asymmetric-al/core/prototype

This repository (Asymmetric-al/core)

Use this workflow only when the user explicitly requests a prototype or invokes prototype. Keep it distinct from the separate emil-prototype skill.

• Core's OpenSpec, CONTEXT.md, scoped rulebooks, Base UI, base-maia and shared

frontend components remain authoritative.

• Keep prototypes in an isolated HTML or static harness outside production app

routes. Modify an existing app route or introduce a route only when that work is included in the user's requested prototype scope; do not create apps/*/app/prototypes/ routes as an automatic convention.

• Use dummy data and existing local tools. Do not provision services, alter

credentials, install dependencies or access live data as a side effect.

• Preserve the upstream primary-source capture workflow. Create branches,

commit, push or publish prototype artifacts only when the task authorizes those actions, following repository checks. Loading or refreshing the skill alone authorizes none of them.

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Prototype

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

Pick a branch

Identify which question is being answered, using 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?" → UI.md. Generate several radically different UI variations on a single route, switchable via a URL search param and a floating bottom bar.

The two branches produce very different artifacts, so getting this wrong wastes the whole prototype. If the question is genuinely ambiguous and the user isn't reachable, default to whichever branch better matches the surrounding code (a backend module → logic; a page or component → UI) and state the assumption at the top of the prototype.

Rules that apply to both

1. Throwaway from day one, and clearly marked as such. Locate the prototype code close to where it will actually be used (next to the module or page it's prototyping for) so context is obvious, but name it so a casual reader can see it's a prototype, not production. For throwaway UI routes, obey whatever routing convention the project already uses; don't invent a new top-level structure.
2. Trivial to run. A UI prototype starts from one command in the project's task runner: pnpm <name>, python <path>, bun <path>, etc. A logic demo is a single HTML file the user double-clicks. Either way, no thinking required to start it.
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 (logic) or on every variant switch (UI), print or render the full relevant state so the user can see what changed.
6. Capture it when done. Fold the validated decision into the real code within the authorized task. When branch and commit actions are authorized, capture the prototype itself as a primary source on a clearly named throwaway branch outside main and leave the branch pointer on the implementation issue. Otherwise retain the local artifact and report its path. Capture the verdict and the question it settled. The main branch keeps only the validated decision.