ideate git:20260928.e013001A

Immutable. This exact content never changes and is served at /api/v1/blob/7b47ff1c0c48ef35.

---
name: ideate
description: Generate grounded ideas for what to build next, critique every one, and rank the survivors in a Markdown file.
disable-model-invocation: true
argument-hint: "[focus area or constraint]"
license: MIT
---

# Ideate

Answer one question: **which ideas are worth building?** Generate many, critique all of them, and explain only the **survivors**. Picking one and shaping it is the job of `/grill-with-docs`; this skill ends when the user holds a ranked list.

Every idea carries a **basis**, the evidence a reader can check. An idea without one is slop, however plausible it sounds. Tag each basis:

- `direct:` a line, file, or issue the agent actually read, quoted with its `file:line`.
- `external:` named prior art or a known pattern, with its source.
- `reasoned:` a first-principles argument, written out in full.

## Process

### 1. Scope

The argument is the **focus**: a feature, a flow, a constraint, or nothing. Ideate at full ambition inside the focus, and keep the whole repo as the subject when there is none.

When the subject cannot be identified (no argument and no clear project in the working directory), ask one question (through your harness's multiple-choice question tool if it has one, such as `AskUserQuestion` in Claude Code) with these options: a subject the user names, **Surprise me** (each frame picks the subject it finds most interesting), and **Cancel**. Leave solution direction, audience, and success criteria to `/grill-with-docs`.

Done when the subject is named or the user picked Surprise me.

### 2. Ground

Read the glossary and the ADRs (`docs/agents/domain.md` gives the layout; by default `GLOSSARY.md` and `docs/adr/` at the root), and the README. Then spawn one Explore subagent to map the subject: what exists, where it hurts, what recently changed (`git log`), open TODOs, and open issues in the repo's issue tracker (`docs/agents/issue-tracker.md` says where). It returns a **grounding summary** of at most 150 lines, with `file:line` pointers for every claim.

Done when the grounding summary exists. If grounding fails (no repo, empty repo), say so and ideate from the user's description, with `reasoned:` and `external:` bases only.

### 3. Generate

Spawn the frame subagents in parallel, in one message. Each gets the same grounding summary, the focus, and its assigned **frames**. A frame is a starting bias, not a fence; cross-frame ideas are welcome.

1. **Pain and friction**: what is slow, broken, or annoying.
2. **Inversion, removal, or automation**: flip a painful step, delete it, or automate it away.
3. **Assumption-breaking**: what is treated as fixed but is a choice; reframe one level up or sideways.
4. **Leverage and compounding**: moves that make many future moves cheaper.
5. **Cross-domain analogy**: how a different field solves the same shape of problem. Push past the first analogy.
6. **Constraint-flipping**: take a constraint to its opposite or extreme (budget 10x or 0, one user or a million), and keep the design that falls out.

Use four agents: frames 1, 2, and 4 get one each; frames 3, 5, and 6 share the fourth, since all three invert givens. Give every agent this charter:

> The user will pick one of these ideas to build, so an idea earns its place only if it could change what they do next. Your first few ideas are the obvious ones: treat them as warm-up. Return about 6 per frame, each with a title, a 2-4 sentence summary, a tagged basis, and one line on why it matters. A `direct:` basis quotes a line you read, never a guessed citation. Drop any idea you cannot give a basis. Stay inside the focus.

Done when every agent has returned.

### 4. Merge

Dedupe into one list, then add up to five **combinations**: ideas from different frames that are stronger together. In Surprise me, combinations are the point, so give them more attention.

### 5. Verify

Spawn one fresh subagent. It gets only the grounding summary and the merged list, never the generation history. Its job is to **refute**: check that every `direct:` quote exists, that every `external:` source says what is claimed, and that every `reasoned:` argument holds. It returns a verdict per idea.

Then you decide which ideas make the final cut. Overrule a verdict only when evidence in context contradicts it, and say so. Every cut idea gets a one-line reason: vague, basis refuted, no basis, duplicate of a stronger idea, already done, cost over value, or outside the focus.

Rank the survivors by basis strength (`direct:` above `external:` above `reasoned:`, all else equal), expected value, leverage, and size. Keep 5-7, or the count the user asked for. When fewer pass, report fewer.

Done when every merged idea is either ranked or carries a cut reason.

### 6. Write

Write `docs/ideation/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md` (`open` as the topic when there is no focus), creating the directory if needed:

- **Subject**: the focus, and the grounding summary cut to its key points.
- **Ranked ideas**: for each survivor, the title, summary, basis, why it matters, size (S, M, or L), and a **Take it further** prompt in a fenced block. The prompt opens with the grill-with-docs command in the form this session invoked `ideate` with (`/grill-with-docs`, `/supermatt:grill-with-docs` from the Claude Code plugin, `$grill-with-docs` in Codex), then names the idea, its basis with the `file:line` pointers, and why it matters. A fresh session has no report and no grounding, so the prompt stands alone. `grill-with-docs` ships alongside this skill and only the user can invoke it, so your skill listing never shows it: write that command exactly as given here.
- **Cut**: a table of every cut idea and its reason.

### 7. Present

Print one line with the counts and the absolute path (`7 ranked, 31 cut → <path>`), then one line per survivor: `1. <title> · <basis type> · <size>`. Name the top pick in a sentence. Then stop: the user takes an idea into `/grill-with-docs` by pasting its **Take it further** prompt.