plan

Use planning only when it actually reduces risk.

Steps

1. Read local guidance and active handoff.
2. Pull only the context needed for the task.
3. State goal, in-scope, and out-of-scope.
4. Break work into short phases.
5. Give each phase a validation step.
6. Write the plan to .claude/plans/ or .agents/plans/.

Rules

• Keep phases small enough to finish without drifting.
• Note what would cause replanning.
• If work is already partly done, document the current state before planning the rest.
• Prefer the provided plan template.

Extend vs new plan

Before writing, scan .claude/plans/ and .agents/plans/:

• Existing plan covers same scope AND ≤30 days old → extend (append phases, edit status header, keep history).
• Same scope but >30 days old → new plan; mark old as superseded.
• Different scope → new plan.

When extending, update the status header to reflect partial completion (e.g. "Phases 1-5 done; Phases 6-8 added 2026-05-14").

Skip plan if

• ≤2 files touched AND edit is obvious from the request → just do it, no plan
• Pure investigation / "where is X" → use explore
• Bug root-cause hunt → use tracer
• Open-ended ideation → use brainstorming

Worked example — extend

User: "add WoL panel + tabs to dashboard." Existing: homepage-customization-2026-05-13.md (5 phases, 1 day old). Action: append Phase 6-8 to that file; do NOT create a second plan. Update header to note the extension date.