Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

Overview

Help turn ideas into fully formed designs and specs through natural collaborative dialogue.

Start by understanding the current project context, then ask questions one at a time to refine the idea. Once you understand what you're building, present the design and get user approval.

Why Design-First?

Presenting a design before implementation prevents several costly failure modes:

• Misaligned assumptions — Coding toward the wrong goal is expensive to unwind
• Scope creep — Design clarifies boundaries; implementation without it invites feature bloat
• Architecture rework — Early code often creates structural debt that compounds
• Wasted specialization — Implementation skills are powerful but wasteful without clear direction

This applies to every project, including simple ones. A todo list, single-function utility, or config change can all ship the wrong thing. The design can be concise for simple projects (a few sentences), but it should exist and be approved before implementation begins.

Anti-Pattern: "This Is Too Simple To Need A Design"