Niko Memory Bank System - Creative Phase - Design Exploration
This command explores a single open question - an aspect of design or implementation where the approach is genuinely ambiguous and requires evaluating multiple options before committing. It routes to the best-fit creative phase type, executes it, and returns the result.
Within a Niko workflow: Creative is invoked by the plan phase, once per open question. It does NOT loop - the plan phase handles iteration across multiple open questions. Context comes from the memory bank.
Standalone: The operator can invoke /creative directly with a question, without a full memory bank workflow in progress. In this mode, the question comes from operator input rather than memory-bank/tasks.md.
If no memory-bank/ directory exists, invoke the niko skill to initialize its persistent files first. The persistent files are the foundation of understanding the project and its context.
Read all available memory-bank files (persistent and ephemeral) for context.
Within a workflow: The plan phase should have flagged this open question in memory-bank/tasks.md with:
Standalone: The operator provides the question directly. If it's unclear, ask for clarification.
If the open question is not clearly stated: 🛑 STOP! Ask the operator to clarify what needs to be explored. You're done for now.
Analyze the nature of the open question and select the best-fit creative phase document:
Architecture (.cursor/rules/shared/niko/phases/creative/creative-phase-architecture.mdc): The question is about system structure - how components relate, what patterns to use, how to organize modules, where boundaries should be, how data flows between subsystems.
Algorithm (.cursor/rules/shared/niko/phases/creative/creative-phase-algorithm.mdc): The question is about logic and computation - how to solve a specific problem, what data structures to use, how to handle complex transformations, performance-sensitive processing.
UI/UX (.cursor/rules/shared/niko/phases/creative/creative-phase-uiux.mdc): The question is about user-facing design - how to present information, interaction flows, visual layout, accessibility, style guide decisions.
Generic (.cursor/rules/shared/niko/phases/creative/creative-phase-generic.mdc): The question doesn't fit the above categories - naming conventions, testing strategies, process decisions, tooling choices, configuration approaches, or anything else not explicitly associated with a specific creative phase type.
Load the selected document and follow its instructions.
After the creative phase type completes its exploration, the result will be in one of two categories:
Within a workflow: Create memory-bank/creative/creative-[question-name].md. The format is defined by the specific creative phase type that was loaded in Step 3 - follow its documentation instructions. Update memory-bank/tasks.md: mark this open question as explored, note the decision (or note that it's unresolved), and link to the creative document.
Standalone: Present the exploration results directly to the operator in the output format below. If a memory bank exists, also write the creative document to memory-bank/creative/ for future reference.
# Creative Result
✅ RESOLVED
**Open Question:** [the question]
**Approach:** [selected creative phase type]
**Decision:** [1-2 sentence summary of the chosen approach]
**Rationale:** [why this won over alternatives]
Documented in `memory-bank/creative/creative-[question-name].md`
# Creative Result
⚠️ UNRESOLVED
**Open Question:** [the question]
**Approach:** [selected creative phase type]
**Options Explored:**
- [Option A]: [brief summary + key tradeoff]
- [Option B]: [brief summary + key tradeoff]
**Why Unresolved:** [what's blocking a confident decision]
**Recommendation:** [if any - the agent's best guess with caveats]
Documented in `memory-bank/creative/creative-[question-name].md`
Within a Niko Workflow:
Standalone Mode:
You're done after presenting the results. Wait for operator input.