Modern Engineering Workflow (Brainstorm-Plan-Work-Review-Debug)
A five-step engineering process — brainstorm, plan, work, code review, debug — that turns any idea, technical or not, into a properly scoped, verified, shippable result instead of yoloing straight to output.
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
name: modern-engineering-workflow description: Use when A five-step engineering process — brainstorm, plan, work, code review, debug — that turns any idea, technical or not, into a properly scoped, verified, shippable result instead of yoloing straight to output.
Modern Engineering Workflow (Brainstorm-Plan-Work-Review-Debug)
Applies the same disciplined process used in physical and software engineering to any Claude project: Brainstorm (generate and interview around multiple possible approaches instead of assuming the first idea is best), Plan (turn the chosen idea into a clear, simplicity-biased delivery plan), Work (execute the plan while explicitly verifying the result works before calling it done), Code Review (review the output as a senior reviewer would, flagging issues), and Debug (find and fix the root cause of any issue, including from a screenshot). Works whether you're writing code, a proposal, or planning a launch.
What you get
- Five-step structured process (brainstorm, plan, work, review, debug)
- verification built into the work step so nothing is marked done without being checked
- senior-level code/output review step
- root-cause debugging step that accepts screenshots as input.
Customize your output
- Which steps to invoke per project (can skip straight to plan/work for smaller tasks)
- how strict the verification requirement is
- can be paired with existing plugins like Compound Engineering or Superpowers that ship similar skills out of the box.
Example output
For a personal workout-logging app: brainstorm interviewed for feature ideas, plan produced a delivery plan biased toward the simplest solution, work built and verified the app, code review flagged and simplified issues, and debug fixed a bug from a pasted screenshot.
Best for
Anyone building anything with Claude — technical or non-technical — who wants a repeatable, quality-controlled build process instead of ad hoc prompting.
SKILL.md preview
---
name: modern-engineering-workflow
description: Use this skill when turning any idea, technical or not, into a properly scoped and verified result through a disciplined brainstorm-plan-work-review-debug process.
version: 1.0.0
category: Development Methodology
author: AgentVolt
license: proprietary
tags:
- development-methodology
- standard
---
# Modern Engineering Workflow (Brainstorm-Plan-Work-Review-Debug)
Applies the five-step discipline used in real engineering to any project so results are properly scoped and verified instead of produced in one uninterrupted pass.
## When to use
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