Files
BMAD-METHOD/docs/explanation/features/brainstorming-techniques.md
Alex Verkhovsky 2e16650067 feat(docs): Diataxis restructure + Astro/Starlight migration (#1263)
* feat(docs): add Diataxis folder structure and update sidebar styling

- Create tutorials, how-to, explanation, reference directories with subdirectories
- Add index.md files for each main Diataxis section
- Update homepage with Diataxis card navigation layout
- Implement clean React Native-inspired sidebar styling
- Convert sidebar to autogenerated for both Diataxis and legacy sections
- Update docusaurus config with dark mode default and navbar changes

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(docs): migrate Phase 1 files to Diataxis structure

Move 21 files to new locations:
- Tutorials: quick-start guides, agent creation guide
- How-To: installation, customization, workflows
- Explanation: core concepts, features, game-dev, builder
- Reference: merged glossary from BMM and BMGD

Also:
- Copy images to new locations
- Update internal links via migration script (73 links updated)
- Build verified successfully

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(docs): add category labels for sidebar folders

Add _category_.json files to control display labels and position
for autogenerated sidebar categories.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* style(docs): improve welcome page and visual styling

- Rewrite index.md with React Native-inspired welcoming layout
- Add Diataxis section cards with descriptions
- Remove sidebar separator, add spacing instead
- Increase navbar padding with responsive breakpoints
- Add rounded admonitions without left border bar
- Use system font stack for better readability
- Add lighter chevron styling in sidebar
- Constrain max-width to 1600px for wide viewports

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix: use baseUrl in meta tag paths for correct deployment URLs

* feat(docs): complete Phase 2 - split files and fix broken links

Phase 2 of Diataxis migration:
- Split 16 large legacy files into 42+ focused documents
- Created FAQ section with 7 topic-specific files
- Created brownfield how-to guides (3 files)
- Created workflow how-to guides (15+ files)
- Created architecture explanation files (3 files)
- Created TEA/testing explanation files
- Moved remaining legacy module files to proper Diataxis locations

Link fixes:
- Fixed ~50 broken internal links across documentation
- Updated relative paths for new file locations
- Created missing index files for installation, advanced tutorials
- Simplified TOC anchors to fix Docusaurus warnings

Cleanup:
- Removed legacy sidebar entries for deleted folders
- Deleted duplicate and empty placeholder files
- Moved workflow diagram assets to tutorials/images

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(build): use file glob instead of sidebar parsing for llms-full.txt

Replace brittle sidebar.js regex parsing with recursive file glob.
The old approach captured non-file strings like 'autogenerated' and
category labels, resulting in only 5 files being processed.

Now correctly processes all 86+ markdown files (~95k tokens).

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(seo): use absolute URLs in AI meta tags for agent discoverability

AI web-browsing agents couldn't follow relative paths in meta tags due to
URL security restrictions. Changed llms-full.txt and llms.txt meta tag
URLs from relative (baseUrl) to absolute (urlParts.origin + baseUrl).

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* refactor(docs): recategorize misplaced files per Diataxis analysis

Phase 2.5 categorization fixes based on post-migration analysis:

Moved to correct Diataxis categories:
- tutorials/installation.md → deleted (duplicate of how-to/install-bmad.md)
- tutorials/brownfield-onboarding.md → how-to/brownfield/index.md
- reference/faq/* (8 files) → explanation/faq/
- reference/agents/barry-quick-flow.md → explanation/agents/
- reference/agents/bmgd-agents.md → explanation/game-dev/agents.md

Created:
- explanation/agents/index.md

Fixed all broken internal links (14 total)

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(docs): add Getting Started tutorial and simplify build script

- Add comprehensive Getting Started tutorial with installation as Step 1
- Simplify build-docs.js to read directly from docs/ (no consolidation)
- Remove backup/restore dance that could corrupt docs folder on build failure
- Remove ~150 lines of unused consolidation code

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(css): use fixed width layout to prevent content shifting

Apply React Native docs approach: set both width and max-width at
largest breakpoint (1400px) so content area maintains consistent
size regardless of content length. Switches to fluid 100% below
1416px breakpoint.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* refactor(docs): restructure tutorials with renamed entry point

- Rename index.md to bmad-tutorial.md for clearer navigation
- Remove redundant tutorials/index.md
- Update sidebar and config references

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(docs): add tutorial style guide and AI agent announcement bar

- Add docs/_contributing/ with tutorial style guide
- Reformat quick-start-bmm.md and bmad-tutorial.md per style guide
- Remove horizontal separators, add strategic admonitions
- Add persistent announcement bar for AI agents directing to llms-full.txt
- Fix footer broken link to tutorials

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(docs): add markdown demo page and UI refinements

- Add comprehensive markdown-demo.md for style testing
- Remove doc category links from navbar (use sidebar instead)
- Remove card buttons from welcome page
- Add dark mode styling for announcement bar
- Clean up index.md card layout

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(docs): apply unified tutorial style and update references

- Reformat create-custom-agent.md to follow tutorial style guide
- Update tutorial-style.md with complete unified structure
- Update all internal references to renamed tutorial files
- Remove obsolete advanced/index.md

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* refactor(docs): migrate from Docusaurus to Astro+Starlight

Replace Docusaurus with Astro and the Starlight documentation theme
for improved performance, better customization, and modern tooling.

Build pipeline changes:
- New build-docs.js orchestrates link checking, artifact generation,
  and Astro build in sequence
- Add check-doc-links.js for validating internal links and anchors
- Generate llms.txt and llms-full.txt for LLM-friendly documentation
- Create downloadable source bundles (bmad-sources.zip, bmad-prompts.zip)
- Suppress MODULE_TYPELESS_PACKAGE_JSON warning in Astro build
- Output directly to build/site for cleaner deployment

Website architecture:
- Add rehype-markdown-links.js plugin to transform .md links to routes
- Add site-url.js helper for GitHub Pages URL resolution with strict
  validation (throws on invalid GITHUB_REPOSITORY format)
- Custom Astro components: Banner, Header, MobileMenuFooter
- Symlink docs/ into website/src/content/docs for Starlight

Documentation cleanup:
- Remove Docusaurus _category_.json files (Starlight uses frontmatter)
- Convert all docs to use YAML frontmatter with title field
- Move downloads.md from website/src/pages to docs/
- Consolidate style guide and workflow diagram docs
- Add 404.md and tutorials/index.md

---------

Co-authored-by: forcetrainer <bryan@inagaki.us>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-01-07 14:42:15 +08:00

4.2 KiB

title
title
Brainstorming

Facilitate structured creative sessions using 60+ proven ideation techniques.

The Brainstorming workflow is an interactive facilitation system that helps you unlock your own creativity. The AI acts as coach, guide, and creative partner—using proven techniques to draw out ideas and insights that are already within you.

Important: Every idea comes from you. The workflow creates the conditions for your best thinking to emerge through guided exploration, but you are the source.


When to Use It

  • Breaking through creative blocks on a specific challenge
  • Generating innovative ideas for products, features, or solutions
  • Exploring a problem from completely new angles
  • Systematically developing ideas from raw concepts to actionable plans
  • Team ideation (with collaborative techniques) or personal creative exploration

How It Works

1. Session Setup

Define your topic, goals, and any constraints.

2. Choose Your Approach

Approach Description
User-Selected Browse the full technique library and pick what appeals to you
AI-Recommended Get customized technique suggestions based on your goals
Random Selection Discover unexpected methods through serendipitous technique combinations
Progressive Flow Journey systematically from expansive exploration to focused action planning

3. Interactive Facilitation

Work through techniques with true collaborative coaching. The AI asks probing questions, builds on your ideas, and helps you think deeper—but your ideas are the source.

4. Idea Organization

All your generated ideas are organized into themes and prioritized.

5. Action Planning

Top ideas get concrete next steps, resource requirements, and success metrics.


What You Get

A comprehensive session document that captures the entire journey:

  • Topic, goals, and session parameters
  • Each technique used and how it was applied
  • Your contributions and the ideas you generated
  • Thematic organization connecting related insights
  • Prioritized ideas with action plans
  • Session highlights and key breakthroughs

This document becomes a permanent record of your creative process—valuable for future reference, sharing with stakeholders, or continuing the session later.


Technique Categories

Category Focus
Collaborative Team dynamics and inclusive participation
Creative Breakthrough thinking and paradigm shifts
Deep Root cause analysis and strategic insight
Structured Organized frameworks and systematic exploration
Theatrical Playful, radical perspectives
Wild Boundary-pushing, extreme thinking
Biomimetic Nature-inspired solutions
Quantum Quantum principles for innovation
Cultural Traditional knowledge and cross-cultural approaches
Introspective Delight Inner wisdom and authentic exploration

Key Features

  • Interactive coaching — Pulls ideas out of you, doesn't generate them for you
  • On-demand loading — Techniques loaded from a comprehensive library as needed
  • Session preservation — Every step, insight, and action plan is documented
  • Continuation support — Pause sessions and return later, or extend with additional techniques

Workflow Integration

Brainstorming is a core workflow designed to be invoked and configured by other modules. When called from another workflow, it accepts contextual parameters:

Parameter Description
Topic focus What the brainstorming should help discover or solve
Guardrails Constraints, boundaries, or must-avoid areas
Output goals What the final output needs to accomplish for the calling workflow
Context files Project-specific guidance to inform technique selection

Example

When creating a new module in the BMad Builder workflow, Brainstorming can be invoked with guardrails around the module's purpose and a goal to discover key features, user needs, or architectural considerations. The session becomes focused on producing exactly what the module creation workflow needs.