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Design Doc Drafter

Drafts a technical design document section by section from an agreed brief or notes.

Source Download skill
Repository
google/elephant-goldfish-model
Stars
9,965
Licence
Apache-2.0
Files
3 files

What it does

This skill makes the agent help you write a technical design document one section at a time, based on a concepts brief from an earlier brainstorming step or on notes you provide. The agent writes the draft into a file (design_draft.md) rather than in chat, then pauses after each section to ask you to approve it or request changes. It is set up to challenge weak assumptions and list counter-arguments rather than simply agreeing with you, and to leave architecture choices for you to make by presenting options with trade-offs.

Great for

  • Engineers writing a design doc for a feature who already have requirements and a proposed solution
  • Teams following the Elephant-Goldfish feature flow who want the second step after brainstorming
  • People who want a critical reviewer of their design plan as they write

Skip it if

  • Quick one-off documents or simple notes, since the step-by-step gating adds overhead (reason: the workflow is designed for multi-turn approval)
  • Users who want the agent to make architecture decisions for them, because the skill deliberately withholds a recommended option (reason: it asks you to choose)
  • Projects not using the Elephant-Goldfish flow, since it depends on an earlier brainstorm output and references to files not included in this review

Try asking

  • “Draft the design doc for my feature using the concepts brief from the brainstorm step”
  • “Write the next section of design_draft.md and stress-test the data model choices”
  • “Turn these notes into a design document, one section at a time”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Design Doc DrafterInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 3 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.

    egm-draft.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

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

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip egm-draft.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

  • Run the earlier egm-brainstorm step first so the agent has an aligned brief to start from
  • Use inline comments on design_draft.md to give section-specific feedback, then choose the revision option
  • Expect the agent to ask you to pick between architecture options rather than choosing for you

What's inside

  • agents/openai.yaml
  • references/design_doc.md
  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from google/elephant-goldfish-model under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-11-02. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.