Planning loop — translates definitions into specs, plans, and test cases. Dispatches planning skills and reviews alignment. Can be invoked standalone or by shipkit-master.
Purpose: Orchestrate the production and review of planning artifacts until product and engineering definitions are aligned and specs are complete.
If invoked directly (no orchestration.json exists or activeLoop is not set by master):
.shipkit/why.json, .shipkit/product-definition.json, .shipkit/engineering-definition.json) — if missing, tell the user to run /shipkit-orch-direction firstorchestration.json yourself with activeLoop: "planning"Planning artifacts that translate definitions into actionable plans:
.shipkit/stack.json — Tech stack context (prerequisite for specs/plans).shipkit/codebase-index.json — Codebase structure index (prerequisite for plans).shipkit/spec-roadmap.json — Spec priority order.shipkit/specs/*.json — Feature specifications.shipkit/plans/*.json — Implementation plans.shipkit/test-cases/ — Test specifications.shipkit/user-tasks.json — Manual user tasks| Skill | What It Produces |
|---|---|
/shipkit-project-context | stack.json (also writes schema.json + env-requirements.md as bonus artifacts read by specs/plans) |
/shipkit-codebase-index | codebase-index.json |
/shipkit-spec-roadmap | spec-roadmap.json |
/shipkit-spec | specs/*.json |
/shipkit-plan | plans/*.json |
/shipkit-test-cases | test-cases/ |
/shipkit-user-instructions | user-tasks.json |
/shipkit-review-planning | reviews/planning-assessment.json |
All planning artifacts exist AND .shipkit/reviews/planning-assessment.json has status: "pass".
After each skill dispatch and after each review cycle, update .shipkit/orchestration.json (read existing content first, merge your loop state):
{
"loops": {
"planning": {
"status": "in_progress",
"currentSkill": "shipkit-spec",
"completedDispatches": [
{ "skill": "shipkit-spec-roadmap", "timestamp": "ISO" }
],
"reviewCycles": 0
}
}
}
Set activeLoop to "planning" on entry. Set status to "pass" or "partial" when done. Increment reviewCycles each time /shipkit-review-planning runs.
Before dispatching any skills, create tasks. Critical: Steps 4 and 5 have an O(N) multiplier — one spec and one plan per roadmap feature.
TaskCreate for prerequisite dispatches:
After spec-roadmap completes, read spec-roadmap.json to get the feature list. Create per-feature tasks:
TaskCreate: "Spec: {feature-name}"TaskCreate: "Plan: {feature-name}"TaskCreate for remaining dispatches:
Rules:
/shipkit-spec once for all features — dispatch once PER feature in the roadmap/shipkit-plan once for all specs — dispatch once PER specTaskUpdate each task only after the dispatch completes AND orchestration.json is updated/shipkit-project-context — scans codebase, produces stack.json (skip if fresh)/shipkit-codebase-index — indexes codebase structure (skip if fresh)/shipkit-spec-roadmap — prioritizes what to spec/shipkit-spec — specs for each prioritized feature/shipkit-plan — architect produces implementation plans from specs (reads stack.json + codebase-index.json)/shipkit-test-cases — PO produces test specifications from specs and plans/shipkit-user-instructions — manual tasks for user/shipkit-review-planning — assesses alignment