mirror of https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git synced 2026-06-24 10:52:21 +00:00

feat(optional-skills/creative-ideation): expand to v2.1.0 method library (#42402 )

The optional-skills copy was still the v1.0.0 constraint-dispatch skill
(SKILL.md + full-prompt-library.md only). This brings it up to the current
tool: a situation-routed library of 22 named ideation methods drawn from
working artists, scientists, designers, and writers.

SKILL.md becomes a 4-step router (extract PHASE/DOMAIN/SPECIFICITY signals
→ apply overrides → route phase-then-domain → resolve ambiguity), with
anti-slop operating rules and an anti-default check.

Adds:
- 22 method files under references/methods/ — oblique-strategies (Eno/Schmidt),
  oulipo, scamper, lateral-provocations (de Bono), triz (Altshuller),
  leverage-points (Meadows), pattern-languages (Alexander), compression-progress
  (Schmidhuber), analogy-and-blending, pataphysics, first-principles, polya,
  biomimicry, volume-generation, creative-discipline, premortem-and-inversion,
  defamiliarization, derive-and-mapping, affinity-diagrams, jobs-to-be-done,
  story-skeletons, chance-and-remix. Each: when/when-not, the actual
  cards/principles/operators, a procedure, a worked example, anti-slop notes.
- references/method-catalog.md (index + when-to-use), heuristics.md (extended
  decision tree), anti-slop.md (rules applied to every output), exercises.md
  (time-boxed exercises).
- full-prompt-library.md restructured into domain-affinity sections (general /
  software / physical / social / lists) so the no-direction default isn't
  developer-biased.

Frontmatter: name aligned to directory slug (creative-ideation, folding in
the fix from #18084); version 2.0.0→2.1.0; platforms field preserved.

Original wttdotm-derived constraint dispatch is kept as the default path.
Supersedes #19295 (which targeted the pre-move skills/ path).

Co-authored-by: SHL0MS <SHL0MS@users.noreply.github.com>

2026-06-19 15:40:02 -07:00

4.8 KiB

Raw Blame History

Method Catalog

One-line summary + when-to-use for every method. Cross-reference with heuristics.md and the routing table in SKILL.md.

Random-stimulus

Method	Use when
`methods/oblique-strategies.md`	Stuck mid-project; have material, need to disrupt the loop. Native domain: music; works for anything.
`methods/lateral-provocations.md`	Idea too safe; need to break frame with PO operator or random word.
`methods/chance-and-remix.md`	Existing material feels exhausted; have media to remix (Cage chance ops, Burroughs cut-up, Surrealist exquisite corpse, Situationist détournement).

Constraint-driven

Method	Use when
`methods/oulipo.md`	Writing, especially poetry/fiction. Lipograms, S+7, snowballs, palindromes.
`methods/scamper.md`	Have a base idea, want 7 systematic variations cheaply.
`full-prompt-library.md`	Blank-page default. wttdotm-style project constraints. Sectioned by domain (General / Software / Physical / Social / Lists) — pick from the matching section, not the whole library.

Theoretical

Method	Use when
`methods/compression-progress.md`	Picking research questions or selecting between projects. Schmidhuber: a worthwhile project compresses your model of the world.
`methods/analogy-and-blending.md`	Stuck inside one frame; need to import structure from a remote domain (Synectics, bisociation, conceptual blending).
`methods/pataphysics.md`	Push past plausibility; specify the impossible thing in detail.

Engineering / systems

Method	Use when
`methods/triz-principles.md`	Technical contradiction (improving X degrades Y). Altshuller's 40 principles + contradiction matrix.
`methods/leverage-points.md`	Civic / org / institutional change. Meadows' 12 places to intervene.
`methods/pattern-languages.md`	Design with established practice (architecture, UX, product). Christopher Alexander.
`methods/first-principles.md`	Suspect accumulated practice carries forward assumptions that no longer apply.
`methods/polya.md`	Math, physics, algorithms, debugging, formal problems.
`methods/biomimicry.md`	Physical design problem with likely natural-system analog.

Generation / discipline

Method	Use when
`methods/volume-generation.md`	Need many ideas fast (Crazy 8s, brainwriting, James Webb Young).
`methods/creative-discipline.md`	Long-term practice (Tharp, LeWitt, Cleese, Cameron). Not single-session.

Selection / refinement

Method	Use when
`methods/premortem-and-inversion.md`	Pressure-test a plan; choose between candidates (Klein + Munger).
`methods/defamiliarization.md`	Subject is so familiar you've stopped seeing it (Shklovsky, Brecht).

Mapping / drift

Method	Use when
`methods/derive-and-mapping.md`	Entering unfamiliar territory; life decision; site-specific work (Debord, Lynch, Bachelard).
`methods/affinity-diagrams.md`	Pile of qualitative items needs structure (Kawakita KJ method).

Domain-specific

Method	Use when
`methods/story-skeletons.md`	Narrative writing. Coats's Pixar 22, Saunders's escalation, Le Guin's carrier bag. Deliberately not Hero's Journey.
`methods/jobs-to-be-done.md`	Product / service / business design. Christensen.

Choosing between similar methods

Tempted to use	Consider also	Why
Oblique Strategies	Lateral provocations	Strategies = poetic random; provocations = procedural
OuLiPo	Chance and remix	OuLiPo = rule-based; chance = rule-free
TRIZ	First principles	TRIZ uses pattern library; first principles refuses pattern
Leverage points	Pattern languages	Meadows = where to intervene; Alexander = what to design
Compression progress	Pólya	Schmidhuber = which question; Pólya = how to attack it
Defamiliarization	Synectics	Defamiliarization destroys the familiar; Synectics constructs from it
Premortem	Pataphysics	Premortem mitigates extremes; pataphysics celebrates them
Crazy 8s	SCAMPER	Crazy 8s = from blank page; SCAMPER = from existing base
Dérive	Affinity diagrams	Dérive explores; KJ synthesizes after exploration

Deliberately not in the catalog

Hero's Journey / Save the Cat / 3-Act / Story Circle. Story formulas, not ideation methods. They flatten work into tired shapes. methods/story-skeletons.md includes alternatives.
Design Thinking as franchise. The underlying methods (interviews, affinity mapping, ideation, prototyping) are here under their actual names.
Mind maps, Six Hats, fishbone. Containers for ideation, not generators. The methods here generate.
Disrupt-X / blue-ocean / lean-startup. Positioning frameworks, not generative ones.
Generic LLM brainstorming. Exactly what this skill exists to displace.

4.8 KiB Raw Blame History