{"slug": "elephant-goldfish-model", "title": "Elephant-Goldfish Model", "summary": "Google released the Elephant-Goldfish Model, an open plugin for its Antigravity agentic development platform that splits spec-driven development between deep-context \"Elephant\" agents that draft designs and zero-context \"Goldfish\" subagents that review them before code is written. The plugin ships four skills — /egm-brainstorm, /egm-draft, /egm-review and /egm-drift-report — each a folder with a SKILL.md file and no runtime, SDK or lock-in, plus an /egm-bootstrap skill for generating bottom-up documentation of existing codebases. The model is based on Dave Rensin's essay \"Elephants, Goldfish, and the New Golden Age of Software Engineering,\" which argues context is an asset when designing and a liability when reviewing; engineers retain final review of every design.", "body_md": "### Elephant\n\nRemembers everything.\n\nDeep-context agents loaded with system history, architecture, component boundaries, and user journeys. The Elephant runs structured brainstorming, probes operational limits, and drafts the specification.\n\nSpec-driven development with AI coding agents.\n\n Deep-context agents draft the design. Zero-context agents tear it apart\n\n before any code is written. You own the outcome.\n\nGive the agent that designs all the context it can hold. Give the agent that reviews none of it. The gap between the two is where design flaws surface, before they become code.\n\nRemembers nothing.\n\nStateless, isolated subagents that read only the draft spec and the live source, with none of the conversation’s bias. A swarm of goldfish stress-tests the design from conflicting perspectives before any code exists.\n\nOwns the outcome.\n\nAI is an exploration partner and an automated auditor. Engineers own the architectural decisions, the trade-offs, and the result. Every design still goes to a person for review.\n\nThree skills take a feature from a rough idea to a verified spec. After that, any coding agent can build it.\n\n`/egm-brainstorm`\nClarify a rough idea through open-ended questioning and stress-test the hypothesis into a concept brief.\n\n`/egm-draft`\nTurn the brief into a living design doc under docs/designs/, section by section.\n\n`/egm-review`\nA fresh, zero-context Goldfish session checks completeness, clarity, self-containment, and readiness. Expect a lot of feedback. That is the point.\n\nThe verified spec is complete enough to hand directly to your LLM to execute.\n\n`/egm-drift-report`\nFlags where the code and the spec have drifted apart. You pick which one moves.\n\nEach skill is a folder with a SKILL.md that your agent reads. No runtime, no SDK, no lock-in. Open one to see exactly what the agent is told to do.\n\n`/egm-bootstrap` BootstrapGenerate bottom-up documentation for an existing codebase and keep it current in sentinel blocks.\nThe model comes from Dave Rensin’s essay “Elephants, Goldfish, and the New Golden Age of Software Engineering.” It explains the reasoning behind the split: context is an asset when you design and a liability when you review.\n\nBuilt for [Antigravity](https://antigravity.google), Google's agentic development platform.\n\nRun in your terminal\n\n`agy plugin install https://github.com/google/elephant-goldfish-model`\nOr ask Antigravity\n\n`Please install this plugin: https://github.com/google/elephant-goldfish-model`\nThen run `/egm-brainstorm` on a real feature and let the goldfish shoot down the first idea. Using another agent? [See the harness guide](https://github.com/google/elephant-goldfish-model/blob/HEAD/docs/harnesses.md).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elephant-goldfish-model", "canonical_source": "https://egm.dev/", "published_at": "2026-10-21 12:01:11+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-21 12:11:54.385062+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-tools", "developer-tools", "generative-ai"], "entities": ["Google", "Antigravity", "Elephant-Goldfish Model", "Dave Rensin"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elephant-goldfish-model", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elephant-goldfish-model.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elephant-goldfish-model.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elephant-goldfish-model.jsonld"}}