--- title: "brainstorming skill: agree the design before your agent codes" canonical_url: https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/brainstorming last_updated: 2026-10-02T01:58:30+02:00 type: skill summary: "Brainstorming is an agent skill from Superpowers that makes your coding agent work out what you want and agree a design with you before it writes any code." install: "/plugin install superpowers@claude-plugins-official" related: - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/mattpocock/grill-me" - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/diagnosing-superpowers" - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/dispatching-parallel-agents" - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/executing-plans" - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/finishing-a-development-branch" - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/receiving-code-review" - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/requesting-code-review" - "https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/subagent-driven-development" --- # Brainstorming Brainstorming is an agent skill from Superpowers that makes your coding agent work out what you want and agree a design with you before it writes any code. | Fact | Value | |---|---| | Publisher | Jesse Vincent | | Source | https://github.com/obra/superpowers/tree/HEAD/skills/brainstorming | | License | MIT | | Repository stars | 293,976 on 2026-10-02 | | Skill name | brainstorming | | Category | Planning and agent workflow | | Skill last changed | 2026-09-19 | | Page updated | 2026-10-02 | | Facts checked | 2026-10-02 | ## Install In Claude Code, install the whole Superpowers plugin from Anthropic's official marketplace: ``` /plugin install superpowers@claude-plugins-official ``` Or install only this skill with the skills CLI: ``` npx skills add obra/superpowers --skill brainstorming ``` ## Ask your coding agent A skill can include scripts that run on your computer, so read its source first: https://github.com/obra/superpowers/tree/HEAD/skills/brainstorming ```text Install the agent skill brainstorming from github.com/obra/superpowers. ``` ## What it does Brainstorming is one of the skills in Superpowers, Jesse Vincent's open-source method for AI coding agents. It runs before any creative work, such as a new feature, a component or a change in behavior, and turns an idea into a design through conversation. In Brainstorming, the agent first works out what you want, who it is for and what success looks like. When something is missing, it asks one focused question about purpose before proposing features. It then writes its understanding back to you, keeping what you said apart from what it assumed, so you can correct it. A hard gate in Brainstorming stops the agent from writing product code, scaffolding or installing dependencies until you approve the design: a written spec for larger work, or a short design in the chat for smaller work. The folder also holds a visual companion, a small local server with a page template. ## When to use it - You are about to ask an agent for a new feature and want to agree on what it builds first. - Your agent tends to start coding before it understands the request. - You want a written spec for bigger work, or a short design in the chat for small work. ## When to pick something else - You already have an approved spec: Writing Plans turns it into tasks. ## Which agents it works in Jesse Vincent documents it for Claude Code, Codex (app and CLI), Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, OpenCode, Antigravity, Devin CLI, Factory Droid, Grok Build CLI, Kimi Code, Pi, Qwen Code, Hermes Agent, Muse. The open skills CLI also installs it into 78 agents (listed with the CLI on 2026-10-01). Superpowers is written in Claude Code's vocabulary (subagent dispatch, todos, the Skill tool) and ships tool mappings for Codex, Gemini CLI, Pi, Antigravity, Hermes Agent and Muse. Installed as the full plugin, a session-start hook loads Using Superpowers so the agent reaches for skills on its own; one skill installed with the skills CLI gets no hook and may point to sibling skills you do not have. ## License MIT. ## Questions people ask ### Does the Superpowers brainstorming skill work in Codex or Cursor? Yes. The Superpowers README documents installs for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, OpenCode and nine more agents. Installing the whole plugin rather than this one skill keeps the skills it hands off to, such as Writing Plans. ### Will the brainstorming skill stop my agent from coding? Until you approve a design, yes: a hard gate blocks product code, scaffolding and dependency installs. A small change gets a short design in the chat, larger work a written spec. ## Related ### Related skills for planning and agent workflow - [Grill me](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/mattpocock/grill-me): grill-me is Matt Pocock's agent skill that turns your agent into a relentless interviewer, asking numbered rounds of questions about a plan or design until every decision is settled. - [Diagnosing Superpowers](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/diagnosing-superpowers): Diagnosing Superpowers is an agent skill from Superpowers that reads a session's transcripts when work went wrong and reports what happened, with every finding tied to a file and line. - [Dispatching Parallel Agents](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/dispatching-parallel-agents): Dispatching Parallel Agents is an agent skill from Superpowers: when several problems are independent, your agent sends a focused subagent to each at once, then checks the results together. - [Executing Plans](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/executing-plans): Executing Plans is an agent skill from Superpowers in which your agent works through a written plan itself, task by task with tests, then gets one fresh review of the whole branch. ### More from Jesse Vincent - [Finishing a Development Branch](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/finishing-a-development-branch): Finishing a Development Branch is an agent skill from Superpowers: when work is done, your agent runs the tests, offers to merge, open a pull request or keep the branch, then cleans up. - [Receiving Code Review](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/receiving-code-review): Receiving Code Review is an agent skill from Superpowers: your agent checks review feedback against the code before acting, pushes back with reasons when it is wrong, and skips the flattery. - [Requesting Code Review](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/requesting-code-review): Requesting Code Review is an agent skill from Superpowers: your agent sends its changes to a separate reviewer subagent that checks them against the plan and grades each issue by severity. - [Subagent-Driven Development](https://cookiesforai.app/skills/obra/subagent-driven-development): Subagent-Driven Development is an agent skill from Superpowers: your agent carries out a plan by giving each task to a fresh subagent, reviewing every task, then reviewing the whole branch.