| name | delivery-high-level-plan |
| description | Transform validated Stories into a clear, minimal, governed execution plan. Used by the Planning Sub-Agent as the first planning pass before prepare-execution-plan for Tier 2/3, or as the sole planning output for simple Stories. |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | Works with any filesystem-based AI coding agent |
| metadata | {"author":"gaai-framework","version":"1.0","category":"delivery","track":"delivery","id":"SKILL-DELIVERY-HIGH-LEVEL-PLAN-001","updated_at":"2026-03-02T00:00:00.000Z","owner":"Planning Sub-Agent","status":"stable"} |
| inputs | ["contexts/artefacts/stories/** (validated)","acceptance_criteria","contexts/rules/**","contexts/memory/** (selective)","technical_constraints (optional)"] |
| outputs | ["contexts/artefacts/plans/{id}.plan.md"] |
Delivery High-Level Execution Plan
Purpose / When to Activate
Owner: Planning Sub-Agent. Not invoked directly by the Delivery Orchestrator.
Used by the Planning Sub-Agent as:
- The sole planning output for Tier 1 (MicroDelivery) when a brief plan is sufficient
- The first planning pass before
prepare-execution-plan is invoked for Tier 2/3 Stories
Do NOT activate if Stories are unclear, acceptance criteria are missing, or product scope is still evolving.
Process
CRITICAL — Anti-Collision Guard (MUST execute before writing any output file):
Before writing contexts/artefacts/plans/{id}.plan.md, check if the target file already exists on disk:
- If it does NOT exist → proceed normally.
- If it DOES exist → read the existing file first. Then decide:
- If the existing content is from a different entity (different story ID, different epic) → STOP immediately, surface the ID collision to the human, do not proceed.
- If the existing content is from the same entity and an update is warranted → proceed, but preserve any human edits or prior findings that remain relevant. Treat this as an update, not a replacement.
- If the existing content is identical or still valid → skip writing, report "no changes needed".
This guard prevents the silent data loss incident of 2026-03-17 where concurrent sessions overwrote story files.
- Load only relevant memory and rules
- Read each Story and acceptance criteria fully
- Identify required behavior and boundaries
- Break work into minimal execution steps
- Surface dependencies and risks
- Avoid premature optimization or over-engineering
- Produce a clean, high-signal plan
Outputs
Execution Plan — Story <ID>
Objective:
<what must be achieved exactly>
Steps:
1. <clear action> — purpose
2. <clear action> — purpose
3. <clear action> — purpose
Dependencies:
- <if any>
Risks / Constraints:
- <if any>
Validation Gates:
- acceptance criteria covered: yes | no
- rules compliant: yes | no
Saves to contexts/artefacts/plans/{id}.plan.md.
For Tier 2/3: this output feeds directly into prepare-execution-plan for file-level decomposition.
Mandatory Delivery Sequence (Non-Negotiable)
Every plan produced by this skill MUST include the following steps in this order as the final phase of any delivery:
... → create-pr → ci-watch-and-fix → [if CI PASS] → mark done
→ [if CI FAIL after retries] → mark failed
ci-watch-and-fix is always mandatory — it is never optional.
- The plan must never include a "mark done" step without
ci-watch-and-fix preceding it.
- If CI FAIL is returned by
ci-watch-and-fix, the story is marked failed — not done.
Turn budget note: A 3-cycle CI remediation loop can consume ~60–90 tool turns. Plans for complex stories should reserve turn budget for CI remediation. Combined implementation + CI remediation should target under 150 turns out of the daemon's 200-turn budget.
Quality Checks
- Every acceptance criterion maps to at least one step
- No rule is violated
- Scope is unchanged from the Story
- Dependencies are explicit
- Nothing ambiguous remains
- Mandatory delivery sequence (create-pr → ci-watch-and-fix → mark done/failed) is present in every plan
Non-Goals
This skill must NOT:
- Redefine product scope
- Add new features
- Make architectural decisions beyond stated constraints
- Start coding
- Bypass rules
A good execution plan makes coding boring. Boring is reliable. Reliable scales.