Explore vague or ambitious ideas into a right-sized requirements-only unified plan. Use when the user wants to brainstorm or scope what to build. Not for executing already-specified work. Use ce-pov for a verdict on adopting a named external technology.

Brainstorm a Feature or Improvement Brainstorming answers WHAT to build through dialogue; ce plan then enriches the same unified plan artifact with HOW . This skill does not implement code. The current year is 2026 , for dating the artifact. Outcome: a result sized to the work that ce plan can build on without inventing product behavior, scope boundaries, or success criteria: a chat paragraph for Lightweight work, or a requirements only unified plan under <root /plans/ when a file is earned. Done, on the brainstorm path: that artifact is written and passes the Ready for Planning Check — or no file was written because the dialogue produced no decision that a later reader (the planner, a reviewer, or a future reader) needs recorded under a stable ID and the user asked for none — and Phase 4's handoff has been presented. Lightweight work ends in chat. Phase 0.3 classifies the tier from the request and bounded inline reads before anything is dispatched; when the tier is uncertain, take the heavier one. Lightweight work — small, well bounded, low ambiguity — ends in a chat paragraph with no file, no grounding scout, no approach generation, and no claim verifier. A file is earned only by a decision that a later reader needs recorded under a stable ID, or by the user asking for one. Stop and route instead in three cases, decided by references/phase 0.md , not from memory. Each ends the run its own way, so the done condition above does not apply: non software work, where references/universal brainstorming.md replaces Phases 0.2–4; a verdict question about a named external candidate, where you offer the ce pov handoff; and neither — quick help, a factual question, a single step task — answered directly. The feature description is what the invocation carries, whether the user wrote it or a calling skill passed it. If none came, ask the user what they want to explore and do not proceed until you have one. Artifact Root Resolve <root the first time you compose or read a <root / path, never earlier; a scratch only or no repo run that touches none skips this entirely. <! ce docs root:start Resolve the CE artifact root <root before composing any artifact path. Read docs root from <repo root /.compound engineering/config.yaml only ( <repo root = git rev parse show toplevel ). Do not read it from config.local.yaml . Unset <root is docs , exactly as before. Validate a set value: a repo relative directory whose real, symlink resolved path stays inside the repo and is neither the repo root nor under .git/ . Otherwise stop with an error naming docs root and the value never fall back to docs . Use <root as the sole artifact location: create it if absent, compose each path as <root /<subdir with this skill's own subdirectory, and never also read docs . <! ce docs root:end brainstorm output and brainstorm model resolve by this rule instead: <! ce config layers:start Resolve ordinary CE yaml keys from the two repo files. Read <repo root /.compound engineering/config.local.yaml , then config.yaml ( <repo root = git rev parse show toplevel ). Missing files are skipped. Gitignore does not change resolution. Win with the first active (non commented) value. For scalars, empty is unset; an invalid value continues to the next layer, then the skill default. For lists and maps, a present key — including an empty list or map — replaces the whole key. Do not use this rule for docs root — that key is config.yaml only. <! ce config layers:end Execution Flow Phases run in this order. Each names the files it cannot run correctly without: read them when you reach it, and never do its work from this table alone. Phase Read first What only those files carry before the first question, and for the whole run — non software route included Read references/interaction rules.md the Core Principles, and the Interaction Rules: one question per turn, ask only decisions the environment cannot settle, the blocking question tool default and the visual probe gate that overrides it, when a question is genuinely open ended, and the one ce prototype routing test this skill states in full there before treating a decision the conversation carries as settled Read references/settled decisions.md the settlement test; skipping it re asks a decided question or promotes an unexamined assertion 0.0 output mode references/output mode.md the OUTPUT FORMAT precedence; the token parsing convention 0.1–0.4 resume, classify, route, scope references/phase 0.md resume scan; the stop and route classification; scope tiers; the coherent work gate (is this one piece of work?); both tripwires (visual or spatial features; unfamiliar territory); the task list 1 understand the idea references/dialogue.md context scan and grounding scout; opt in Slack researcher; pressure test; blindspot and visual probe gates; the conflict gate against existing CONCEPTS.md and verified code; Phase 1.3 exit condition 2–2.6 approaches, synthesis, verification references/approaches.md , plus references/synthesis summary.md before composing the synthesis approach generation; model elevation; the scoping synthesis; the claim verifier 3 write the plan references/plan write.md , then references/brainstorm sections.md and the rendering reference for the format whether a doc is warranted; the section contract; the Ready for Planning Check 4 handoff references/handoff.md the option set and its visibility conditions; the rendering mode rule; per selection dispatch, including what ce plan is passed; closing summaries These rules hold without any read: OUTPUT FORMAT is exclusive — markdown OR HTML, never both. The format is the first that applies: a request in this prompt, a preference the user stated earlier, config, then markdown, in every run including headless ones. When a file is written on the brainstorm path the artifact contract does not change : write to <root /plans/YYYY MM DD HHMM <type <topic plan.<md html , with HHMM from local wall clock time at write; frontmatter carries artifact contract: ce unified plan/v1 and product contract source: ce brainstorm ; the body is a Goal Capsule plus the Product Contract. Do not emit a Goal Launch Block or Reader Index. The non software route writes none of this. When a file is written, do not declare it written or enter Phase 4 while any check fails in the Ready for Planning Check; a chat result enters Phase 4 (the handoff) with no check to run. An improvised handoff menu is the other silent failure: it shows options that should be hidden and passes the wrong input to the next skill. The Phase 1.1 grounding scout, the Phase 2.6 claim verifier, and the opt in Slack researcher are tiered by task shape, never hardcoded to a model name; read references/model tiers.md before dispatching one. Model elevation is a separate mechanism ( references/reasoning elevation.md ).

ce-brainstorm