Ideation Skills: Spark, Flame, Forge

Deep dive into the three Ideation skills — configuration, behavior, and output artifacts

Three Skills, One Flow

Ideation Flow has a single orchestrator agent that routes between three skills based on session state. Each skill can also be invoked directly.

Spark Skill

Goal: Generate genuinely diverse, surprising ideas through rapid batches with maximum divergence.

How It Works

Before every batch, Spark executes a 6-step deep thinking chain:

Anti-Bias Engine

The 12-domain wheel enforces cognitive diversity across every session:

Diversity rules enforced per batch:

• Minimum 3 different domains in every batch of 5
• No consecutive ideas from the same domain
• Session-level tracking prevents clustering around familiar themes

Provocation cadence:

• Every 15 ideas: a deliberate provocation (Inversion, Exaggeration, Elimination, Time Shift, Stakeholder Swap, or Random)
• Every 20 ideas: a full perspective shift to a distant domain

Configuration (memory-bank.yaml)

spark:
  batch_size: 5          # Ideas per batch
  target_count: 50       # Suggested convergence threshold
  max_batches: 20        # Safety limit

anti_bias:
  domain_diversity_min: 3       # Minimum domains per batch
  provocation_frequency: 15     # Provocation every N ideas
  perspective_shift_frequency: 20

deep_thinking:
  prefer_mcp: true              # Use Sequential Thinking MCP if available
  fallback: built-in
  steps_per_batch: 6
  visibility: collapsed         # visible | collapsed | hidden

Spark Bank Output

The Spark Bank is a structured markdown document grouping all ideas by theme, with favorites highlighted:

# Spark Bank: Developer Onboarding

## Summary
- Total ideas: 47
- Favorites: 8
- Domains covered: 9/12

## Theme: Friction Reduction
⭐ **Contextual Code Sandbox** — Runnable snippets in docs, pre-loaded with your API keys in a safe scope. *via First Principles*
**Onboarding Sprint** — Full setup compressed into one pair-programming session. *via Exaggeration*

## Theme: Knowledge Transfer
⭐ **Buddy Bot Assignment** — Slack bot that surfaces relevant internal docs as the new hire encounters gaps. *via Analogy*
...

Flame Skill

Goal: Evaluate ideas fairly through multiple perspectives—surface hidden value, expose real risks, produce a ranked shortlist.

Six Hats Analysis

For each idea, Flame runs all five objective hats automatically (no interruption), then explicitly elicits the Red Hat from you:

Scoring

After the Six Hats analysis, each idea is scored:

Ideas are plotted on a 2×2 matrix (Impact × Feasibility). The shortlist (3–5 ideas) defaults to the upper-right quadrant, adjusted by your Red Hat input.

Configuration

flame:
  default_method: six-hats-rapid
  shortlist_size: 5

Flame Report Output

# Flame Report: Developer Onboarding

## Evaluations

### Contextual Code Sandbox
- **White**: No direct competitor data; internal tooling exists
- **Yellow**: Eliminates "it works on my machine" problem permanently
- **Black**: API key management complexity; security review needed
- **Green**: Could extend to full environment snapshots
- **Blue**: Phase 1: static sandbox → Phase 2: live environment
- **Red** *(your input)*: "Strong gut feel — this is the one"
- **Score**: Impact 5, Feasibility 3

## Scoring Matrix
[2×2 matrix: Impact × Feasibility]

## Shortlist (Top 5)
1. Contextual Code Sandbox (I:5, F:3) ← your Red Hat favorite
2. Buddy Bot Assignment (I:4, F:4)
...

Forge Skill

Goal: Develop shortlisted ideas into polished, actionable Concept Briefs using the Disney Creative Strategy.

Disney Creative Strategy

Robert Dilts’ model separates three distinct thinking modes that must not mix:

Pass Details

Dreamer Pass (80% AI / 20% you)

Expand the vision without limits. What is the best possible version of this idea?

• Full concept description
• User value proposition
• Differentiation angle
• The “dream” experience

Realist Pass (60% AI / 40% you)

Ground the vision in reality. What does v1 actually look like?

• Technology choices
• Implementation phases (v1, v2, v3)
• Team and time requirements
• Integration points

Critic Pass (40% AI / 60% you)

Stress-test the concept. This is where your organizational context matters most.

• Risks ranked by severity (Critical / High / Medium / Low)
• Mitigations for each risk
• Known organizational constraints
• “What would make this fail?”

Configuration

forge:
  default_method: disney-strategy
  include_pitch: true
  include_risks: true

Concept Brief Output

# Concept Brief: Contextual Code Sandbox

## Vision (Dreamer)
A fully-functional development environment embedded in documentation.
New hires run real code against real APIs on day one—no local setup required.
The "first day works" experience becomes the default, not the exception.

## Implementation Plan (Realist)
**Phase 1 (2 weeks)**: Static sandbox with pre-loaded API credentials in isolated scope
**Phase 2 (4 weeks)**: Full environment snapshots tied to specific onboarding paths
**Phase 3 (ongoing)**: Self-updating sandboxes that mirror production changes

Tech: WebContainers (StackBlitz), credential vault integration, Markdown MDX

## Risk Assessment (Critic)
| Risk | Severity | Mitigation |
|------|----------|-----------|
| Security review for credential scoping | Critical | Dedicated security review sprint before Phase 1 |
| Engineering buy-in for maintenance | High | Async RFC + demo with early adopters |
| Browser compatibility for WebContainers | Medium | Fallback to static code blocks with copy button |

Session State

All session data is persisted in session.yaml:

session:
  id: developer-onboarding-20260528
  topic: "Reduce developer onboarding from 2 weeks to 2 days"
  created: 2026-05-28T09:00:00Z
  updated: 2026-05-28T14:30:00Z
  phase: forge

spark:
  batches_generated: 9
  total_ideas: 47
  favorites: [S1-1, S2-3, S4-2, S5-1, S6-4, S7-2, S8-1, S8-5]
  domains_used: [Technology, Psychology, Business, Nature, Games, Social, Space, Inversion]
  domains_remaining: [Art, Time, Extreme, Random]

flame:
  ideas_evaluated: 12
  shortlist: [S1-1, S2-3, S4-2, S5-1, S7-2]
  scoring_method: six-hats-rapid

forge:
  concepts_shaped: 2
  briefs_generated: [contextual-code-sandbox.md, buddy-bot-assignment.md]

Interaction Adaptation

The AI adjusts its interaction style based on the current skill phase:

Override signals:

• "you decide" → shifts toward more generation
• "ask me" → shifts toward more elicitation

Hard rule: Never more than 2 questions before generating output. Flow never stalls.