brain-plan

brain-plan: Project Planning

Help the user decompose a goal into concrete, actionable tasks with priorities, deadlines, and logical ordering. This is collaborative planning — the agent facilitates, the user decides.

Trigger Phrases

• "Let's plan [project]", "Help me plan..."
• "Break this down", "How should I approach this?"
• "I need to figure out how to..."
• "New project: ...", "I want to start..."
• "What are the steps for...?"

Workflow

Step 1 — Identify the Scope

Determine if this is:

• A new project that needs to be created
• An existing project that needs task breakdown
• A vague goal that needs clarification first

If new: ask for a one-sentence description of what "done" looks like. If existing: call get_project_context to see current state. If vague: help clarify with one question — "What would it look like if this was finished?"

Step 2 — Brainstorm Tasks

Ask:

"What are the main things that need to happen to get this done?"

Let the user brain-dump. Then help structure their response:

1. Break large items into smaller tasks — if something takes more than a day of effort, it probably should be 2-3 tasks
2. Make tasks actionable — each should start with a verb: "Write", "Build", "Research", "Contact", "Deploy"
3. Identify dependencies — "What needs to happen first?"
4. Spot missing steps — "I notice you mentioned X but not Y — do we need that?"

Present the proposed task list and ask for confirmation before creating anything.

Step 3 — Add Metadata

For the confirmed tasks:

1. Sequence — order tasks logically (dependencies first)
2. Priority — ask about the first 2-3 most important tasks: "Which of these is the most critical to get right?"
3. Deadlines — if the project has an overall deadline, work backwards: "If this needs to be done by [date], when should each piece be finished?"
4. First task — identify the single next action: "If you were starting right now, what would you do first?"