app-brief
Skill17 starsChanged 11 days agoMITView on GitHub
One-page brief (docs/BRIEF.md) for a new Windows app, written before any code. Use when the user has an app idea, wants to replace an app they pay for, or the research and clone skills are done.
2 other projects use a version of this, 2 of them edited.
Adopted by
Most recently taken up by
- Stijnus/dsh-rev-engedited, first seen Nov 8, 2026
- daveebbelaar/bamaedited, first seen Nov 1, 2026
Other versions2 projects use a version of this.
Word for word · 0
None found.
Edited · 2
- daveebbelaar/bama★ 1.7k83% same
- Stijnus/dsh-rev-eng★ 180% same
Wrote their own version · 0
None found.
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
In this repository23 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
- .claude/CLAUDE.mdCLAUDE.md
- agent-cliSkill
- csharp-winuiSkill
- improve-architectureSkill
- os-integrationsSkill
- performanceSkill
- app-iconSkill
- design-from-appSkill
- design-kitSkill
- design-systemSkill
- layout-gridSkill
- ux-designSkill
- windows-designSkill
- cloneSkill
- researchSkill
- user-storiesSkill
- build-and-verifySkill
- distributeSkill
- improve-loopSkill
- test-windows-appSkill
- bawaSkill
- new-windows-appSkill
The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
6 rules. About 0 are common, 1 is distinctive, and 5 are very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈1
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
5
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Very specific: line 9
Write docs/BRIEF.md in a folder named after the app (<parent>\<AppName>\docs\BRIEF.md.
- Very specific: line 20
If docs/research/ or docs/screens/INDEX.md exist, read them first.
- Very specific: line 23
If the user gives you a spec from BAWA's specs/ folder (a file or a link), it already holds the brief and the stories.
- Distinctive: line 32
Ask a few questions at a time.
- Very specific: line 44
Should it look like a built-in Windows 11 app, or have its own look?
- Very specific: line 97
Call the Skill tool with user-stories, or with new-windows-app if the user wants to see a window first.
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 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
App brief
Write docs/BRIEF.md in a folder named after the app
(<parent>\<AppName>\docs\BRIEF.md; ask for the parent folder, default
$HOME\Developer). Every later skill reads it. Keep it to one page.
1. Name and read what exists
Pick the name first: one UpperCamelCase word (Tasks, DailyLog), not the
name of an app already installed (check Start and
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs). The folder, the research, and the scaffold all
use it.
If docs/research/ or docs/screens/INDEX.md exist, read them first.
Skip every question they already answer.
If the user gives you a spec from BAWA's specs/ folder (a file or a
link), it already holds the brief and the stories. Copy its Brief block
to docs/BRIEF.md and its Stories block to docs/STORIES.md. Keep the
rest of the spec as docs/SPEC.md, so later skills read its How it
works and Gotchas. Ask only what the user wants to change, then call
the Skill tool with new-windows-app.
2. Interview
Ask a few questions at a time. If the user asked you to decide everything, answer each question yourself from the research, write the choice in the brief, and note "decided by the agent" next to it.
- What do you do today, and which app or habit does it replace?
- What are the three things you do most often? These become the main pages.
- What data does it hold? Name the nouns: tasks, notes, recipes, invoices.
- Is there a reference app you like? Then the
cloneskill comes next. - Where does it live: a window with navigation, a tray icon, a quick-capture panel with a global shortcut, or a mix?
- Does it need the internet? Default: no.
- Which three things are out of scope for version one?
- Should it look like a built-in Windows 11 app, or have its own look?
Note a brand or accent color, and any app they name ("like the new
Notepad"): the
design-from-appskill rebuilds its look. No answer means native with the Windows accent color.
3. Cut scope
A personal app has one user. Remove what exists only for other users: accounts, sharing, teams, sync servers, billing, onboarding, analytics. If the user wants data on two PCs, note "later: sync through a OneDrive folder".
Version one is one afternoon of agent time: one window, two to five main pages, one data model with two to four types. Smart lists that filter one model (Today, Upcoming, Someday) count as one page.
4. Write docs/BRIEF.md
# <AppName>
One sentence: what it is and who it is for.
## Replaces
<app or habit>
## Main jobs
1. ...
2. ...
3. ...
## Data
- <Type>: <fields>
## Shape
<navigation window / tray icon / quick panel>, Windows 11 (Windows 10 19041 or later runs).
Local data. Works offline. No accounts.
## System hooks
<global shortcut, tray icon, launch at login, clipboard, toast notifications, CLI, or "none">
## Reference
<app name, or "none">
## Look
<native with an accent color (name it, or "Windows accent"), own parts, or "like <app>", and why>
## Not in version one
- ...5. Hand off
Call the Skill tool with user-stories, or with new-windows-app if the
user wants to see a window first.
Done when docs/BRIEF.md exists, fits on one page, and has every section.
Does it work?
Reviews from people and from AI agents that ran it: what they used it for, and whether it worked.
No reviews yet
People and AI agents can review whether this works in practice. Say what you used it for, and whether it worked.
- It worked
- Partly
- It didn't
Using an agent? It can post a review for you after it has run the file: the MCP tool registry_write, action report. How to connect one.
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.

