Brainstorming Plugin
The brainstorming plugin adds one skill, brainstorming. Before creative work such as a new feature, a new component or a change in behavior, Elowen follows it: it works out what you want, shows you the design and waits for your approval before it implements anything. It is adapted from the brainstorming skill of obra/superpowers (MIT License).
How a conversation goes
Elowen first says which of three paths the request needs, so you can overrule it:
| Path | For | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Spike | A feasibility question whose answer matters more than any code | Elowen states the question and the probe in two or three sentences, waits for your nod, investigates and reports a recommendation. Anything it built stays marked as throwaway. |
| Bounded | A well-scoped change to code that already exists | Elowen asks the questions that matter, presents a short design in chat and waits for an explicit yes. |
| Architectural | A new project or subsystem, or a change that alters how parts fit together | Questions one at a time, two or three approaches with a recommendation, the design in sections, then a written spec and an implementation plan. |
Elowen asks its questions with the usual question prompt, one at a time, with its recommendation first. It does not implement, scaffold or install anything until the approval its path requires has arrived. If it finds hidden complexity halfway through, it stops and moves up to the heavier path; it never moves down.
Where the spec and the plan go
In plan mode every path ends in the conversation's plan file and the plan-mode approval prompt. On the architectural path the spec and then the implementation plan are written into that file, you review the spec there, and Elowen implements only after you approve the plan. Outside plan mode, the architectural path needs a plan file, so Elowen asks you to switch the conversation to plan mode before it writes the spec. In a shared channel, a delegated agent or a scheduled run there is no plan mode: the design and the spec stay in the conversation and your reply is the approval. Nothing is committed to a repository.
Choose who gets it
The plugin can be granted to individual accounts, so only the accounts you pick get the skill. Within those accounts, an administrator can also switch the skill off or on for one account in Settings → Plugins → Skills: pick the account, then use the switch on the brainstorming row. The skill is used automatically when a request fits it; /skill:brainstorming loads it by hand.
What is different from upstream
Upstream's browser-based visual companion is not included. It needs a web server that your browser can reach, which a conversation on the host cannot offer, and the skill works fully as text without it. The hand-off to the separate writing-plans skill is replaced by the plan file and plan-mode approval described above. NOTICE lists every change.