tkstang/oat-idea-ideate

Ideate

Resume brainstorming on an existing idea, or pick one from the scratchpad to start exploring.

Mode Assertion

OAT MODE: Ideation

Purpose: Lightweight brainstorming through natural, exploratory conversation. Capture the essence of an idea without formal structure or implementation detail.

BLOCKED Activities:

• No code writing or implementation details
• No formal requirements or specifications
• No technical designs or architecture
• No task breakdowns or plans
• No forced structure — let the idea breathe

ALLOWED Activities:

• Free-form discussion and exploration
• Asking open-ended questions
• Capturing thoughts and observations
• Exploring "what if" scenarios
• Noting related ideas and references
• Identifying open questions organically

Self-Correction Protocol: If you catch yourself:

• Writing implementation details → STOP (capture as an Open Question instead)
• Formalizing requirements → STOP (keep it conversational)
• Creating structured deliverables → STOP (save for project workflow)

Recovery:

1. Acknowledge the deviation
2. Return to exploratory questioning
3. Capture the insight as a note or open question

Progress Indicators (User-Facing)

• Print a phase banner once at start using horizontal separators, e.g.:

  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ OAT ▸ IDEATE [project] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  Replace [project] with [global] when operating at user level.

• Before multi-step work, print step indicators, e.g.:

  • [1/3] Resolving active idea…
  • [2/3] Loading discovery document…
  • [3/3] Starting brainstorming session…

Process

Step 0: Resolve Ideas Level

Determine whether to operate at project level or user (global) level.

Resolution order:

1. If $ARGUMENTS contains --global → use user level
2. If .oat/config.local.json has activeIdea pointing to a valid directory → use project level
3. If ~/.oat/config.json has activeIdea pointing to a valid directory → use user level
4. If BOTH .oat/ideas/ AND ~/.oat/ideas/ exist → ask: "Ideas exist at both project and user level. Where should this idea go?" options: "Project (.oat/ideas/)" / "Global (~/.oat/ideas/)"
5. If .oat/ideas/ exists → use project level
6. If ~/.oat/ideas/ exists → use user level
7. Otherwise → ask: "Project-level or global (user-level) ideas?"

Set variables:

| Variable | Project Level | User Level | | ---------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------ | | IDEAS_ROOT | .oat/ideas | ~/.oat/ideas | | TEMPLATES_ROOT | .oat/templates/ideas | ~/.oat/templates/ideas |

Step 1: Resolve Active Idea

Read activeIdea from config:

IDEA_PATH=$(oat config get activeIdea 2>/dev/null || true)

If valid (directory exists with discovery.md):

• Show the idea name and current state to the user
• Ask: "Continue with {idea-name}, or switch to a different idea?"
• If continuing, proceed to Step 2

If missing or invalid:

• List existing idea directories:

  ls -d {IDEAS_ROOT}/*/  2>/dev/null
  

• Read {IDEAS_ROOT}/scratchpad.md and extract unchecked entries (- [ ]), including any nested notes for context
• Present combined list to the user:
  • Existing ideas (with state: brainstorming/summarized)
  • Scratchpad entries marked as "not yet started"
• If user picks an existing idea → run oat config set activeIdea "{idea-path}" and proceed to Step 2
• If user picks a scratchpad entry → scaffold the idea inline by reading the oat-idea-new skill (.agents/skills/oat-idea-new/SKILL.md) and executing its Steps 3-7 (Initialize Ideas Directory, Scaffold Discovery Document, Update Backlog, Check Scratchpad, Set Active Idea Pointer). Then proceed to Step 2 with the new idea.
• If no ideas and no scratchpad entries exist → tell the user: "No ideas found. Run the oat-idea-new skill to create one, or run the oat-idea-scratchpad skill to capture a quick idea seed." Then stop.

Step 2: Load Discovery Document

Read {IDEAS_ROOT}/{idea-name}/discovery.md.

Show the user a brief summary of the current state:

• Idea name
• State (brainstorming/summarized)
• Last updated date
• Key sections that have content vs. are still template placeholders

Step 3: Handle Summarized State

If oat_idea_state: summarized:

• Warn: "This idea has already been summarized."
• Offer options:
  • Reopen brainstorming — set state back to brainstorming, continue to Step 4
  • View summary — read and display summary.md, then stop
  • Start a different idea — go back to Step 1

Step 4: Start New Session

Add a new session header to the Notes & Discussion section:

### Session: YYYY-MM-DD

Update frontmatter: oat_idea_last_updated: YYYY-MM-DD

Step 5: Conversational Brainstorming

Enter a free-form conversational flow:

1. Read current content to understand where the idea stands
2. Ask exploratory questions based on what's been discussed so far:
   • If early stage: "What sparked this idea?", "What problem does this solve?"
   • If mid-stage: "What's changed since last time?", "Any new angles?"
   • If sections are thin: ask questions that naturally fill them out
3. Capture responses in the discovery document:
   • Update "What's the Idea?" if the core concept evolves
   • Update "Why Is It Interesting?" as motivations emerge
   • Update "What Would It Look Like?" as the vision takes shape
   • Add to "Open Questions" as unknowns surface
   • Add to "Related Ideas" as connections are made
   • Append detailed notes to the current session under "Notes & Discussion"
4. Follow the user's energy — explore tangents, let ideas evolve naturally
5. Don't force completion — ideation can be open-ended

Step 6: Session Close

When the user signals they're done (or the conversation reaches a natural pause):

1. Update oat_idea_last_updated in frontmatter
2. Save all changes to discovery.md
3. Tell the user their progress is saved, then suggest these next steps (these are prompts for the user to run later — do not auto-invoke them):
   • Continue later — "Run the oat-idea-ideate skill to pick up where you left off"
   • Summarize — "Run the oat-idea-summarize skill to finalize this idea"
   • Switch ideas — "Run the oat-idea-ideate skill and pick a different idea"
   • Quick capture — "Run the oat-idea-scratchpad skill to jot down a new idea seed"

Success Criteria

• ✅ Active idea resolved (or user guided to create one)
• ✅ New session header added to Notes & Discussion
• ✅ Discovery document updated with conversation content
• ✅ oat_idea_last_updated reflects today's date
• ✅ User offered clear next steps on session close