brain-to-docs
Skill11 starsChanged 4 months agoMITView on GitHub
Use when the user wants to extract project vision, decisions, and preferences from his head into clear documentation (README + ADRs) through a back-and-forth Q&A loop. Triggers on "brain-to-docs", "build out the docs", "extract the vision", "let's document this project".
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
3 rules. About 0 are common, 2 are distinctive, and 1 is very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈2
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
1
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Very specific: line 15
Check docs first, every time: Read docs/adr/ (and README.md) before doing anything — other agents and people add/edit ADRs constantly.
- Distinctive: line 28
All answers & responses during this "brain to docs" process must be VERY CONCISE, all sentences should be SHORT, and everything should be …
- Distinctive: line 33
Don't challenge the user's thinking unless the user asks, or the user is making a severe mistake.
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 308,232 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
brain-to-docs
The whole purpose: extract as much of the user's taste, judgment, knowledge, vision,
preferences, and decisions as possible into text — saved as clear, concise
markdown docs for the project. README holds the vision; docs/adr/ holds the
decisions.
The loop
- Check docs first, every time. Read
docs/adr/(andREADME.md) before doing anything — other agents and people add/edit ADRs constantly. - Ask 5 different questions in plain text (never a questions UI) — default 5 unless the user asks for a different number. Make them high-variety: a wide, creative spectrum of unique angles, not all the same type (e.g. not all "tech stack" or all "product" or all "monetization"). Exception: if the user asks for a specific focus area, follow it. The user answers whichever he finds most useful.
- Update docs after EVERY answer — no exceptions. You decide whether it
updates
README.mdor becomes a new ADR — whatever makes sense. - Repeat until the user says "we're done" (or similar).
Rules
- All answers & responses during this "brain to docs" process must be VERY CONCISE, all sentences should be SHORT, and everything should be written in PLAIN ENGLISH.
- ADRs: short, numbered
NNNN-slug.md, Status + Context + Decision + Consequences. - README: vision only. Decisions go in ADRs.
- Don't challenge the user's thinking unless the user asks, or the user is making a severe mistake.
In this repository26 other files it gives its agents.
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- cmuxSkill
- codex-subagentSkill
- fable-safe-promptSkill
- goal-loopSkill
- handoffSkill
- markdown-renderingSkill
- run-deep-sweSkill
- anti-sleepSkill
- pi-custom-modelSkill
- setup-helpSkill
- browser-harnessSkill
- deepapiSkill
- deep-researchSkill
- pi-web-searchSkill
- research-promptSkill
- youtube-transcriptSkill
- distribute-skill-to-all-agentsSkill
- effective-agent-skillsSkill
- folder-specific-claude-and-agents-mdSkill
- push-skill-to-githubSkill
- grill-meSkill
- interview-style-doc-buildingSkill
- read-all-adrsSkill
- shortSkill
- teachSkill
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Your trail
Files you open will collect here, so you can find them again.
Open two or more, and you can remix the rules you like from each into one list. Kept in this browser only.
Now do this for your own.
Bring your CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md or skills. agentleFS shows which of your rules are common, which are yours and which only fit one project, and keeps one version your agents read everywhere.

