dogma: Skill for Claude Code

Workplan Scaffold

This skill enacts the Algorithms Before Tokens axiom from MANIFESTO.md: the plan is encoded once as a committed document and referenced by every subsequent delegation — never re-derived from scratch mid-session. Workplan discipline is governed by AGENTS.md § Agent Communication → docs/plans/. When this skill and those documents conflict, the primary documents take precedence.

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1. When to Create a Workplan

Create a workplan before executing any phase when the session meets one or more of these criteria:

Criterion	Threshold
Number of phases	≥ 3
Number of agent delegations	≥ 2
Session spans multiple calendar days	Yes
Any change that renames or restructures committed files	Yes

For single-phase, single-agent tasks with low risk, the scratchpad ## Session Start section is sufficient. The workplan is the plan of record; the scratchpad is live inter-agent memory.

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2. Scaffold the Workplan

Use the scaffold script to create a correctly named, pre-filled workplan:

uv run python scripts/scaffold_workplan.py <brief-slug>
# Example:
uv run python scripts/scaffold_workplan.py add-research-skill
# Creates: docs/plans/2026-03-07-add-research-skill.md

Naming convention: docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<brief-slug>.md — date-first for chronological sorting.

If the file already exists, the script exits with an error rather than overwriting. Use the existing file.

The canonical template is docs/plans/2026-03-06-formalize-workflows.md.

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3. Required Workplan Structure

Every committed workplan must include the following sections:

# Workplan: <Title>

**Branch**: `<branch>`
**Date**: YYYY-MM-DD
**Orchestrator**: <Agent Name>

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## Objective

<!-- One paragraph: what this session accomplishes and why -->

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## Phase Plan

### Phase 1 — <Name> ⬜
**Agent**: <Agent Name>
**Deliverables**: <list>
**Depends on**: —
**Gate**: <acceptance test for this phase>
**Status**: ⬜ pending

### Phase 2 — <Name> ⬜
...

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