Your requirements seem clear. Consider proceeding directly to planning or implementation."

Phase 1: Understand the Idea

Ask questions one at a time to understand the user's intent. Avoid overwhelming with multiple questions.

Question Techniques:

  1. Prefer multiple choice when natural options exist

    • Good: "Should the notification be: (a) email only, (b) in-app only, or (c) both?"
    • Avoid: "How should users be notified?"

  2. Start broad, then narrow

    • First: What is the core purpose?
    • Then: Who are the users?
    • Finally: What constraints exist?

  3. Validate assumptions explicitly

    • "I'm assuming users will be logged in. Is that correct?"

  4. Ask about success criteria early

    • "How will you know this feature is working well?"

Key Topics to Explore:

TopicExample Questions
PurposeWhat problem does this solve? What's the motivation?
UsersWho uses this? What's their context?
ConstraintsAny technical limitations? Timeline? Dependencies?
SuccessHow will you measure success? What's the happy path?
Edge CasesWhat shouldn't happen? Any error states to consider?
Existing PatternsAre there similar features in the codebase to follow?

Exit Condition: Continue until the idea is clear OR user says "proceed" or "let's move on"

Phase 2: Explore Approaches

After understanding the idea, propose 2-3 concrete approaches.

Structure for Each Approach:

markdown
### Approach A: [Name]

[2-3 sentence description]

**Pros:**
- [Benefit 1]
- [Benefit 2]

**Cons:**
- [Drawback 1]
- [Drawback 2]

**Best when:** [Circumstances where this approach shines]

Guidelines:

  • Lead with a recommendation and explain why
  • Be honest about trade-offs
  • Consider YAGNI—simpler is usually better
  • Reference codebase patterns when relevant
Show full SKILL.md (265 more words)Show less
Phase 3: Capture the Design

Summarize key decisions in a structured format.

Design Doc Structure:

markdown
---
date: YYYY-MM-DD
topic: <kebab-case-topic>
---

# <Topic Title>

## What We're Building
[Concise description—1-2 paragraphs max]

## Why This Approach
[Brief explanation of approaches considered and why this one was chosen]

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

## Open Questions
- [Any unresolved questions for the planning phase]

## Next Steps
→ `/workflows:plan` for implementation details

Output Location: docs/brainstorms/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-brainstorm.md

Phase 4: Handoff

Present clear options for what to do next:

  1. Proceed to planning → Run /workflows:plan
  2. Refine further → Continue exploring the design
  3. Done for now → User will return later

YAGNI Principles

During brainstorming, actively resist complexity:

  • Don't design for hypothetical future requirements
  • Choose the simplest approach that solves the stated problem
  • Prefer boring, proven patterns over clever solutions
  • Ask "Do we really need this?" when complexity emerges
  • Defer decisions that don't need to be made now

Incremental Validation

Keep sections short—200-300 words maximum. After each section of output, pause to validate understanding:

  • "Does this match what you had in mind?"
  • "Any adjustments before we continue?"
  • "Is this the direction you want to go?"

This prevents wasted effort on misaligned designs.

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

Anti-PatternBetter Approach
Asking 5 questions at onceAsk one at a time
Jumping to implementation detailsStay focused on WHAT, not HOW
Proposing overly complex solutionsStart simple, add complexity only if needed
Ignoring existing codebase patternsResearch what exists first
Making assumptions without validatingState assumptions explicitly and confirm
Creating lengthy design documentsKeep it concise—details go in the plan

Integration with Planning

Brainstorming answers WHAT to build:

  • Requirements and acceptance criteria
  • Chosen approach and rationale
  • Key decisions and trade-offs

Planning answers HOW to build it:

  • Implementation steps and file changes
  • Technical details and code patterns
  • Testing strategy and verification

When brainstorm output exists, /workflows:plan should detect it and use it as input, skipping its own idea refinement phase.

© davekilleen, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in .claude/plugins/compound-engineering/skills/brainstorming of davekilleen/Dex.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 227f78e

Compare with similar skills

Brainstorming next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Brainstorming compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Brainstorming this skilldavekilleen/Dex493—~1.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Comet Designrpamis/comet3.2k—~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Octocode Rfc Generatorbgauryy/octocode949—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Comet Designrpamis/comet3.2k—~3.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Dotfile Brainstormharperreed/dotfiles334—~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Macro Idea Generationagentii-ai/agentii-investment-intelligence207—~2.1kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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Categories

Questions about Brainstorming

What does Brainstorming do?

This skill should be used before implementing features, building components, or making changes. Brainstorming is an agent skill from davekilleen/Dex. This skill should be used before implementing features, building components, or making changes.

When should I use Brainstorming?

Brainstorming fits situations like: lets brainstorm; help me think through; what should we build; explore approaches.

How do I install Brainstorming in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add davekilleen/Dex --skill brainstorming -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/plugins/compound-engineering/skills/brainstorming in davekilleen/Dex) into .claude/skills/brainstorming in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Brainstorming in Codex?

Run `npx skills add davekilleen/Dex --skill brainstorming -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/plugins/compound-engineering/skills/brainstorming in davekilleen/Dex) into .agents/skills/brainstorming in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Brainstorming in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add davekilleen/Dex --skill brainstorming -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/brainstorming, .gemini/skills/brainstorming, .github/skills/brainstorming and .opencode/skills/brainstorming in your project.

What does Brainstorming need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Brainstorming is instructions for the agent only.

Does Brainstorming access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Brainstorming safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Brainstorming use?

Brainstorming is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Brainstorming use?

About 1.5k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.1k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Brainstorming?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Brainstorming: Comet Design (rpamis/comet, 3.2k stars), Octocode Rfc Generator (bgauryy/octocode, 949 stars), Comet Design (rpamis/comet, 3.2k stars) and Dotfile Brainstorm (harperreed/dotfiles, 334 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Brainstorming?

davekilleen (a GitHub user) maintains it in davekilleen/Dex, which has 493 GitHub stars. The repository holds 61 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 8, 2026.

Source: davekilleen/Dex on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.