@nurix/etna 0.13.0 → 0.15.1

package/data/harnesses/code/skills/brainstorm/README.md

@@ -1,287 +1,136 @@
 # brainstorm
 
-A Claude Code skill for **structured design of unbuilt software**. It enforces a deliberate plan-before-code phase, captures decisions and open questions in a persistent registry of pillar documents, and refuses to write production code while a session is open.
+A Claude Code skill that is a **thinking partner for designing software** — not a form to fill in. It runs one constant loop (distill → abstract → sync → record) over a conversation, files the thinking into a small set of substance-first pillars, and treats *coherence* as a measurable target rather than a vibe.
 
-The user's job is to prevent eager coding. The skill's job is to make planning the path of least resistance.
+The point of v2 is a single inversion over v1: **the conversation is the work; the artifacts serve it.** v1 had grown into elaborate bookkeeping (a tentative/committed decision state machine, background cascade locks and queues, a 10-pillar eager bootstrap, an unconditional greenfield doctrine) wrapped around thinking that never had to happen. v2 deletes that machinery and keeps the loop.
 
 ---
 
-## Why this skill exists
+## The loop (the only constant)
 
-The default failure mode of an AI assistant on a fresh problem is to **start typing code immediately**. That produces:
+Every turn, in every mode:
 
-- Decisions made implicitly inside `src/`, never written down.
-- Open questions silently resolved with the first plausible answer.
-- Architecture that drifts because no one tracked the "why".
-- Re-work when the next session forgets context the previous one had.
+1. **Distill** — fold what the user said into the pillars, in their framing, this turn.
+2. **Abstract** — name the latent structure they implied but didn't state (an entity relationship, an invariant, a principle). One offer per exchange.
+3. **Sync** — keep the pillars consistent with each other and with the basis (the sync agent, below).
+4. **Record** — writes happen in the turn that produced the information; nothing is hoarded for a session-end dump.
 
-`brainstorm` inverts this. While a session is open, the skill behaves as a **design facilitator** — not a coder. It asks structured questions, records answers into named files, and uses a state file (`state.md`) to remember across conversations whether a session is active. Code authoring is **blocked** outside the brainstorm folder; small load-bearing snippets are allowed only as illustration inside it.
-
-The output is not a single document. It is a **registry** — nine pillar files plus numbered plan docs — that survives across sessions and stays load-bearing because every entry has a *why*.
-
----
-
-## When to use it
-
-Good fits:
-
-- New system being designed from scratch.
-- New feature on a system that hasn't shipped yet.
-- Migration or refactor with enough surface area that you want decisions captured before code.
-- Multi-service or cross-team design needing a shared registry of decisions.
-
-Bad fits — the skill will say so and offer to redirect:
-
-- Debugging a specific bug in an existing system.
-- One-day scripts, single-button additions, typo fixes.
-- Established codebases where you're following an existing pattern.
-- Anything where the right next step is to read or change code, not to decide.
-
-When the skill detects a bad fit during qualification, it asks the user before exiting — never bails unilaterally. The user can override and proceed anyway.
-
----
-
-## Installation
-
-In this repo (`etna`), the skill lives at:
-
-```
-store/skills/brainstorm/
-├── SKILL.md            # The skill definition Claude Code loads.
-├── README.md           # This file.
-├── greenfield.md       # Writing doctrine for greenfield architecture docs.
-└── templates/          # Pillar file templates copied into ./plan/ on first use.
-    ├── state.md
-    ├── questions.md
-    ├── decisions.md
-    ├── doctrine.md
-    ├── glossary.md
-    ├── inventory.md
-    ├── non-goals.md
-    ├── references.md
-    ├── rejected.md
-    ├── milestones.md
-    └── plan-doc.md
-```
-
-To use the skill in a project, place the folder at one of:
-
-- `~/.claude/skills/brainstorm/` (user-wide install)
-- `<project>/.claude/skills/brainstorm/` (project-scoped install)
-- A plugin under `<project>/plugins/<plugin>/skills/brainstorm/`
-
-Claude Code loads any skill whose `SKILL.md` it can discover via its standard skill resolution.
+Everything else — pillar count, ceremony, harvest — scales with the idea. The loop does not.
 
 ---
 
 ## Lifecycle
 
-The skill exposes exactly two subcommands. Everything else happens **within** an active session as natural conversation.
+Two subcommands, nothing else. The skill never auto-invokes on natural language.
 
 ```
-/brainstorm start    # open a session
-/brainstorm close    # close a session
+/brainstorm start    # open a session (requires a basis)
+/brainstorm stop     # close a session
 ```
 
-There is no `sweep`, `check`, `resolve`, `init`, or `reinforce` subcommand. The skill reads `state.md` at the start of every turn to decide whether a session is open, and adapts behavior accordingly.
-
-### `start` — opening a session
-
-1. **Qualification** — 2–4 questions via `AskUserQuestion`: what's being designed, what's built so far, rough scope, whether the goal is to lock decisions before code. If the answers suggest a poor fit, the skill says so and offers to redirect (dump conversation into a temp file and end before opening). The user always decides.
-
-2. **Folder selection** — Decide where pillars and `state.md` live. The skill scans the working directory (one level deep) for candidate folders:
-   - Conventional names: `./plan/`, `./brainstorm/`, `./design/`.
-   - Any other folder containing `state.md` plus at least one pillar file.
-
-   Resolution:
-   - **One candidate** → confirm in a single line.
-   - **Multiple candidates** → present via `AskUserQuestion`.
-   - **None found** → ask the user; offer the conventional names plus "Other" for a custom path.
-
-   The chosen folder anchors the entire session. Every later reference to `./plan/` resolves to it.
-
-3. **Bootstrap** — Copy any missing pillar files from `templates/` into the chosen folder. Existing files are never overwritten. Write `state.md` with `STATE: open`, session start date, and the current topic.
-
-4. **Source materials (optional)** — Before intake, the skill asks whether existing documents or projects should inform the design. If yes, it copies them into `./plan/sources/` and adds entries to `references.md` so the session works off local copies rather than thrashing across the filesystem.
-
-5. **Intake interview** — `AskUserQuestion` in topical bundles (2–4 questions per batch) seeds the pillars: what the system is for, what's explicitly not being built, prior art, hard constraints, obvious open questions. Each answer is written directly to the relevant pillar as it comes in — no accumulating in conversation.
-
-6. **First-pass review** — Show the user the pillar summaries, the open-questions dependency graph (computed from `Blocks.` fields, presented topologically), and the next milestone's blocking questions. Ask which question to tackle first.
-
-### In-session behavior
-
-Once `state.md` is `STATE: open`, the skill is active across all subsequent turns until `close` runs.
-
-#### Voices
-
-The skill's tone shifts implicitly based on what's happening — no flags or overrides.
-
-| Phase | Voice | What this means |
-|---|---|---|
-| Intake | **Facilitator** | Neutral. Open questions. Draw out intent. Don't propose. |
-| Surfacing new topics | **Architect mentor** | Proactively raise things the user hasn't named. Cite prior art. |
-| Resolving a question | **Sparring partner** | Push back on weak rationale. Name the unstated tradeoff. |
-| Sweeps, status reads, capture | **Scribe** | Pure capture. Don't editorialize. |
-| `close` and gap detection | **Critic** | Look for inconsistencies, smell-words, underspecified pillars. |
+### The entry gate
 
-#### Writing recommendations on questions
+A session needs substance before it opens. `start` asks for a **basis**: a reference document, or a one-shot brain dump of the whole idea. If the user drip-feeds small action items (a bug fix, a single button), the skill says it's the wrong tool and **does not open** unless overridden. The basis *is* the first dump — the skill distills it into the initial thesis and questions, so the first questions come from the user's own material, never from an empty template.
 
-When the skill surfaces a new question or sweeps the question ledger, it adds a one-line **Claude's take:** field to questions where it has a confident view. **Silent on uncertain questions** — a hedge is worse than nothing. When the take disagrees with an existing Lean, it says so explicitly.
+### Intake frame
 
-#### Resolving a question
+After distilling the basis, one `AskUserQuestion` batch sets three dials:
 
-1. Read the full question from `questions.md`.
-2. Present options via `AskUserQuestion`. If the user has already named an answer in chat, pre-lean it with a confirm step.
-3. **Sparring-partner pushback**: probe weak rationale once. If the user holds firm, accept.
-4. Append to `decisions.md` with **Decision**, **Why**, **How to apply**, **Resolves Q-N**, optional **Alternatives considered** linking to `rejected.md`.
-5. **Delete** Q-N from `questions.md`. No strikethrough. No "(resolved)" marker. The decision now lives in `decisions.md`, period.
+- **Complexity** (low / medium / high) — sets the default pillar surface.
+- **Build mode** (greenfield / brownfield / hybrid) — lands in `build.md`; opens or closes the execution sections and sets the writing posture.
+- **Mode** — where the idea lives right now (see below).
 
-#### Topic shifts → pillar reinforcement
+Then the skill proposes an **aspect map** — the thinking dimensions for *this* idea — which the user edits. The map drives the sync's coverage audit.
 
-When conversation moves from one design topic to another, the skill pauses **before** entering the new topic:
+### Modes (who drives)
 
-> "I see we're moving from [previous] to [next]. Before we shift — do any of these belong in the load-bearing pillars?
-> - [Candidate 1] → could go in `glossary.md` because [reason]
-> - [Candidate 2] → could go in `doctrine.md` because [reason]
->
-> Promote any of them?"
+| Mode | Driver | When | Behavior |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| **dump** | user | idea is in their head | No questions mid-stream. Distill live, reflect back shape + contradictions + implications. |
+| **interview** | skill | idea is fuzzy | Question batches of 2–3, one aspect at a time, each answer distilled immediately. |
+| **probe** | skill | idea is drafted | Adversarial pass — flaws, edge cases, conflicts. Each finding becomes a question. |
+| **converge** | shared | closing | Burn down open questions into decisions or explicit parks; ends with a mandatory sync. |
 
-This is the **only** periodic prompt. There is no scheduled checkpoint or review — pillar reinforcement happens at natural topic boundaries because that's when the closing context is fresh.
-
-#### Semantic sweeps
-
-When the user asks to "update the docs" / "propagate this", the skill runs a semantic sweep — not a grep:
-
-1. List all plan docs and pillar files that might be affected.
-2. Read each end-to-end for sections referencing the changed concept.
-3. Present a punch list grouped by file → section → proposed edit.
-4. Wait for approval before editing.
-
-Sweeps are **never automatic**. They are user-requested or skill-recommended, but the user always pulls the trigger.
-
-#### Production code — blocked
-
-The skill refuses to write production code (in `src/`, `apps/`, `packages/`, etc.) while a session is open. Small load-bearing snippets — a config sketch, an API contract, a database row layout — are allowed **inside the brainstorm folder** in `./plan/samples/` or inline in plan docs as fenced code. They are documentation, not production.
-
-If the user asks for production code, the skill says:
-
-> "We're in an active brainstorm session. I can sketch this inside `./plan/` as illustration, or you can run `/brainstorm close` first if you want to start building. Which do you want?"
-
-### `close` — closing a session
-
-1. Read all pillars and plan docs.
-2. Run gap detection:
-   - Greenfield smell-words grep across plan docs (see `greenfield.md`).
-   - Decisions missing **Why** or **How to apply**.
-   - Questions with no `Blocks.` field.
-   - Pillars untouched since `start` (suggests underspecified design).
-   - Plan docs with their own "Open Questions" section instead of a pointer to `questions.md`.
-3. Report gaps — do not auto-fix.
-4. Ask whether to address them now or close anyway.
-5. On confirmation, write `STATE: closed` to `state.md` with a one-line reason (milestone reached / paused / scope cut / handing off).
-6. If `./plan/sources/` exists, offer to delete it. Default to keep if unclear — they were copies; originals are untouched.
-7. Print: "Run `/brainstorm start` to resume."
-
----
-
-## The 9 pillars (+ plan docs)
-
-| File | Role |
-|---|---|
-| `questions.md` | Live ledger of unresolved decisions. Self-contained text per question (no `08 §5` cross-refs). |
-| `decisions.md` | Resolved decisions, each with **Why** and **How to apply**. Append-only. |
-| `doctrine.md` | Stable principles that pre-answer future questions. |
-| `glossary.md` | Project-specific terms with definitions. |
-| `inventory.md` | What exists / is being built / is external / is reference-only. |
-| `non-goals.md` | Explicit "not building" list, each with a reason. |
-| `references.md` | External prior art, each with a one-line "what we use it for". |
-| `rejected.md` | Alternatives considered and rejected, with reasons + re-evaluate conditions. |
-| `milestones.md` | Sequencing only. Each milestone names its blocking questions and dependencies. |
-
-Plus **plan docs** — `01-foo.md`, `02-bar.md`, ... — domain-by-domain architecture, present-tense. Format described in `templates/plan-doc.md`.
-
-Each template at `templates/` carries a full prose introduction. Read the template, not summaries, when working with format details.
+Mode switches on an explicit user word. On a strong signal the skill *offers* a switch in one line; it never seizes it.
 
 ---
 
-## Hard rules
+## Coherence (the doneness function)
 
-These hold for the entire session.
+```
+coherent ⇔ open_questions == 0 ∧ last sync ran after the last pillar write
+```
 
-1. **No production code outside the brainstorm folder.** Small load-bearing snippets go in `./plan/samples/` or inline in plan docs. Never touch `src/`, `apps/`, `packages/`.
-2. **Resolved questions get DELETED, not struck through.** No `~~`, no "(resolved)", no "previously planned".
-3. **Self-contained registry.** Full text in `questions.md`. Never `08 §5` cross-references that force a second read.
-4. **Every decision carries Why + How to apply.** Without the *why*, future-you can't judge edge cases.
-5. **Reference implementations beat invented solutions.** If prior art exists, link in `references.md` and use it. Don't re-derive.
-6. **Batch questions via `AskUserQuestion`**, 2–4 at a time. Never open-chat dump structured choices.
-7. **Greenfield writing rules apply** to all docs in the brainstorm folder. See `greenfield.md`.
-8. **No past tense for software that doesn't exist yet.** Architecture docs are present-tense. The past lives only in `decisions.md`, `rejected.md`, `references.md`, and git history.
+`questions.md` is the **single convergence currency**: flaws, gaps, contradictions, and uncovered aspects all funnel into it, whoever raised them. Convergence is one number going to zero. Zero means *"audited against the four sources and clean,"* never *"nothing came to mind"* — which is why the sync agent's audit contract is mandatory.
 
 ---
 
-## State management
-
-`state.md` is the source of truth for session lifecycle. Format:
+## The sync agent
 
-```
-STATE: open | closed
-SESSION STARTED: <ISO date>
-SESSION CLOSED: <ISO date or absent>
-CURRENT TOPIC: <one-line>
-LAST UPDATED: <ISO date>
-```
+The background reconciler that replaces v1's cascade apparatus. One sync in flight at a time; at most one queued behind it. It runs after substantive writes, mandatorily on entering converge and at `stop`, and on demand. It audits exactly four sources:
 
-- `STATE: open` → in-session behavior applies (voices, refusal rules, topic-shift prompts).
-- `STATE: closed` → the skill does nothing on its own; only `/brainstorm start` re-opens it.
-- `CURRENT TOPIC` updates on every detected topic shift.
-- `LAST UPDATED` updates on every pillar write.
+1. **Cross-pillar contradiction** — thesis vs domain model vs decisions vs doctrine vs build.
+2. **Aspect coverage** — any mapped aspect with no content → a question.
+3. **Basis drift** — does the thesis still agree with the basis? Accidental divergence → a question.
+4. **Tech conflicts** — anything violating `tech.md` without a recorded deviation.
 
-To find `state.md` across turns, the skill checks the conventional folders (`./plan/`, `./brainstorm/`, `./design/`) and any other one-level-deep folder containing pillar files.
+It applies **scribe-calls** (edits that don't change the design) directly and notes them; it files **design-calls** (edits that change the idea) as questions and moves on — never interrupting to ask "apply now or defer?" Its one-line report ("4 edits · 2 new questions · 6 open · untouched: risks") is the only ambient convergence pressure the skill applies.
 
 ---
 
-## Greenfield doctrine
+## Pillars (substance first, lazy by default)
 
-`greenfield.md` is loaded for any sweep, gap detection, or `close`. It enforces a single rule for unbuilt-software docs:
+Always present: `thesis.md`, `questions.md`, `decisions.md`, `build.md`. Materialized at medium+ complexity: `domain-model.md`, `tech.md`. Lazy (materialize on first real content at any complexity): `doctrine`, `glossary`, `non-goals`, `backlog`, `rejected`, `references`, `milestones`.
 
-> Describe what the system **is** (or will be — same thing in greenfield). Never describe what it isn't, used to be, replaces, supersedes, or is migrating from.
-
-The doctrine includes a banned-patterns table (no "X replaces Y", no `~~strike-through~~`, no "previously planned", no "(resolved)" markers) and a `grep` smell-words check that `close` runs automatically. Hits are acceptable only in `decisions.md`, `rejected.md`, `references.md`, commit messages, and `./plan/sources/`.
+| File | Role |
+|---|---|
+| `thesis.md` | Running narrative of what we're designing + the aspect map. |
+| `questions.md` | Single convergence currency — every unresolved design call. |
+| `decisions.md` | Resolved calls with **Why** + **How to apply**. Append-only, no state machine. |
+| `build.md` | How the work executes: build mode, migration strategy, gotchas, rollout. |
+| `domain-model.md` | Information architecture — entities, relationships, cardinalities, state ownership. |
+| `tech.md` | Stack choices, seeded from harness rules; deviations recorded with whys. |
+| `doctrine` / `glossary` / `non-goals` / `backlog` / `rejected` / `references` / `milestones` | As their templates describe. |
 
-The full doctrine, including the four places where the past *does* belong, lives in `greenfield.md`.
+The complexity dial sets *defaults*, not a cage — any lazy pillar materializes the moment the conversation produces content for it.
 
 ---
 
-## Design philosophy
-
-A few choices in this skill are deliberate and worth naming:
+## Build modes (replacing the greenfield doctrine)
 
-**Skill behavior is determined by state, not by flags.** Voices, refusal rules, and topic-shift prompts all derive from `state.md` and the current phase. The user shouldn't have to specify "use facilitator voice" or "stop refusing code now" — the skill should read context and act.
+v1 applied a present-tense "greenfield" writing doctrine unconditionally — which was a bug for brownfield work, where migration vocabulary is load-bearing. v2 folds this into `build.md` as a **mode** chosen at intake:
 
-**Capture is part of conversation, not a separate ceremony.** Pillar updates happen inline as topics come up, not at end-of-session. The skill writes to files during the same turn that elicits the information.
+- **greenfield** (default) — present-tense everywhere, no phantom history. Execution sections closed.
+- **brownfield** — migration vocabulary is legitimate in `build.md`; other pillars still describe the target.
+- **hybrid** — new surface on a live system; execution sections apply to the seams only.
 
-**Resolved questions disappear from the ledger.** Striking-through or marking "(resolved)" creates noise that future readers — including future Claude — have to filter. The decision lives in `decisions.md`; the question is gone.
+`build.md` also captures **gotchas** — execution hazards known now, before plan mode, because surfacing them in plan mode is too late.
 
-**Why** is load-bearing. Every decision and every piece of feedback-style guidance carries a *why*. Without it, future-you can't judge edge cases — only blindly follow or blindly violate the rule.
+---
 
-**The user prevents eager coding.** The skill is the assistant. The user controls when a session opens and closes. There is no "auto-open on natural language phrases like let's design" — that pattern has caused too many surprise refusals when the user just wanted to chat. The skill opens only on explicit `/brainstorm start`.
+## Harvest (optional)
 
-**Reference implementations beat invented solutions.** If prior art exists for the problem, the skill prefers a one-line link in `references.md` over a re-derivation. Originality is not a virtue when shipping is the goal.
+By default the session folder *is* the product — self-contained, resumed by the next `/brainstorm start`. When the repo is v9-harnessed (`docs/architecture/` + `docs/modules/` exist) the skill *offers* the harvest adapter at `stop`, which routes pillars into the doc tree (ADRs, module pillars, plans, the `boundary` skill). See `harvest.md`. The adapter is never assumed.
 
 ---
 
-## Anti-features (what this skill deliberately doesn't do)
+## Hard rules
 
-- **No auto-invocation on natural language.** Phrases like "let's plan", "let's design", "let's think through X" do **not** trigger the skill. Only explicit `/brainstorm start` and `/brainstorm close` do.
-- **No automatic semantic sweeps.** Sweeps run only when the user asks or when the skill recommends one after a major decision and the user agrees.
-- **No scheduled checkpoints.** Pillar reinforcement happens at natural topic boundaries — the only periodic prompt.
-- **No subcommand sprawl.** No `sweep`, `resolve`, `init`, `reinforce`, `check`. Two verbs total: `start` and `close`.
-- **No code in `src/`.** The skill will refuse and offer a sketch inside the brainstorm folder or a close-then-build path.
+1. **No production code outside the session folder.** Illustrative snippets are fine inside it.
+2. **Speak English to the user; codes (`Q3`, `D7`) live in the files.**
+3. **`AskUserQuestion` appears in exactly three places:** the intake frame, interview mode, converge picks.
+4. **Suggested, never seized** — mode shifts, abstractions, probes are offered once.
+5. **Questions are the only convergence currency** — nothing pending may live only in the transcript.
+6. **No auto-invocation** — only `/brainstorm start` and `/brainstorm stop`.
 
 ---
 
-## Related
+## Files
 
-- `greenfield.md` — writing doctrine for unbuilt-software docs.
-- `templates/` — pillar file templates, each with a prose introduction describing its format.
-- The `documentation` skill in this repo handles documentation of *built* systems (changelogs, ADRs, root READMEs). `brainstorm` is its before-the-fact counterpart.
+```
+brainstorm/
+├── SKILL.md      # the skill definition Claude Code loads (~1.8k words)
+├── README.md     # this file
+├── harvest.md    # optional v9 doc-tree adapter
+└── templates/    # pillar templates copied into the session folder on first use
+```