claude-engineering-plugin/plugins/compound-engineering/skills/ce-ideate/references/post-ideation-workflow.md

Post-Ideation Workflow

Read this file after Phase 2 ideation agents return and the orchestrator has merged and deduped their outputs into a master candidate list. Do not load before Phase 2 completes.

Phase 3: Adversarial Filtering

Review every candidate idea critically. The orchestrator performs this filtering directly -- do not dispatch sub-agents for critique.

Do not generate replacement ideas in this phase unless explicitly refining.

For each rejected idea, write a one-line reason.

Rejection criteria:

• too vague
• not actionable
• duplicates a stronger idea
• not grounded in the current codebase
• too expensive relative to likely value
• already covered by existing workflows or docs
• interesting but better handled as a brainstorm variant, not a product improvement

Score survivors using a consistent rubric weighing: groundedness in the current repo, expected value, novelty, pragmatism, leverage on future work, implementation burden, and overlap with stronger ideas.

Target output:

• keep 5-7 survivors by default
• if too many survive, run a second stricter pass
• if fewer than 5 survive, report that honestly rather than lowering the bar

Phase 4: Present the Survivors

Present the surviving ideas to the user before writing the durable artifact. This is a review checkpoint, not the final archived result.

Present only the surviving ideas in structured form:

• title
• description
• rationale
• downsides
• confidence score
• estimated complexity

Then include a brief rejection summary so the user can see what was considered and cut.

Keep the presentation concise. The durable artifact holds the full record.

Allow brief follow-up questions and lightweight clarification before writing the artifact.

Do not write the ideation doc yet unless:

• the user indicates the candidate set is good enough to preserve
• the user asks to refine and continue in a way that should be recorded
• the workflow is about to hand off to ce:brainstorm, Proof sharing, or session end

Phase 5: Write the Ideation Artifact

Write the ideation artifact after the candidate set has been reviewed enough to preserve.

Always write or update the artifact before:

• handing off to ce:brainstorm
• sharing to Proof
• ending the session

To write the artifact:

1. Ensure docs/ideation/ exists
2. Choose the file path:
   • docs/ideation/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-ideation.md
   • docs/ideation/YYYY-MM-DD-open-ideation.md when no focus exists
3. Write or update the ideation document

Use this structure and omit clearly irrelevant fields only when necessary:

---
date: YYYY-MM-DD
topic: <kebab-case-topic>
focus: <optional focus hint>
---

# Ideation: <Title>

## Codebase Context
[Grounding summary from Phase 1]

## Ranked Ideas

### 1. <Idea Title>
**Description:** [Concrete explanation]
**Rationale:** [Why this improves the project]
**Downsides:** [Tradeoffs or costs]
**Confidence:** [0-100%]
**Complexity:** [Low / Medium / High]
**Status:** [Unexplored / Explored]

## Rejection Summary

| # | Idea | Reason Rejected |
|---|------|-----------------|
| 1 | <Idea> | <Reason rejected> |

## Session Log
- YYYY-MM-DD: Initial ideation — <candidate count> generated, <survivor count> survived

If resuming:

• update the existing file in place
• append to the session log
• preserve explored markers

Phase 6: Refine or Hand Off

After presenting the results, ask what should happen next.

Offer these options:

1. brainstorm a selected idea
2. refine the ideation
3. share to Proof
4. end the session

6.1 Brainstorm a Selected Idea

If the user selects an idea:

• write or update the ideation doc first
• mark that idea as Explored
• note the brainstorm date in the session log
• invoke ce:brainstorm with the selected idea as the seed

Do not skip brainstorming and go straight to planning from ideation output.

6.2 Refine the Ideation

Route refinement by intent:

• add more ideas or explore new angles -> return to Phase 2
• re-evaluate or raise the bar -> return to Phase 3
• dig deeper on idea #N -> expand only that idea's analysis

After each refinement:

• update the ideation document before any handoff, sharing, or session end
• append a session log entry

6.3 Share to Proof

If requested, share the ideation document using the standard Proof markdown upload pattern already used elsewhere in the plugin.

Return to the next-step options after sharing.

6.4 End the Session

When ending:

• offer to commit only the ideation doc
• do not create a branch
• do not push
• if the user declines, leave the file uncommitted

Quality Bar

Before finishing, check:

• the idea set is grounded in the actual repo
• the candidate list was generated before filtering
• the original many-ideas -> critique -> survivors mechanism was preserved
• if sub-agents were used, they improved diversity without replacing the core workflow
• every rejected idea has a reason
• survivors are materially better than a naive "give me ideas" list
• the artifact was written before any handoff, sharing, or session end
• acting on an idea routes to ce:brainstorm, not directly to implementation