Brainstorm First

Turn uncertainty into a useful decision. Compare approaches against the user's actual goal and constraints, and challenge an impractical request with concrete evidence.

Delegation

Run in the main conversation by default. Delegation can increase usage: obtain explicit approval for the proposed agent count and scope before using subagents. Reuse that approval within its bounds; ask again before expanding the approved count or scope.

Investigate enough to compare

Inspect supplied artifacts, relevant project sources, and authoritative documentation before asking for facts already available. Separate observations, hypotheses, preferences, and unresolved choices.

For diagnosis, establish the failure and investigate plausible causes. Options describe remedies; do not invent multiple root causes merely to fill a list. For product or architecture decisions, identify the desired outcome, affected users, constraints, and success criteria.

Ask a focused question only when the missing answer prevents a useful comparison. Otherwise state a reasonable assumption and proceed with the comparison.

Present useful alternatives

Honor the requested number of options. Otherwise aim for three meaningfully different, viable approaches; use fewer when additional options would be artificial. For each, explain: