planning-with-files

planning-with-files is a skill for Claude Code from Taoidle/plan-cascade. It costs 62 tokens per session (2,643 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A file-based planning method for complex, multi-step work. It keeps plans, findings, and progress in Markdown files in the project.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it for research projects, tasks needing more than five tool calls, and work that benefits from optional Git worktrees.
Why use it?
It gives long tasks a persistent record that can be checked and recovered across sessions.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter. Also seen: names the TodoWrite tool.

Runs only inside its plugin — its command needs a path that Claude Code sets for a plugin’s own hooks and for nothing else. Install the plugin, not this.

Part of the plan-cascade plugin — 7 skills, 33 commands shipped together

Install

Getting it into your agent

This one installs as part of its plugin. Adding the marketplace and installing the plugin brings it with everything else the plugin ships.

Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add Taoidle/plan-cascade
Claude Code
/plugin install plan-cascade

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install plan-cascade, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 7 skills, 33 commands.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for planning-with-files

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/taoidle/plan-cascade/planning-with-files.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/taoidle/plan-cascade/planning-with-files)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/taoidle/plan-cascade/planning-with-files"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/taoidle/plan-cascade/planning-with-files.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 62 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,643 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00062 $0.02643
Opus 5 $0.00031 $0.01321
Sonnet 5 $0.00012 $0.00529
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00264

Measured 6d ago against content hash c94dd37c9971, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

planning-with-files scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 6d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 5 executable files (scripts/check-complete.ps1, scripts/check-complete.sh, scripts/init-session.ps1, …), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/planning-with-files/SKILL.md · 314 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 314 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Planning with Files

Work like Manus: Use persistent markdown files as your "working memory on disk."

FIRST: Check for Previous Session (v2.2.0)

Before starting work, check for unsynced context from a previous session:

# Linux/macOS
uv run python ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/session-catchup.py "$(pwd)"
# Windows PowerShell
& (Get-Command python -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).Source "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\skills\planning-with-files\scripts\session-catchup.py" (Get-Location)

If catchup report shows unsynced context:

  1. Run git diff --stat to see actual code changes
  2. Read current planning files
  3. Update planning files based on catchup + git diff
  4. Then proceed with task

Important: Where Files Go

  • Templates are in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/templates/
  • Your planning files go in your project directory
Location What Goes There
Skill directory (${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/) Templates, scripts, reference docs
Your project directory task_plan.md, findings.md, progress.md

Quick Start

Standard Mode

Before ANY complex task:

  1. Create task_plan.md — Use templates/task_plan.md as reference
  2. Create findings.md — Use templates/findings.md as reference
  3. Create progress.md — Use templates/progress.md as reference
  4. Re-read plan before decisions — Refreshes goals in attention window
  5. Update after each phase — Mark complete, log errors

Worktree Mode (Multi-Task Parallel Development)

For parallel multi-task development with isolated Git worktrees:

  1. Start worktree mode — Use /planning-with-files:worktree [task-name] [target-branch]
    • Example: /planning-with-files:worktree feature-auth main
    • Creates a new Git worktree directory (.worktree/feature-auth/)
    • Creates a task branch with planning files inside the worktree
    • Main directory stays on original branch (no switching!)
    • Multiple worktrees can exist simultaneously for parallel tasks

Read the full file on GitHub · 314 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 6d ago First seen · 314 lines · 62 tokens per session scan A c94dd37c9971

Subscribe to this mod's changes

planning-with-files is a skill published in the GitHub repository Taoidle/plan-cascade (140 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 62 tokens to every session and 2,643 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

coding-agents-farm

To orchestrate parallel coding-agent farms (Claude, Codex, Copilot, Gemini, etc.) on isolated git worktrees.

griddynamics/rosetta · 32 tokens

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Launch multiple goal-scoped workers in waves, each with a witness-gated stop condition and dos arbitrate file-tree safety. Use when an operator asks to run several independent goals in parallel and fold only verified ships.

anthony-chaudhary/dos-kernel · 51 tokens

dos-dispatch-loop

Run recurring dos-dispatch cycles, switching to dos-replan when the backlog drains and stopping on the kernel's loop verdict. Use for unattended dispatch->replan->dispatch work across disjoint lanes.

anthony-chaudhary/dos-kernel · 49 tokens

dos-goal-gate

Ground a keep-working goal in evidence the worker did not author by wiring dos hook stop to refuse false done claims. Use for one self-stopping agent or loop worker; use dos-witness-claim for fold barriers.

anthony-chaudhary/dos-kernel · 54 tokens

dos-witness-claim

Route subagent claims through independent read-back before another agent relies on them. Use at parallel, pipeline, or synthesis barriers where shipped phases, files, rows, messages, or other effects must be witnessed.

anthony-chaudhary/dos-kernel · 47 tokens

dos-dispatch

Plan and ship the next batch on one lane: run dos-next-up, acquire a lease with dos arbitrate, gate empty work, dispatch the packet, and archive the run. Use when a single lane should move end to end with collision safety.

anthony-chaudhary/dos-kernel · 56 tokens