Idea to design

Skill britt/agent-skills/skills/idea-to-design

Use when asked to turn an idea note into a design document, plan an idea, or make an idea real - autonomously researches the idea and produces Design.md, Decisions.md, and Research.md in an Ideas/<Idea Name>/ folder, asking zero questionsFrom its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add britt/agent-skills --skill idea-to-design

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

5 stars5 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

SKILL.md

2.8 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

Idea to Design

Transform raw idea notes into comprehensive design documents autonomously.

Prerequisites/Context: Operates on an Obsidian vault (or any markdown folder) containing an Ideas/ folder; if no Ideas/ folder is found, ask the user for the vault path.

When to Use

Activate when asked to:

Turn an idea note into a design
Plan an idea or "make an idea real"

Not for features in an existing codebase — use writing-product-specs or a brainstorming skill instead.

Process

Read the idea note - Understand what's being proposed
Create folder - Inside the Ideas folder, create a subfolder named after the idea
Move original - Move the original idea note into the new folder
Research - Investigate unknowns, find relevant information, explore feasibility
Write design doc - Answer: What is it? Who is it for? How does it work? Where is it deployed?
Document decisions - Create explicit Decisions.md listing choices made and reasoning

Required Outputs

All files go in Ideas/<Idea Name>/:

File	Purpose
`<Original>.md`	The original idea note (moved here)
`Design.md`	Comprehensive design document
`Decisions.md`	Explicit list of decisions with reasoning
`Research.md`	Sources consulted, findings, and references

Autonomy

Ask zero questions. Make reasonable decisions and document them. If something is unclear:

State the assumption
Make a choice
Document it in Decisions.md

Design Doc Should Answer

Is it software, hardware, or a service?
Who is the target audience?
How will it work technically?
Where will it be deployed/run?
What's the business model (if applicable)?
What are the risks and mitigations?
What are the next steps?

Diagrams

Use Mermaid for all diagrams. Obsidian renders Mermaid natively.

Architecture diagrams: flowchart TB or flowchart LR
Sequences: sequenceDiagram
Data flow: flowchart with subgraphs
State machines: stateDiagram-v2

Never use ASCII art.

Research.md Should Include

Questions that needed answering
Sources consulted (web searches, docs, etc.)
Key findings that informed the design
Gaps that couldn't be filled

Decisions.md Format

# Decisions

## <Decision Title>
**Choice:** What was decided
**Alternatives:** What else was considered
**Reasoning:** Why this choice was made

Common Mistakes

Writing Design.md before Research.md: Research must inform the design — complete and record the research first, then write the design document based on its findings.