Generate - Diverse Candidate Production

Input: $ARGUMENTS

Core Principles

1. Diversity over quantity. Three genuinely different candidates beat ten variations on the same idea. Every candidate set must include at least one conventional, one unconventional, and one extreme option.

2. Artifacts, not labels. Produce the actual thing — code, prose, layout, strategy document — not just a name for it. “Compress the hero section” is a label. Actual compressed hero HTML is an artifact.

3. Constraints are generative. Don’t fight constraints — use them. Each constraint eliminates bad options and makes good options easier to find. Ask: “Given THESE constraints, what becomes possible?”

4. Separate generation from evaluation. Generate freely first. Don’t self-censor during generation. Evaluation comes after (use /cri or /cmp).

5. Surprise yourself. If every candidate feels obvious, you haven’t explored far enough. At least one candidate should make you think “that’s weird but it might work.”

The Process

1. Frame the Generation

What am I producing? What constraints apply? What purpose does it serve?

DOMAIN: [what kind of thing — code, prose, design, strategy, etc.]
PURPOSE: [what it must accomplish]
CONSTRAINTS: [hard limits — technical, resource, time, audience]
QUALITY CRITERIA: [how we'll know if it's good — can reference /cri]

2. Generate Candidates

Produce at minimum 3 candidates. For complex problems, 5-7.

Required diversity:

Techniques for generating unconventional/extreme candidates:

• Invert the strongest assumption (“What if we did the OPPOSITE?”)
• Import from another domain (“How would a game designer solve this?”)
• Remove the most obvious element (“What if there’s no navigation?”)
• Maximize a constraint (“What if we had to do this in 10 lines?”)
• Combine two unrelated approaches (“What if this was both a tool AND a game?“)

3. For Each Candidate

Produce the actual artifact (or as much as scope allows):

• Code → write the code
• Prose → write the text
• Design → write the CSS/HTML or describe with specific values
• Strategy → write the plan with specific actions
• Architecture → draw the diagram or describe specific components

Include a brief rationale (2-3 sentences): what’s the core idea and why might it work?

4. Tag for Evaluation

Don’t evaluate yet. Tag each candidate for downstream evaluation:

CANDIDATES PRODUCED: [N]
- [1] CONVENTIONAL: [brief description]
- [2] UNCONVENTIONAL: [brief description]
- [3] EXTREME: [brief description]
[- additional candidates if produced]

READY FOR: /cri or /cmp

Domain Adaptation

When Called by Other Skills

Generate is a primitive. When called by UAUA (G1 step), design, or other skills:

• Accept constraints from the calling skill
• Produce artifacts in the format the caller needs
• Return candidates without evaluation (the caller evaluates)

Common Failure Modes