Plan Work

• "Help decide what this feature should do."
• "Just fix this obvious bug."
• "The code is already changed. Verify whether it is complete."

If The Input Is A Poor Match

• Route to analyze-requirements when scope or acceptance criteria are still unsettled.
• Route to execute-work for small clear changes where inline planning is enough.
• Route to completion-gate or verify-outcomes when implementation already exists and the task is now assessment.
• Ask the user only if planning exposes a material product, rollout, or risk decision that cannot be settled from context.

Process

1. Read the relevant spec, requirements, and current code.
2. Define the file scope: create, modify, and test paths.
3. Break work into concrete steps with observable outcomes.
4. Include explicit verification commands or manual checks.
5. When the plan is likely to be followed by execute-plan or subagent-execution, make each step executable without hidden interpretation.
6. When behavior changes and automated tests are practical, shape steps so red-green-refactor can be applied inside execution.
7. Record notable risks, ownership, or dependencies when they affect execution.
8. If a durable plan already exists for the same topic and implementation cycle, update it instead of creating a parallel plan file.

Escalate To A Human When

• The plan depends on a product decision that has not been made.
• A migration, rollout, or compatibility strategy would be expensive to reverse.
• The plan exposes a larger scope mismatch than the original request suggested.

Hard Rules

• Do not create a plan without reading the code.
• Do not use a plan to invent new scope.
• Keep steps concrete enough that another agent could execute them without reinterpretation.
• If the plan will be delegated, make path ownership and verification explicit enough for bounded child-agent execution.
• Reuse the same <topic> slug as related artifacts when they exist.
• Verification is mandatory in every plan.
• Do not force a standalone plan document for low-risk work that can be tracked inline.
• Do not create multiple durable plan files for the same topic and implementation cycle.
• Do not turn an already clear trivial task into ceremony.
• Replace all template placeholders before considering a durable plan complete.