planning

Planning

Distill plans into durable, buildable artifacts. A plan is a contract, not a brainstorm.

Reference Files

• references/live-verification-strategy.md — when and how to plan live/production verification; load when the request calls for production-like confidence (real integrations, deployment, live data) or any task's validation level is Live

Bite-Sized Task Granularity

Each task must fit a single fresh context window: one builder can read the referenced files, implement, and test it without compaction. A task that outlives its window gets finished by a degraded agent — split it. Signs a task is too big: "and then...", multiple unrelated files, multiple test scenarios, more than 3 sub-steps.

Test per task: Every task must have at least one test that verifies its completion. If you can't name the test, the task isn't specific enough.

Plan Document Header

# [Feature Name] Plan

## Metadata
- Created: [date]
- Status: [draft|approved|in-progress|complete]
- Verification Rigor: [standard|critical_path]
- Plan Mode: [direct|execution_plan|decision_rfc]

## Agreement Snapshot
- **Goal:** [one sentence]
- **Constraints:** [list]
- **In Scope:** [list]
- **Out of Scope:** [list]
- **Open Decisions:** [list or "none"]

Task Structure

Each task in the plan:

### Task N: [Component Name]
**Objective:** [what this task achieves]
**Files/Surfaces:** [exact files to create/modify]
**Dependencies:** [previous task IDs or "none"]
**Allowed Scope:** [what's in bounds]
**Out-of-Scope Drift:** [what would be scope creep]
**Expected Artifacts:** [what this produces]
**Required Checks:** [tests/verification needed]
**Checkpoint Type:** [none|human_verify|decision|human_action]
**Exit Criteria:** [how to know this task is done]

**Consumes:** [exact signatures used from earlier phases — verbatim]
**Produces:** [exact names later phases rely on — verbatim]

If no Consumes/Produces: write Consumes: none / Produces: none explicitly.