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Brainstorming (Spec Refinement)

A five-gate Socratic workflow that drives a one-line idea into an approved spec with single-test acceptance criteria before any code is written.

Dev & CodingAdvanced★ 141⑂ 7AI score 7/10Last updated: Aug 14, 2026

What it does

Locks an idea into a written spec before implementation starts. Five blocking gates run in order: frame the problem → shape the approach → Socratic refinement loop → write the spec → review, approve, hand off to TDD.

  • Pins the problem, the caller, and the explicit out-of-scope boundary first.
  • Proposes two or three genuine candidate designs with stated trade-offs and recommends one — and forbids padding the list with straw options.
  • Decides parameter-level choices itself (names, defaults, thresholds) and records them, while asking real forks in full, with a recommendation, the first time.
  • Forces vague language ("fast", "secure", "we'll figure it out later") into concrete nouns, numbers and behaviors; unresolved items become [CONFIRM-NN] entries.
  • Writes the spec to specs/<slug>.md, where every acceptance criterion must be verifiable by a single test and maps to one TDD obligation.
  • Runs a mechanical self-review plus an adversarial pass, presenting the strongest case against the design at approval time.

Who it's for

  • Teams that keep rebuilding features because requirements were fuzzy at the start.
  • Developers who want an enforced spec-then-TDD discipline instead of ad-hoc planning.
  • Existing codeArbiter plugin users (.codearbiter/ context files, /feature and /sprint commands).

Examples

  1. "I want to add user notifications" → the skill names the caller, the non-goals, compares two delivery designs, records chosen defaults and thresholds, then writes a spec with six testable criteria.
  2. An idea bundling login, permissions and audit logging gets split in Phase 1 into three separate specs, and only one continues in this run.
  3. When the feature traces to a GitHub issue, it diffs the issue's acceptance checkboxes against the criteria ledger to catch anything uncovered.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arbiterForge/codeArbiter/HEAD/core/surface/skills/brainstorming/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the core/surface/skills/brainstorming folder from the GitHub repo arbiterForge/codeArbiter into my ~/.claude/skills/arbiterforge-brainstorming/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/arbiterForge/codeArbiter.git && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r codeArbiter/core/surface/skills/brainstorming ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open a terminal and go to a working directory.
  2. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/arbiterForge/codeArbiter.git
  3. Create the skills directory: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
  4. Copy the skill: cp -r codeArbiter/core/surface/skills/brainstorming ~/.claude/skills/
  5. This skill is built to run inside the codeArbiter plugin. For full functionality (hook scripts, the tdd skill, /feature and /sprint commands), install the whole plugin per the repository's instructions.
  6. In your project, prepare .codearbiter/CONTEXT.md, tech-stack.md and open-questions.md — if they are missing, the skill stops and reports the gap instead of guessing.
  7. Restart Claude Code and ask it to "refine this idea into a spec".
View source on GitHub ↗License: AGPL-3.0