Turn one ordinary idea into several directions you probably would not have considered.
Idea Machine is a lightweight, instruction-only Agent Skill. It takes a rough product, feature, automation, workflow, business, content, Agent, or Skill idea and returns a handful of contrasting, testable directions instead of one obvious answer.
- briefly reframes the underlying outcome;
- explores 3-5 genuinely different directions;
- rejects fake variety such as Basic / Pro / Enterprise tiers;
- gives every direction a smallest test and a concrete risk;
- compares options with qualitative labels;
- suggests different next moves for speed, novelty, and combination.
It has no runtime, package, API key, or paid service.
Repository: github.com/jerrymei168/idea-machine
Ask Codex to install the public repository:
$skill-installer install https://github.com/jerrymei168/idea-machine as idea-machine
Or clone it directly into your personal skills directory:
git clone https://github.com/jerrymei168/idea-machine.git "$HOME/.agents/skills/idea-machine"Codex detects skill changes automatically. If the skill does not appear, restart
Codex and invoke it with $idea-machine.
Download the current main branch as a ZIP:
Extract the archive, rename the extracted folder to idea-machine, and move it
to $HOME/.agents/skills/idea-machine for Codex or
$HOME/.claude/skills/idea-machine for Claude Code.
Prompt
I want to build an AI job-search assistant.
Condensed output
REFRAME
"Help write applications"
-> "Increase the chance of reaching a good interview"
[01] PRACTICAL - Application Coach
Improves one real application with evidence from the role and candidate.
[02] MINIMAL - One Match, One Move
Recommends only the highest-leverage action for one promising role.
[03] BOLD - Opportunity Radar
Monitors the market and starts preparing before the user searches.
[04] WILDCARD - Recruiter Mirror
Builds for career coaches and recruiters, then gives candidates the feedback
patterns that repeatedly block interviews.
See examples/ for complete outputs.
A normal brainstorm often produces a feature list or several versions of the same product. Idea Machine forces differences in target user, value, timing, interaction, workflow, automation, business model, or medium. The result stays short enough to compare and concrete enough to test.
The repository itself is the skill folder. Copy or clone the idea-machine
directory into one of the locations below, then start a new agent session if
the skill is not detected immediately.
Personal installation:
~/.claude/skills/idea-machine/SKILL.md
Project installation:
<project>/.claude/skills/idea-machine/SKILL.md
These locations follow the current Claude Code Skills documentation.
Personal installation:
$HOME/.agents/skills/idea-machine/SKILL.md
Project installation:
<project>/.agents/skills/idea-machine/SKILL.md
These locations follow the current Codex Skills documentation.
For another Agent that accepts custom instructions but does not discover Agent
Skills, provide SKILL.md as a system or project instruction file.
我想做一个 AI 求职助手，帮我发散几个完全不同的方向。Brainstorm a lightweight tool for debugging APIs.我想自动处理供应商报价，还有哪些不同工作方式？Make this YouTube channel idea less obvious.What else could a PDF translation business become?Give me four contrasting directions for an export-sales Agent.
Idea Machine follows a compact loop:
UNDERSTAND -> REFRAME -> DIVERGE -> STRESS TEST -> COMPARE -> NEXT MOVE
Four default lenses create useful tension:
- Practical keeps the original frame and makes it testable.
- Minimal preserves only one outcome-producing action.
- Bold redesigns the workflow or who owns the result.
- Wildcard flips one assumption but must remain plausibly useful.
The full behavior and guardrails live in SKILL.md. The design
rationale is in DESIGN_ANALYSIS.md, and the product
definition is in IDEA_MACHINE_SPEC.md.
TEST_REPORT.md records trigger, diversity, clarity, brevity,
and portability checks across product, automation, developer-tool, Agent, vague,
and narrow implementation prompts.
Idea Machine was inspired by
humbleteam/ascii-wireframes,
especially its approach to lightweight Agent Skills, structured divergence,
multiple contrasting outputs, and terminal-friendly presentation.
Idea Machine is an original project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Humbleteam.