plan-mode-mastery

Plan Mode Mastery

Why This is Copilot-Exclusive

Copilot CLI has a dedicated Plan Mode activated by Shift+Tab that fundamentally changes how you interact with the agent. Instead of executing immediately, Copilot creates a structured plan with SQL-backed todo tracking, presents it in the terminal for review, and lets you choose between interactive execution, autopilot, or fleet mode. Claude Code has no dedicated planning mode — it either executes immediately or you manually structure your requests.

When to Use

• Complex multi-step tasks that benefit from upfront planning
• Tasks where you want to review the approach before execution begins
• Work that should be tracked with status updates (pending → in_progress → done)
• When you need to choose between interactive, autopilot, or fleet execution
• Team-visible task breakdowns for collaborative work

Workflow

1. Enter Plan Mode

Press Shift+Tab to toggle Plan Mode on. The mode indicator appears in your prompt.

2. Describe Your Task

You: "Refactor the authentication system to use JWT tokens instead of sessions"

3. Copilot Creates a Structured Plan

Copilot analyzes the codebase, creates SQL todos, and presents a plan: Built-in workspace-mutating tool calls are hard-blocked in Plan Mode. Planning artifacts may still be written inside the session folder, so this is a workspace mutation boundary rather than a claim that Plan Mode cannot write anything anywhere.

INSERT INTO todos (id, title, description, status) VALUES
  ('jwt-lib', 'Add JWT library', 'Install jsonwebtoken, add to package.json', 'pending'),
  ('token-service', 'Create token service', 'Build JWT sign/verify in src/auth/tokens.ts', 'pending'),
  ('auth-middleware', 'Update middleware', 'Replace session checks with JWT validation', 'pending'),
  ('login-endpoint', 'Update login', 'Return JWT instead of setting session cookie', 'pending'),
  ('logout-endpoint', 'Update logout', 'Implement token blacklist for logout', 'pending'),
  ('update-tests', 'Update tests', 'Fix all auth tests for JWT flow', 'pending');

INSERT INTO todo_deps (todo_id, depends_on) VALUES
  ('token-service', 'jwt-lib'),
  ('auth-middleware', 'token-service'),
  ('login-endpoint', 'token-service'),
  ('logout-endpoint', 'token-service'),
  ('update-tests', 'auth-middleware');