Idea-to-Verified-Delivery Workflow
Turn an idea or broken deliverable into scoped work, a checked result, and fixes traced to their root cause.
Before & after
Same prompt, same agent — the only difference is the skill.
I can help you build the feature. Let me think about what you need and then write the code. I'll start by understanding the requirements, then build it out, and test it to make sure it works. If you want me to review the approach first, I can do that too. It's good to plan before diving in, but I can adapt as we go if things change. Let me get started on understanding exactly what you're looking for, and then we can move forward with building it.
ENGINEERING WORKFLOW: 5-STEP BREAKDOWN STEP 1: BRAINSTORM (30 min) Generate 3+ approaches before picking one • Approach A: Client-side sorting (pros: no backend load; cons: slow on large datasets) • Approach B: Server-side cursor pagination (pros: performant; cons: stateful complexity) • Approach C: Hybrid (server cursor + client cache layer) Decision: Approach B → server cursor (aligns with data volumes 100k+ rows) STEP 2: PLAN (30 min) Clear, simplicity-biased delivery plan • Task 1: Database migration (add sort_key index) — 2 hours • Task 2: Backend API endpoint (cursor logic) — 4 hours • Task 3: Frontend component (render sorted list) — 3 hours • Task 4: Integration test suite — 2 hours • Task 5: Deploy to staging, smoke test — 1 hour Total: 12 hours (1.5 days); Critical path: DB index must complete before API STEP 3: WORK + VERIFY (execute plan, verify before calling done) ✓ Task 1: migration deployed to dev DB; index query plan reviewed ✓ Task 2: POST /api/list endpoint accepts cursor param; returns 50 items + next_cursor ✓ Task 3: React component renders list, "Load more" button works ✓ VERIFY: Load test with 500k rows — p99 latency 200ms (threshold met: <500ms) STEP 4: CODE REVIEW (1 hour) Senior reviewer checks for mistakes you missed • Catch: cursor null edge case (first page) — add guard clause • Catch: no test for empty result set — add pytest case • Approval: merge after fixes, estimated 30 min to fix STEP 5: DEBUG (if issues in production) Root-cause framework with screenshots • Symptom: "Load more" button hangs on mobile • Debug steps: check network tab (200ms+ slow endpoint?), check browser console (errors?), check error logs • Root cause: mobile client sending cursor=null (our bad); fix: validate cursor server-side • Fix: deploy hotfix + test mobile locally before merging main
About this skill
“It built what I asked for, but it still doesn't work.” This workflow catches the gaps between a promising idea, a reasonable plan, and a result you can actually rely on. It moves through brainstorming, planning, execution, review, and debugging at the depth the task needs.
What it does
- Compares genuinely different approaches and recommends the smallest one that satisfies the requirements.
- Converts vague requests into observable acceptance criteria, explicit exclusions, and a short delivery sequence.
- Builds in useful increments, checking the riskiest assumption before expanding the implementation.
- Reviews the actual result for broken behavior, unsupported claims, missing cases, and unnecessary complexity.
- Turns errors or screenshots into testable debugging hypotheses, then checks whether the fix addresses the cause.
- Reports what was checked, what remains uncertain, and what prevents a stronger completion claim.
What you get
A scoped plan and the requested implementation or artifact, accompanied by concise verification evidence and any remaining limitations. For a quick fix or review, you get just the relevant diagnosis, change, or findings rather than a full project ceremony.
Best for
Developers, technical leads, and people building with Claude who need repeatable delivery discipline across features, bug fixes, proposals, operational plans, and other substantial work.
SKILL.md preview
---
name: idea-to-verified-delivery-workflow
description: Turn ideas and broken deliverables into scoped, checked results using a five-stage brainstorm-plan-work-review-debug loop, observable acceptance criteria, and evidence-based completion claims. Use when the user says "help me build this properly", "turn this idea into something shippable", "plan and implement this feature", "review what we built", "my fixes keep breaking something else", "debug this screenshot", or "this looks finished but doesn't work".
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# Idea-to-Verified-Delivery Workflow
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