Brainstorming
Productivityby obra
2/3 audits passMIT
You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior. Explores user intent, requirements and design before implementation.
Brainstorming, from obra's superpowers collection, is meant to run before any creative or feature work. It has the agent establish shared understanding first: discover the intended outcome and who it is for, write that understanding back separating what was said from assumptions, and carry it into the design. The agent then classifies the request aloud as one of three paths. A spike answers a feasibility question with a cheap probe; a bounded change gets a short in-chat design; architectural work gets a written spec, saved and committed, followed by a spec self-review for placeholders and internal consistency before an implementation plan.
A hard gate forbids implementation actions, including writing product code, scaffolding or installing dependencies, until the chosen path's approvals are complete, and approval of one stage does not approve the next. An optional browser-based visual companion can show mockups and diagrams, offered only when a question is genuinely visual. Use it for new features, components or behaviour changes; it deliberately slows down premature coding.
It is written for coding agents such as Claude Code. It is MIT-licensed and importable into BusinessMCP as a playbook, though the visual companion server is a bundled script that does not run there.
What you can do with it
- Turn a vague feature idea into an approved design
- Write and self-review a spec for an architectural change
- Run a quick feasibility spike before committing to a plan
- Show layout options in a browser during design
Run it on your business data
Imported into BusinessMCP, Brainstorming becomes a playbook your AI business analyst applies to your connected workspace tools.
Use Brainstorming in BusinessMCPInstall it in a coding agent
One command adds Brainstorming to your project.
npx skills add https://github.com/obra/superpowers --skill brainstormingHow we vetted it
- Source
- obra/superpowers at 5bf4e78
- Licence
- MIT
- Security audits (skills.sh)
- Gen Agent Trust Hub: Pass · Socket: Warn · Snyk: Pass
- Bundled scripts
- Yes — read them before installing
Checked 2026-09-25 against its skills.sh listing. How we vet skills
Related skills
All skillsWriting Plans
Use when you have a spec or requirements for a multi-step task, before touching code
Create PRD
Create a Product Requirements Document using a comprehensive 8-section template covering problem, objectives, segments, value propositions, solution, and release planning.
Systematic Debugging
Use when encountering any bug, test failure, or unexpected behavior, before proposing fixes
Frequently asked questions
What are the three paths in Brainstorming?
Spike for feasibility questions, bounded for small changes with a short in-chat design, and architectural for work that needs a written, approved spec and implementation plan.
Can the agent start coding during brainstorming?
Not before the selected path's approvals are complete. Read-only exploration of the project is allowed in the meantime.
How do I install Brainstorming?
Run `npx skills add obra/superpowers --skill brainstorming`, or import it from the BusinessMCP dashboard.
Run Brainstorming against your whole business
Free plan, no credit card.
Use Brainstorming in BusinessMCP