Plan

Purpose

Implementation planning skill. Takes an approved spec (from /ai-brainstorm or manual creation) and produces a phased execution plan with bite-sized tasks, agent assignments, and gate criteria. The plan is the contract that /ai-dispatch executes.

HARD GATE: user must approve the plan before /ai-dispatch can run.

When to Use

• After /ai-brainstorm produces an approved spec
• When a spec exists but plan.md has placeholder content
• When re-planning is needed (plan failed, scope changed)

Process

1. Read spec -- load specs/spec.md
2. Read context -- docs/solution-intent.md section 7 (roadmap), decision-store.json (constraints)
3. Explore codebase -- understand current architecture, patterns, and affected files
4. Classify pipeline -- select full/standard/hotfix/trivial based on change scope
5. Decompose into tasks -- bite-sized (2-5 min each), single-agent, single-concern
6. Assign agents -- capability-match each task to the right agent
7. Order phases -- define phase boundaries and gate criteria
8. Review plan -- self-review with spec-reviewer pattern (max 2 iterations)
9. Write artifacts -- persist plan.md via Write tool to specs/plan.md
10. STOP -- present plan. User runs /ai-dispatch to execute.

Pipeline Classification

Override: /ai-plan --pipeline=hotfix.

Task Decomposition Rules

Each task MUST be:

• Bite-sized: completable in 2-5 minutes by an agent
• Single-agent: assigned to exactly one agent (build, verify, guard)
• Single-concern: does one thing (not "implement feature AND write tests")
• Verifiable: has a clear done condition (test passes, lint clean, file exists)
• Ordered: dependencies are explicit (T-3 blocked by T-2)

TDD enforcement: for features needing tests, always produce paired tasks:

• T-N: Write failing tests for [feature] (RED) -- assigned to build/test mode
• T-N+1: Implement [feature] to pass tests (GREEN, blocked by T-N) -- assigned to build/code mode, constraint: "DO NOT modify test files from T-N"

Agent Assignment

Plan Artifacts

plan.md

# Plan: spec-NNN [title]

## Pipeline: [full|standard|hotfix|trivial]
## Phases: N
## Tasks: N (build: N, verify: N, guard: N)

### Phase 1: [name]
**Gate**: [what must be true before Phase 2 starts]
- T-1.1: [task description] (agent: build)
- T-1.2: [task description] (agent: build)

### Phase 2: [name]
**Gate**: [what must be true before Phase 3 starts]
...

Common Mistakes

• Tasks too large (> 5 min). Split them.
• Missing dependencies between tasks.
• Assigning code-write tasks to verify (verify is read-only).
• Not pairing RED/GREEN tasks for TDD.
• Planning implementation details (plan says WHAT, code says HOW).
• Skipping the review step.

No-Execution Protocol

/ai-plan is planning-only. It MUST NOT:

• Invoke ai-build agent or /ai-dispatch for task execution
• Modify source code
• Check off implementation tasks as completed

It MAY:

• Write plan.md via Write tool to specs/plan.md
• Run codebase exploration (read-only)

Integration

• Called by: user directly, or after /ai-brainstorm approval
• Calls: /ai-explore (codebase context), Write tool (artifact creation)
• Transitions to: /ai-dispatch (ONLY -- user must invoke explicitly)

$ARGUMENTS