prototype

Prototype

A prototype is throwaway code that answers a question. The question decides the shape.

Route the question

Identify which question is being answered — from the user's prompt, the surrounding code, or by asking if the user is around:

• "Does this logic / state model feel right?" → LOGIC.md. Build a single shareable HTML file — free-play buttons plus tabbed guided walkthroughs — that pushes the state machine through cases that are hard to reason about on paper, and that a non-developer can drive.
• "What should this look like?" → invoke /frontend-design. It owns the richer visual workflow: prerequisite gating, three runnable directions, screenshots, user grilling, and an approved docs/design/<feature>/DESIGN.md contract. If its product prerequisites are unresolved, route them back to /wayfinder or /grilling; do not build UI variants here.

These are two destinations, not two prototype branches: this skill builds only logic/state prototypes, while /frontend-design owns visual exploration. If the question is genuinely ambiguous and the user is not reachable, build a logic prototype only when the prompt clearly asks about state or behavior. Otherwise stop and route the missing decision through /wayfinder or /grilling; never resurrect a local UI-prototype path.

Rules for logic prototypes

1. Throwaway from day one, and clearly marked as such. Locate the prototype code close to where it will actually be used so context is obvious, but name it so a casual reader can see it is a prototype, not production.
2. Trivial to run. Produce a single HTML file the user can double-click, with no setup to remember.
3. No persistence by default. State lives in memory. Persistence is the thing the prototype is checking, not something it should depend on. If the question explicitly involves a database, hit a scratch DB or a local file with a clear "PROTOTYPE — wipe me" name.
4. Skip the polish. No tests, no error handling beyond what makes the prototype runnable, no abstractions. The point is to learn something fast.
5. Surface the state. After every action, print or render the full relevant state so the user can see what changed.
6. Capture it when done. Fold any validated decision into the real code, then capture the prototype itself as a primary source: commit it to a throwaway branch, out of main, and leave a context pointer to that branch on the implementation issue. Capture the answer too — the verdict and the question it settled — in the issue or a commit. The main branch keeps only the validated decision.