Brainstorming Extension - Automatic Review Gate

Purpose

This skill extends superpowers:brainstorming to automatically trigger the design review gate after a design document is created. It ensures complex features go through Product Manager, Architect, Designer, Security Design, and CTO review before implementation begins.

This is a project-specific extension that hooks into the superpowers brainstorming skill.

How It Works

The standard brainstorming flow:

superpowers:brainstorming
    │
    ├── Collaborative Q&A
    ├── Design sections with validation
    ├── Write to docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md
    └── Commit to git
          │
          ▼
    "Ready to set up for implementation?"

With this extension:

superpowers:brainstorming
    │
    ├── Collaborative Q&A
    ├── Design sections with validation
    ├── Write to docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md
    └── Commit to git
          │
          ▼
    ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │  AUTOMATIC DESIGN REVIEW GATE           │
    │  (design-review-gate)                   │
    │                                         │
    │  Spawns in parallel:                    │
    │  • Product Manager Agent (use cases)    │
    │  • Architect Agent (architecture)       │
    │  • Designer Agent (UX/API)              │
    │  • Security Design Agent (threats)      │
    │  • CTO Agent (TDD readiness)            │
    │                                         │
    │  Iterates until ALL FIVE approve        │
    └─────────────────────────────────────────┘
          │
          ▼
    ALL APPROVED? ────No────► Iterate on design
          │
         Yes
          │
          ▼
    "Ready to set up for implementation?"

Activation

This skill auto-activates when:

1. superpowers:brainstorming completes and commits a design document
2. A file matching docs/plans/*-design.md is created and committed
3. User explicitly says "review this design" or "run review gate"

Extension Behavior

After Design Document Commit

When a design document is committed, this extension:

1. Detects completion - Monitors for commits to docs/plans/*-design.md

2. Announces review gate:

   ## Design Review Gate Activated
   
   Your design document has been committed. Before proceeding to implementation,
   I'll run it through our review agents to ensure it's ready.
   
   Spawning reviews:
   
   - Product Manager Agent (use case/requirements validation)
   - Architect Agent (technical architecture)
   - Designer Agent (UX/API design)
   - Security Design Agent (threat modeling/security review)
   - CTO Agent (TDD readiness)
   
   This typically takes 2-3 minutes...
   

3. Spawns review agents - Uses design-review-gate skill

4. Aggregates results - Combines feedback from all five agents

5. Reports outcome:

   If APPROVED:

   ## Design Review Gate: PASSED
   
   All five reviewers have approved your design!
   
   | Agent           | Verdict  | Notes                                 |
   | --------------- | -------- | ------------------------------------- |
   | Product Manager | APPROVED | Clear use cases, measurable benefits  |
   | Architect       | APPROVED | Clean architecture, follows patterns  |
   | Designer        | APPROVED | Good API design, clear error states   |
   | Security Design | APPROVED | No high-risk threats, mitigations OK  |
   | CTO             | APPROVED | TDD specs present, ready to implement |
   
   ### Next Steps
   
   1. Create epic for this feature
   2. Set up worktree for isolated development
   3. Begin implementation
   
   Ready to proceed? [Yes / No]
   

   If NEEDS_REVISION:

   ## Design Review Gate: NEEDS REVISION
   
   Some reviewers found issues that need to be addressed.
   
   ### Blocking Issues
   
   #### Architect Agent
   
   - [Issue 1]
   - [Issue 2]
   
   #### Security Design Agent
   
   - [Missing rate limits]
   
   #### CTO Agent
   
   - [Missing TDD specs]
   
   ### Questions Requiring Answers
   
   - [Question 1]
   
   ---
   
   Please revise the design document and I'll re-run the review gate.
   (Iteration 1 of 3)
   

Integration Points

With superpowers:brainstorming

This extension runs AFTER brainstorming completes but BEFORE the "ready for implementation?" prompt.

With design-review-gate

Delegates the actual review work to the design-review-gate skill.

With Task Tracking

After approval, can automatically:

• Create epic linked to design doc
• Create tasks for each implementation phase
• Set up dependencies

Configuration

Skip Review Gate

For truly simple designs (< 1 day of work), the review gate can be skipped:

User: "This is a simple fix, skip the review gate"

Agent will ask for confirmation before skipping.

Force Review Gate

Even for non-brainstorming contexts:

User: "/project:review-design docs/plans/2026-01-11-my-design.md"

Success Metrics

The extension is working correctly when:

• Every brainstorming session that produces a design doc triggers review gate
• All five agents (PM, architect, designer, security, CTO) are spawned
• Blocking issues must be resolved before implementation
• Approved designs have clear next steps

Troubleshooting

Review Gate Not Triggering

Check:

1. Was a design document committed? (git log --oneline -5)
2. Is the file in docs/plans/ with -design.md suffix?
3. Did brainstorming complete normally?

Agents Taking Too Long

Each agent should complete within 2-3 minutes. If longer:

1. Check agent output for errors
2. May need to reduce design document size
3. Can run agents sequentially instead of parallel

Stuck in Review Loop

After 3 iterations, the gate will escalate to human decision:

• Override and proceed anyway
• Defer the feature
• Cancel the feature

Example Session

User: "Let's design a new feature for contact tagging"

[brainstorming skill runs...]
[Q&A, design sections, validation...]

Claude: "I've committed the design document to docs/plans/2026-01-11-contact-tagging-design.md"

## Design Review Gate Activated

Spawning review agents...

[2 minutes later]

## Design Review Gate: PASSED

All five reviewers approved! Ready to set up for implementation?

User: "Yes"

Claude: "I'll create an epic and set up a worktree..."

Related Skills

• superpowers:brainstorming - The skill this extends
• design-review-gate - The review gate implementation
• superpowers:writing-plans - Used after approval for detailed plans