idea-genie git:20261021.b54da62A

Immutable. This exact content never changes and is served at /api/v1/blob/c39d4e57f429999b.

---
name: idea-genie
description: 'Brainstorm evidence-backed options for what to build, or stress-test an idea. Use when: deciding what to build next, comparing options or testing an idea.'
practices: [lean-startup, bdd-gherkin, design-by-contract, llm-eval-harness, adr]
hexagonal_role: domain
consumes: [repo-context, task-question, idea-portfolio.v1]
produces: [idea-portfolio.v1, idea-challenge.v1]
context_rel:
- kind: customer-of
  with: research
- kind: supplier-to
  with: plan
skill_api_version: 1
user-invocable: true
metadata:
  tier: execution
  dependencies: []
  capabilities: [generate_evidenced_options, dueling_idea_genies]
  effects: [write_idea_portfolio]
  canonical_status: canonical
  disposition: keep_strategy
output_contract: idea-portfolio.v1 JSON validated by skills/idea-genie/scripts/validate-output.sh (elicit mode), or idea-challenge.v1 JSON validated by skills/idea-genie/scripts/validate-challenge.sh (duel mode)
---

# Idea Genie

One canonical root for idea work: elicit an evidence-grounded portfolio of
options, or challenge a consequential idea with sealed independent
perspectives. Both modes explore and advise; neither selects, schedules,
tracks, implements, or validates work.

## Modes

| Trigger phrases | Mode | Output contract |
|---|---|---|
| "idea genie", "what should we build next", "brainstorm options", "supported opportunities" | elicit | `idea-portfolio.v1` |
| "challenge this idea", "compare independent proposals", "stress-test a one-way door" | duel | `idea-challenge.v1` |

Elicit is the entry mode. Duel is an optional escalation for a consequential
choice, typically consuming an `idea-portfolio.v1` or a framed question. A
scored multi-member duel, where members score each other's ideas, is
[Council](../council/SKILL.md)'s duel mode; a plan's failure modes belong to
[Premortem](../premortem/SKILL.md).

Both validators live in this skill's `scripts/` directory and need `jq`.
Without `jq`, check the fields by hand against the shape and say the validator
did not run.

## Elicit mode

These rules carry the value:

1. **Observations cite a source:** a file and line, issue, doc or measurement.
   Anything uncited is an assumption, listed apart and never used as support.
2. **Every candidate cites the observations behind it.** No cited support, no
   candidate; an unsupported idea may stay listed as an assumption. Never pad
   the list to a count.
3. **Check overlap before claiming novelty.** Compare each candidate with what
   the product already does. A request an existing capability already covers
   is not new: record it under `overlaps` of the candidate it sharpens, or
   leave it out.
4. **One Given/When/Then per candidate**, a normal or edge case with an
   observable result.
5. **Do not rank, pick, schedule or start work.** The caller or Plan selects.
6. **Stop at saturation.** Merge equivalents, and run another pass only while
   it adds a materially new evidenced candidate. Zero candidates is valid.
7. **Generate before judging.** Name a few independent angles the question
   allows (who is affected, which workflow, what fails, what costs, what could
   be removed) and draft along each before filtering. Judging the first idea
   too early narrows the set. Keep a one-line reason for each dropped idea in
   `dropped` so a later pass does not regenerate it.
8. **Behavior outweighs stated interest.** "Users asked for it" is weaker than
   what they do now: the workaround they already use, what it costs them, and
   observed adoption of anything similar. Name the status quo each candidate
   must beat; if nobody is working around the problem today, say so.

State the question, constraints, non-goals and sources first; hydrate only the
sources this question needs and cite them, with no merged context store.
Return the portfolio in this shape:

```json
{
  "schema_version": "idea-portfolio.v1",
  "status": "candidates",
  "observations": [{"claim": "<what is true>", "evidence": "<cited source>"}],
  "assumptions": ["<belief no cited source supports>"],
  "candidates": [{
    "id": "I1",
    "evidence": ["<cited sources behind this candidate>"],
    "overlaps": ["<existing capability it extends or repeats>"],
    "scenario": {"given": "<state>", "when": "<event>", "then": "<observable result>"}
  }],
  "dropped": [{"idea": "<short name>", "reason": "<overlap, no evidence, or why it lost>"}],
  "termination": {"reason": "novelty-saturated", "novel_candidates_last_pass": 0}
}
```

`overlaps` may be empty; `dropped` is optional. When every idea overlaps or lacks support, set
`status` to `no-new-work`, leave `candidates` empty and set `termination.reason`
to `all-overlap-or-unsupported`. For a person, render the same fields as a
short list, one block per candidate. When a file is wanted, write
`.agents/scratch/ideas/<run-id>/idea-portfolio.json` and run
`scripts/validate-output.sh` on it before handing it to the caller or Plan.
Plan alone may incorporate a selected option into the existing bead or caller
intent.

## Duel mode

Produce independent challenges for a consequential choice. The result is
advisory evidence for Plan. It never decides whether a plan is ready and never
turns a later optional Premortem challenge into an approval gate.

**Door class.** Ask what undoing the choice after it lands would cost. A
one-way door needs a migration, breaks a published contract or caller, loses
data, or has an external effect that cannot be recalled. A cheap two-way door
is undone by a revert or a flag.

### Constraints

- Seal generation: no perspective sees another until all are complete, so
  later proposals cannot anchor on earlier ones.
- Preserve dissent, failed refutations and minority reasoning; Plan must see
  the alternatives synthesis would otherwise erase.
- Keep a two-way door light: no pane manager, messaging service, council or
  model-family rule.
- Emit no readiness, approval, quorum, retry, budget, helper, delivery, or
  tracker state: this strategy supplies evidence, not lifecycle authority.
  Consensus, transport availability or a self-score never becomes readiness.

### Workflow

1. Freeze the question, constraints, evidence paths and comparison rubric.
2. For a one-way door, start at least two fresh contexts: separate subagents
   or sessions with no shared transcript, one prompt each carrying the frozen
   question and evidence paths. Record each native context id as `context_id`
   and collect every perspective before revealing any. When the caller pins
   perspectives to model profiles, record each `model_identity` (see the
   `agent-native` model-dispatch recipe); disclose an unavailable profile and
   continue single-model.
3. Reveal the sealed perspectives and cross-review each by evidence,
   reversibility, system fit, failure modes and cost.
   Compare perspectives by mechanism, not by name: two that rely on the same
   mechanism count as one alternative, and fewer than two distinct ones is an
   incomplete comparison, not a winner. A perspective that breaks a frozen
   constraint is out, whatever its other strengths.
   A combination of parts from several perspectives is a new candidate with no
   inherited support: walk one concrete example through each guarantee the
   combined design needs before listing it, or list it as unchecked so Plan
   does not combine on trust.
4. Attempt concrete refutations. Keep disagreements, failed refutations and
   minority reasoning explicit.
5. Write `idea-challenge.v1`, validate it, and pass it to Plan as one optional
   input alongside research and operator intent.

For a cheap two-way door, emit the lightweight packet directly after one fresh
challenge. Do not manufacture panel ceremony.

### Output Specification

- **Artifact directory:** `.agents/scratch/ideas/<run-id>/`
- **Filename:** `idea-challenge.json`
- **Format:** `idea-challenge.v1` JSON with route-specific fields enforced by
  the validator; it carries no readiness field or decision
- **Validation command:** `scripts/validate-challenge.sh <idea-challenge.json>`
- **Downstream handoff:** `handoff.owner` is exactly `plan`; Plan may accept,
  reject, or combine the advisory evidence

## References

- [Idea Genie behavior](references/idea-genie.feature)
- [Idea challenge behavior](references/idea-challenge.feature)