Idea To Intent

Idea to Intent Brief

Stage: Phase 1 — Think Before Build

Purpose

Use this skill to convert a pressure-tested app idea into a short Intent Brief that captures the project’s purpose, users, constraints, tradeoffs, and success criteria before a PRD is written.

Shared Principles

These skills are based on two YouTube talks about AI-native software engineering, interpreted through ATL’s own teaching perspective.

• Shift left on intent: clarify goals, users, constraints, tradeoffs, and success before coding.
• Delegate tasks, not judgment: AI may draft, compare, or implement; the student remains responsible for decisions.
• Verification is the bottleneck: every output must include checks, acceptance criteria, or evidence.
• No vibe coding: do not jump from idea directly to generated code without intent, design, and review.
• Small loops beat big guesses: move one step at a time, verify, then continue.
• AI amplifies the system: unclear intent creates faster confusion; clear intent creates faster learning.

When to Use

• Use after grill-my-idea.
• Use when the student can explain the user and problem but has not yet written requirements.
• Do not use for implementation tasks.

Inputs

• Grill result or revised app idea.
• Student answers to the hard questions.
• Known class/project constraints.

Process

1. Extract the core intent: why this app should exist. 2. Define primary user and context of use. 3. Write goals and non-goals. 4. Capture constraints: time, platform, data, privacy, team skill, deployment. 5. Name important tradeoffs. 6. Define success criteria that can be checked later. 7. Record open questions instead of pretending they are solved.

Artifact Discipline

This skill must not only answer in chat. It must produce or update a project file so the next skill has a stable source of truth.

• Write/update this file: docs/ai-native/02-intent-brief.md
• Artifact title: Intent Brief
• Read these previous artifacts first:
• docs/ai-native/01-grill-my-idea.md
• If the project does not have docs/ai-native/, create it.
• If the target file already exists, update it carefully instead of creating a duplicate.
• Do not draft from memory: follow the Source Loading Protocol below before writing this file.
• End the response with a short Saved artifact: line naming the file path.
• Do not continue to the next skill until the user or student confirms this artifact is acceptable.

Source Loading Protocol

Before producing this skill's output, the agent must explicitly load the upstream artifact files from the current project. Do not rely on pasted chat history if the files exist.

1. Check whether each required upstream file exists:

• docs/ai-native/01-grill-my-idea.md

2. Read every existing required file before drafting this artifact. 3. If a required upstream file is missing, stop and ask the student to run the previous skill or provide the missing file. Do not silently recreate or guess the missing source of truth. 4. In the saved artifact, include a short Sources Read section listing the files actually read. 5. If the student pasted newer content than the saved file, ask whether to update the upstream artifact first before continuing.

Output Format

# Intent Brief

## Project Name
...

## One-Sentence Intent
...

## Primary User
...

## User Problem
...

## Goals
- ...

## Non-Goals
- ...

## Constraints
- ...

## Tradeoffs
- ...

## Success Criteria
- ...

## Open Questions
- ...

Final Response Contract

When this skill finishes, respond briefly and include:

Saved artifact: docs/ai-native/02-intent-brief.md
Next recommended skill: <next-skill-or-human-review>

If you cannot write the file, say exactly why and do not pretend the artifact was saved.

Quality Checklist

• [ ] Intent is understandable without seeing the future app.
• [ ] Goals and non-goals are both present.
• [ ] Success criteria are observable.
• [ ] Constraints are explicit.
• [ ] Open questions are not hidden.

Common Pitfalls

1. Writing a PRD too early. Intent Brief comes first. 2. Using corporate language. Keep it clear and student-readable. 3. Skipping non-goals. Non-goals protect the project from scope creep.

Student Prompt Template

Use `idea-to-intent`.
Here is my grilled/revised app idea: [paste].
Create an Intent Brief with goals, non-goals, constraints, tradeoffs, success criteria, and open questions.

Save or update the artifact at `docs/ai-native/02-intent-brief.md`. End with `Saved artifact: docs/ai-native/02-intent-brief.md` and the next recommended skill.

Before drafting, read the required upstream artifact files listed in the skill. If any are missing, stop and report which file is missing.