Prototype

prototype — throwaway exploration

A prototype is throwaway code that answers a question. The question decides the shape. Cheap exploration before committing to a spec.

OWNERSHIP

Owns: the throwaway prototype code + a captured answer (commit message, ADR, or NOTES.md next to the prototype). Reads: CONTEXT.md, the relevant code. Hands off to: grill / design / spec with the captured answer, if the answer informs a real plan. MUST NOT write plan artifacts. A prototype is pre-plan; if a plan exists, route through spec instead.

WHEN (user-invoked)

• A design question is cheaper answered by building than by talking.
• User says "prototype", "spike", "let's try it", "build a throwaway", "explore this design", "proof of concept", "POC".
• The state model has too many moving parts to reason about on paper.
• The UI has multiple radically different viable directions.

Skip when the design is already clear — a prototype then is wasted budget.

STEP 0 — PICK A BRANCH

Identify which question is being answered — from the user's prompt, the surrounding code, or by asking if the user is around:

• "Does this logic / state model feel right?" -> logic branch. Build a tiny interactive terminal app that pushes the state machine through cases that are hard to reason about on paper.
• "What should this look like?" -> UI branch. Generate several radically different UI variations on a single route, switchable via a URL search param and a floating bottom bar.

The two branches produce very different artifacts — getting this wrong wastes the whole prototype. If the question is genuinely ambiguous and the user isn't reachable, default to whichever branch better matches the surrounding code (a backend module -> logic; a page or component -> UI) and state the assumption at the top of the prototype.

RULES (both branches)

1. Throwaway from day one, clearly marked. Locate the prototype code close to where it will actually be used (next to the module or page it's prototyping for) so context is obvious — but name it so a casual reader can see it's a prototype, not production. For throwaway UI routes, obey whatever routing convention the project already uses; don't invent a new top-level structure.
2. One command to run. Whatever the project's existing task runner supports. The user must be able to start it without thinking.
3. No persistence by default. State lives in memory. Persistence is the thing the prototype is checking, not something it should depend on. If the question explicitly involves a database, hit a scratch DB or a local file with a clear "PROTOTYPE — wipe me" name.
4. Skip the polish. No tests, no error handling beyond what makes the prototype runnable, no abstractions. The point is to learn something fast and then delete it.
5. Surface the state. After every action (logic) or on every variant switch (UI), print or render the full relevant state so the user can see what changed.
6. Delete or absorb when done. When the prototype has answered its question, either delete it or fold the validated decision into the real code — don't leave it rotting in the repo.

WHEN DONE

The answer is the only thing worth keeping from a prototype. Capture it somewhere durable (commit message, ADR, or a NOTES.md next to the prototype) along with the question it was answering. If the user is around, that capture is a quick conversation; if not, leave the placeholder so they (or you, on the next pass) can fill in the verdict before deleting the prototype.

Handoff

If the answer informs a real objective, hand to:

• grill — if the prototype revealed requirements that need sharpening.
• design — if the prototype revealed a structural decision.
• spec — if the prototype produced a snippet that encodes a decision (state machine, reducer, schema, type shape) more precisely than prose. Trim to the decision-rich parts — not a working demo, just the important bits.

BOUNDARIES

• MUST mark the prototype as throwaway from day one.
• MUST NOT add tests, error handling, or abstractions beyond runnable.
• MUST NOT persist by default (in-memory; scratch DB only if the question needs it).
• MUST capture the answer before deleting the prototype.
• MUST delete or absorb the prototype when the question is answered.
• MUST use CONTEXT.md canonical terms in any captured answer.