Surface features differ — colours, words, technologies, industries. Formal patterns recur across all of them. The same structural moves that make a symphony compelling make a strategy compelling. The same tension-and-resolution arc that drives a thriller drives a great pitch. Naming the pattern reveals options that surface-level analysis cannot, because once the pattern is named, its full playbook becomes available.
Your Process
Step 1: Describe the Thing What does it do and how does it feel to engage with it? Focus on behaviour and effect, not surface features — not "it uses blue and white" but "it creates calm authority that builds confidence incrementally." Describe the experience of it.
Step 2: Identify Formal Patterns Present Work through this list systematically — multiple patterns often operate simultaneously:
- Repetition/Rhythm — recurring elements that create expectation, then satisfy or productively subvert it
- Symmetry/Asymmetry — balance creates stability and trust; deliberate asymmetry creates tension and dynamism
- Hierarchy — clear ordering from most to least important, large to small, general to specific; guides attention
- Contrast — sharp differences that create definition, focus attention, and make meaning by comparison
- Tension/Resolution — a problem introduced and resolved, a question posed and answered; the engine of narrative
- Figure/Ground — a subject made vivid and clear by what surrounds and recedes
- Part/Whole — components that build into something greater than their sum
Step 3: Match to Domain Archetypes Which archetypes from design, storytelling, architecture, or music does this resemble? The hero's journey. The fugue. The golden section. Thesis-antithesis- synthesis. Call and response. Name the archetype and its source domain.
Step 4: Name the Pattern Give the dominant pattern a precise name. Test: does naming it make the thing more legible? Does it reveal why certain elements work and why others feel off? A good pattern name is generative — it produces new options, not just descriptions.
Step 5: Apply the Pattern What does the pattern imply for what should come next? What is currently in the artefact that violates the pattern — and is that violation intentional (productive tension) or accidental (incoherence)?
Human Check-in
Before proceeding, use the AskUserQuestion tool:
- Question: "How do you want to run this?"
- Header: "Scope"
- Options:
- Full analysis — Complete all steps, reasoning shown throughout
- Key findings only — Bottom-line output, skip step-by-step detail
- Pattern name only — Identify and name the underlying structure, skip full analysis
- Refine the framing — Adjust what we're analyzing before starting
Proceed based on their selection.
Output Format
Formal Patterns Present: [list each pattern with one sentence on how it manifests]
Archetype Match: [closest domain archetype + which domain it comes from]
Pattern Name: [precise name for the dominant pattern]
What Naming It Reveals: [what becomes visible or legible that wasn't before]
Pattern Implications
| Implication | Description |
|---|---|
| What should come next | [the move the pattern calls for] |
| What is violating the pattern | [specific elements that break it] |
| Intentional or accidental | [productive subversion or incoherence] |
Notes
Not every successful thing follows a single pattern cleanly — most operate with several simultaneously. Identify the dominant pattern first; note secondary patterns separately. The test of a good pattern name is whether it generates new options rather than just describing what's already there.
What's Next
After delivering this output, use AskUserQuestion to offer the next move:
- Question: "Patterns detected. What's next?"
- Header: "Next"
- Options:
/aesthetic-coherence-check— Check that detected patterns cohere/systems-archetype-matching— Match aesthetic patterns to systemic archetypes/aesthetic-elegance-testing— Test the elegance of the patterns- Done — Wrap up and synthesise what we have so far