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Brainstorming Before Building

Makes the agent ask clarifying questions and agree on a design before building anything new.

Source Download skill
Repository
obra/superpowers
Stars
310,931
Licence
MIT
Files
7 files

What it does

When you ask the agent to create or change something, it first works to understand what you actually want and why, instead of jumping straight into building. It asks focused questions, reads your existing project if there is one, lays out a few ways to build it with trade-offs, and waits for your approval of a short design before writing code. Simple, clearly specified tasks are just done. The skill also includes an optional local browser companion that can show mockups or visual options in a page on your own computer.

Great for

  • Developers starting a new feature who want the agent to check assumptions first
  • Non-programmers planning a website, app, business, or project who want help thinking it through
  • Anyone who has found that agents build the wrong thing from vague requests

Skip it if

  • Quick, fully specified tasks such as changing one colour, since the skill itself says to just do those; it adds delay
  • Users who want code immediately and find questions annoying, because the skill is designed to pause for conversation
  • Sensitive setups where the optional visual companion is started on a shared or remote machine, since it can bind to a network address and serves a local web page

Try asking

  • “Help me plan a mobile app for tracking my houseplants watering schedule before we start building”
  • “Let's brainstorm how to add user login to this project”
  • “I want to renovate my kitchen; help me think through the options before we pick a plan”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Brainstorming Before BuildingInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 7 original files, the MIT licence and an attribution note.

    brainstorming.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip brainstorming.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip brainstorming.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • State your goal and why you want it in your first message to get better questions
  • Say 'just get going' if you want the agent to skip the design conversation
  • Only enable the visual companion on your own machine unless you understand the network bind options

What's inside

  • builder-check-prompt.md
  • scripts/frame-template.html
  • scripts/helper.js
  • scripts/start-server.sh
  • scripts/stop-server.sh
  • SKILL.md
  • visual-companion.md

Redistributed unmodified from obra/superpowers under the MIT licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.