What problem does it solve?
Prevents premature implementation by enforcing a written, reviewed design specification before any code, scaffolding, or project-modifying commands are produced. This reduces rework, hidden tradeoffs, and architecture drift by making design decisions explicit and approved before implementation begins.
Core Features & Use Cases
- Hard gate enforcement: Refuses to produce code, scaffolding, pseudocode, or run modifying commands until a design spec is written and explicitly approved.
- Structured workflow: Guides the user through context exploration, proposes 2-3 distinct approaches with tradeoffs, writes a spec into docs/brainstorm-notes/, self-reviews the spec, and hands off to planning or implementation tools.
- Audit-friendly artifacts: Creates dated session directories and session.md logs so decisions and open questions are traceable.
- Use case: Convert a feature request or migration (for example, migrating auth systems or adding rate limiting) into an approved, testable design spec before any implementation starts.
Quick Start
Ask the assistant to "Design a spec for adding a rate limiter to the API gateway and draft the approved design in docs/brainstorm-notes/".