Guaranteed entry point for a live collaborative brainstorm: named teammates build on each other's ideas via SendMessage, you facilitate, then you harvest the expanded set. Generative — the "yes, and…" counterpart to /debate's "no, but…".
This skill is a thin trigger. The full protocol, spawn-prompt template, anti-groupthink rules, and variants live in the heavy-think skill — read it before spawning:
../heavy-think/references/team-brainstorm.md
When NOT to use this
Heuristic: use teammates when the agents need to talk to each other; use parallel subagents when they don't.
- Just want a quick idea list? → solo parallel agents are cheaper (heavy-think Brainstorm, Stage 3).
- Deciding between options / pressure-testing a call? → that's
/debate, not a council.
Prerequisites (check first)
| Requirement | Why | If missing |
|---|---|---|
| You are the main session | Agent teams have no nested teams — a subagent can't spawn teammates | Stop; tell the user to run it from the main session |
CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1 |
Enables teammates + SendMessage |
Fall back to isolated parallel Brainstorm (weaker — no live cross-pollination) |
If either fails, say so explicitly — do NOT silently fall back and pass it off as a live council.
Playbook
- Frame an open question. "How might we…" / "what could we…" — not a yes/no (that's debate). State constraints + what a great idea looks like.
- Assign distinct generative lenses. 2–4 teammates (First Principles, User, Futurist, Operator, Minimalist, Contrarian…). Name them. Designate one wildcard to keep the space open.
- Spawn all in ONE message —
model="opus", each given full context (teammates don't inherit your history), its lens, and collaborators by name. Tell each to contribute viaSendMessage, make no file edits, spawn nothing. - Phase 1 — Diverge. Each posts raw ideas independently first (no early anchoring; quantity over polish).
- Phase 2 — Cross-pollinate. They read each other and BUILD: "yes-and", combine, push further. Every message must ADD, never just approve.
- Phase 3 — Cluster & elevate. Group ideas, surface the most novel, develop the top few together.
- Synthesize + shut down. YOU harvest the expanded set: standout concepts, surprising combinations no single lens produced, ranked by novelty/value, plus what to explore next. Then shut the teammates down.
Rules
- Facilitate, don't generate — you spark with gap prompts, you never add your own ideas.
- Diverge before converge; reject "good idea!" with no extension.
- Keep a wildcard injecting "what if the opposite / what's missing."
- The deliverable is YOUR synthesis of the emergent ideas, not a transcript dump.
Related
- team-brainstorm protocol — full protocol, spawn-prompt template, variants
- debate — adversarial counterpart (decide / pressure-test)
- heavy-think — Council is the team escalation of Brainstorm mode