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Brain To Docs

Documents
brain-to-docs

Brain To Docs is an Agent Skill for documents published in the davidondrej/skills repository on GitHub: a SKILL.md instruction file an AI agent can load to do this task.

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".

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QUICK START

How to use this skill

Bring this guide into your coding agent with a prompt tailored to the tool you use.

  1. Open your project in Codex.
  2. Copy and paste the prompt below.
  3. Review files and risks before approving any action.
Prompt to paste
Inspect the Agent Skill at https://github.com/davidondrej/skills/blob/HEAD/skills/thinking-and-docs/brain-to-docs/SKILL.md and all supporting files. Report provenance, permissions, scripts, dependencies, and security risks. Propose an exact installation into .agents/skills/brain-to-docs, but wait for my approval before writing files or running scripts.

Copying this prompt does not install or run the skill. Review third-party files before use.

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

  1. Check docs first, every time. Read docs/adr/ (and README.md) before doing anything — other agents and people add/edit ADRs constantly.
  2. 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.
  3. Update docs after EVERY answer — no exceptions. You decide whether it updates README.md or becomes a new ADR — whatever makes sense.
  4. 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 he asks, or he's making a severe mistake.