Brainstorming

Explore ideas collaboratively with Claude before jumping to implementation. The brainstorming workflow ensures requirements are gathered, approaches are considered, and a design document is produced before any code is written.

When to Use This

• You have an idea for a new feature and want to explore it before committing to an approach.
• You need to add functionality but are not sure of the best design.
• A stakeholder has described a requirement in broad terms and you need to refine it.
• You want to consider multiple approaches and their trade-offs.

What You'll Use

Walkthrough

Scenario: You want to add dark mode support to a web application.

Step 1: Start the Brainstorm

Run /brainstorm and describe your idea:

"I want to add dark mode to the app. Users should be able to toggle between light and dark themes, and the app should remember their preference."

Step 2: Claude Explores Requirements

Claude does not jump to implementation. Instead, the brainstorming skill activates and Claude asks clarifying questions:

• Should the app respect the OS-level dark mode preference?
• Should the toggle be in the header, settings page, or both?
• Are there existing design tokens or CSS variables to build on?
• Does the app use a component library with built-in theme support?

Answer each question. Claude uses your answers to refine the scope.

Step 3: Claude Proposes Approaches

After gathering requirements, Claude presents 2-3 approaches with trade-offs:

1. CSS custom properties — Simple, no library needed, but requires manual theme definitions.
2. Theme provider component — Uses React context, integrates with component library themes.
3. CSS-in-JS theme — Most flexible, but adds a runtime dependency.

Each approach includes pros, cons, and estimated effort.

Step 4: Design Document

Once you agree on an approach, Claude produces a design document covering:

• Chosen approach and rationale
• Scope (what is in and out)
• Component changes needed
• Data flow (how the preference is stored and applied)
• Edge cases (SSR, flash of unstyled content, accessibility)

This design document becomes the input for the next phase: planning.

Quick Reference

Tips

• Do not skip brainstorming for non-trivial features. It almost always reveals requirements you had not considered.
• The brainstorming skill activates automatically before any creative work, even without running /brainstorm. But the command gives a more structured experience.
• If you already have a detailed spec, skip brainstorming and go directly to planning.
• The design document output is designed to flow into superpowers' /write-plan or spec-kit's /speckit-specify.

See Also

• superpowers plugin — Full plugin documentation
• Specification workflow — Next step: formalize the spec
• Planning workflow — Turn the design into an implementation plan