brainstorming-researchlisted

# Brainstorming Research Ideas Into Designs Turn a vague research interest into a written, approvable design doc. Act as an ideation partner, not an instructor. Probe, challenge, surface unexamined assumptions — then lock the design down on paper so later phases have something stable to build on. <SOFT-GATE> Before transitioning to `writing-research-plan`, `literature-review`, `ingest-source`, `executing-research-plan`, `drafting-manuscript`, or any analysis skill, check: (1) A design document has been written to `input/ideas/<slug>-design.md` (2) The user has approved it If unmet: explain to the user what's missing, ask for a short reason for skipping (e.g. "mini-review, not a standalone project"), write it to `knowledge/_meta/gate-overrides.log`, and continue. Repeated skipping is a signal that the routine is fraying — the lint stats make that visible. </SOFT-GATE> ## Anti-Pattern: "This Is Too Simple To Need A Design" Every research project goes through this process. A single-source review, a short methodological note, a conference abstract — all of them. "Simple" projects are where unexamined assumptions cause the most wasted work. The design can be short (a half page for truly simple projects), but you MUST present it and get approval. ## Checklist Create a TodoWrite task for each item. Complete in order: 1. **Explore project context** — read existing `input/ideas/*`, `input/description/*`, recent `knowledge/_meta/log.md`, check git for parallel work 2. **Ask cla