Feature Brainstorm Flow

Brainstorm a new feature with an assistant that knows the whole repo, pressure-test it, and turn the decision into an ADR — without your exploration ever touching real code or the wrong branch. Three commands do all the git; you type none.

Created: 2026-06-03 | Last Updated: 2026-10-12

Retired 2026-10-12 (#2940): /qiiub-feature-brainstorm and /qiiub-feature-status no longer exist, and /qiiub-intent-import is now /qiiub-intent-new --import. /qiiub-feature-promote remains and now takes a settled decision record. This page is kept as history.

Brainstorm-only namespace. Notes in docs/brainstorm/ are working drafts, not code. A decision becomes an ADR only through a reviewed PR from the real repo — never directly from a brainstorm session.

The three commands

/qiiub-feature-brainstorm

Syncs a separate brainstorm copy to the latest main, reads the current ADRs and rules, pressure-tests your idea through four lenses (feasibility · conflict · risk · devil's advocate), and saves the decision as a draft-*.md note.

Run in: the brainstorm copy — if you run it in the real repo, it sets the copy up and points you there

/qiiub-feature-status

Read-only dashboard: which ideas are still draft, which are approved, and which have already been promoted to an ADR.

Run in: either folder

/qiiub-feature-promote

Turns an approved note into an ADR and opens its PR, with a collision-checked ADR number.

Run in: the real repo only — it refuses to run in the brainstorm copy

Setup — once per developer

In your normal repo: git pull origin main — you now have the three commands.
Run /qiiub-feature-brainstorm once. It creates a sibling brainstorm copy at ../qiiub-brainstorm whose push is disabled, and tells you to open it.

That is the whole install. No manual git.

Daily use

Brainstorm — open the qiiub-brainstorm folder and run /qiiub-feature-brainstorm. It syncs to the latest main, you talk the feature through, and the decision is saved as a draft note.
Check what's pending — /qiiub-feature-status.
Make it real — back in your normal repo, /qiiub-feature-promote drafts the ADR and opens the PR. Mike (or the ADR-review deputy) reviews it before it merges.

Why it is safe

Three layers. The real wall is the last one — it lives on the server, not in trusting the assistant.

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1 · The brainstorm copy cannot pushremote.origin.pushurl = DISABLED. Whatever happens in that copy cannot reach the remote or your real working tree.

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2 · The commands guard the folder/qiiub-feature-brainstorm refuses to run in the real repo; /qiiub-feature-promote refuses to run in the copy. You cannot fumble the wrong folder.

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3 · The source of truth changes only through a reviewed PRmain accepts changes only via PR approval plus the cascade-guards CI. Even if the assistant does something unexpected, nothing lands in main without a human "yes". This is the wall.

Admin — the wall is enforced, with two gaps worth knowing

Branch protection on main is ON. This page previously said it was off, citing protected: false against the old BCPOS/qiiub path — both stale. The current reading is kept in one place, docs/brainstorm/README.md, which records protected: true as of 2026-08-21: a PR with 1 approval, stale approvals dismissed on push, CODEOWNERS review required, three required status checks, and force-push and deletion of main blocked.

Two things that same reading does not say, and both matter: branches are not required to be up to date with main before merging (strict: false), so a check that passed may not reflect the merge result; and the rules are not enforced for administrators (enforce_admins: false), so an admin can still go around them.

To re-read it yourself: gh api repos/Qiiub/qiiub/branches/main/protection. Note the org — the monorepo moved from BCPOS/qiiub to Qiiub/qiiub.

Companion: docs/brainstorm/README.md (same content, text form) · design history: docs/design/qiiub-orchestrated-brainstorm.md.