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Brainstorm is the mode you switch to when you want to think with the agent before you start generating. Every normal conversation in Studio is in Create mode — the agent will happily fire off images as soon as it understands what you want. In Brainstorm mode, it doesn’t have that option. Brainstorm is the working session that comes before the creative brief. No commitments, no credit spend on generation, no cluttered canvas. Just you and the agent, shaping the idea until it’s ready to execute.

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When to use it

  • The idea is still fuzzy. You have a vibe but not a brief. Let the agent help you name it.
  • Before a big campaign. Work out audience, tone, platform strategy, visual direction — then flip to Create and the agent already knows what it’s building.
  • Exploring a brand’s voice with a new product. Discuss positioning, visual anchors, and creative direction without producing anything.
  • You want the agent to research first. Brainstorm keeps the conversation in concept-mode while still letting the agent search your inspirations and brand assets.
If you already know what you want to make, skip Brainstorm and go straight to Create. Brainstorm is for moments where the thinking is the work.

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How to switch modes

The mode toggle lives in the Studio chat composer, next to the model selector. Two choices:
  • Create (default) — the agent can generate images and videos, present briefs, run skills, and do anything else in Studio
  • Brainstorm — the agent can’t generate. Everything else still works: searching brand assets, searching inspirations, asking you clarifying questions, exploring ideas
You can flip between them at any point in the same conversation. The agent carries context forward — anything you brainstormed shows up when you switch to Create.

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What the agent does in Brainstorm

  • Asks you questions — presented as clickable option cards rather than text lists, so you step through choices fast. Four at most: after that it proposes a direction instead of asking again
  • Searches your library — if you’re brainstorming a campaign, it can surface relevant inspirations and brand assets from what you’ve already saved
  • Discusses creative direction — tone, mood, audience, platform strategy, visual anchors
  • Helps you draft a brief verbally — working toward what you’ll confirm once you switch to Create
What it won’t do:
  • Generate images or videos — the generate_image and generate_video tools aren’t available in Brainstorm
  • Present a creative brief card — briefs are a Create-mode artifact. Brainstorm keeps it conversational

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Switching to Create with context

When you approve a direction, or tell the agent to go ahead, it stops asking, sums the direction up in a few lines and offers Switch to Create under its reply. One click flips the mode and asks for the brief of that direction. Nothing is generated by that click: the brief comes first, and you check it before anything runs. When the brief appears, press Generate on it or reply “yes” in the chat to run it. You can also flip the toggle to Create yourself and say which direction you chose. The agent reads back through your brainstorming conversation and skips questions that were already answered. If you discussed aspect ratio, audience, and visual direction in Brainstorm, it won’t re-ask those things. After a brainstorm the agent always presents a brief first, even for a single image, so you can check the model, the format and the prompt before any credits are spent. Open the brief, adjust what you want, then generate from it. Say “skip the brief” if you really want it to go straight to generating. This is the payoff: all that thinking you did in Brainstorm becomes the agent’s starting context in Create. If you brainstorm again later in the same conversation and ask for a different format, the agent revises the brief’s format for every affected scene rather than reusing the earlier settings.

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Cost

Brainstorm still uses the agent (so each turn consumes a small amount of credits for the chat itself), but you’re not generating images or videos — the expensive operations are disabled. It’s dramatically cheaper than a Create-mode session.

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Tips

  • Start broad, narrow fast. Use the first few turns to stake out the problem space, then let the agent’s questions focus you.
  • Name your constraints. “We can’t use stock photography” or “the product can’t be the hero in every shot” — tell the agent early and the brainstorming converges faster.
  • Switch to Create when you can describe the outcome in a sentence. If you can’t, you’re not done brainstorming.
  • Brainstorm works inside a project. The context stays with that Studio project’s chat history, so you can come back to it later.