trellis-brainstorm

Trellis Brainstorm

Non-Negotiable Planning Contract

A request to build, implement, fix, refactor, or "go ahead" is not approval to leave planning. Task-creation consent is also not implementation approval.

For every non-trivial task, the user must respond at least once after the initial request before implementation begins. If no clarification is needed, that response must approve the final planning summary described below.

While any user-owned product, scope, UX, compatibility, risk, or acceptance decision remains unresolved, end the turn with exactly one highest-value question. Do not edit product code, dispatch implementation, or run task.py start.

Non-Negotiable Evidence Rule

If a question can be answered by exploring the codebase, explore the codebase instead.

This is mandatory. Before asking the user a question, first check whether the answer is already available in code, tests, configs, docs, existing specs, or task history.

Do not ask the user to confirm facts that the repository can answer. Ask only for product intent, preference, scope, risk tolerance, acceptance behavior, or decisions that remain ambiguous after inspection.

Repository evidence establishes current behavior and technical constraints. The user's intended behavior, feature scope boundaries, and UX preferences are never answerable by repository evidence alone, even when an existing pattern exists; existing patterns are options and recommendation evidence, not decisions.

---

Use this skill during Phase 1 planning to turn the user's request into clear requirements and planning artifacts.

Preconditions

Use this skill only after task-creation consent has been given and the user is ready to enter Trellis planning.

If no task exists yet, create one:

TASK_DIR=$(python3 ./.trellis/scripts/task.py create "<short task title>" --slug <slug>)

Use a concise title from the user's request. Use a slug without a date prefix. task.py create adds the MM-DD- directory prefix automatically.

task.py create creates the default prd.md. Update that file with the current understanding before asking follow-up questions.

Planning Flow

1. Capture the user's request and initial known facts in prd.md.
2. Inspect available evidence before asking questions:

• code, tests, fixtures, and configs
  README files, docs, existing specs, and domain notes
  related Trellis tasks, research files, and session history when present

1. Separate what you found into:

• confirmed facts
  product intent still needed from the user
  scope or risk decisions still needed from the user
  likely out-of-scope items

1. If a user-owned decision remains, ask the single highest-value question, include your recommendation and trade-off, then stop. Do not perform implementation work in the same turn.
2. After each user answer, update prd.md, recompute the decision inventory, and repeat from step 2.
3. When no user-owned decision remains, create or update design.md and implement.md for complex tasks.
4. Run the requirement convergence gate, then the PRD convergence pass.
5. Present the final planning summary and stop. Do not run task.py start or edit product code in the same turn.

…

Install

Ships with Trellis. After trellis init, this skill is available under .agents/skills/trellis-brainstorm/ (and platform skill dirs).

npm install -g @mindfoldhq/trellis@latest
trellis init -u your-name

Source: mindfold-ai/Trellis · .agents/skills/trellis-brainstorm