n8n-builder-planning-gate

name	n8n-builder-planning-gate
description	Standardizes how `n8n-builder` performs planning triage, specialist consultation, and produces plan v0 plus post–v0 edit round; mandatory `cro-loop` runs at execution intent before Stage C. Use when n8n-builder is in Stage A (planning).
version	1

n8n-builder Planning Gate

This skill defines the planning contract that n8n-builder follows in Stage A. It produces plan v0 on disk (feeds the CRO loop runbook when the user signals implementation) and the structure the execution-gate skill relies on at dispatch time.

When to use

• The user has invoked n8n-builder (explicit entrypoint).
• The task carries an n8n signal (workflow, node, MCP, n8n-as-code).
• No plan v0 exists yet for the current task_id.

If a plan v0 already exists for the episode, do not re-run this skill — either revise v0 in-place per user feedback (post–v0 edit round) or, when the user signals implementation, proceed to the CRO loop.

Required plan structure

The plan file lives at <project>/.cursor/docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-n8n-<slug>.md and MUST contain the following sections in this order:

1. Context — one paragraph: what is changing in n8n and why.
2. Problem Framing — bulleted list of the constraints, conflicts, and unknowns that motivate the design.
3. Scope — bulleted list of files, workflow ids, environments, and node families in scope.
4. Out of Scope — bulleted list of explicit non-goals.
5. Assumptions — bulleted list. Each assumption is a falsifiable statement. Mark each as verified or pending.
6. Mode and Environment — declared mode (as-code / mcp-live / hybrid), env (dev / staging / prod), and the justification per n8n-builder-mode-policy.yml selection rules.
7. Risks & Mitigations — table: | Risk | Impact | Mitigation | Owner |
8. Phase Dependency Graph — table with columns: | Group | Phase ID | Depends on | Parallel siblings | Touches (disjoint across siblings) | Mode |
9. Implementation Phases — for each phase:
   • Metadata block (required):
     • id: short stable id (e.g. P2a)
     • depends_on: list of phase ids that must complete before
     • parallelizable_with: list of sibling phase ids
     • touches: bounded list of file globs and/or workflow ids
     • rollback_scope: files / artifacts reverted on rollback (subset of touches)
     • mode: one of as-code, mcp-live, hybrid
     • env: one of dev, staging, prod
     • worker_cap: integer ≤ mode cap (≤ 4 for mcp-live, ≤ 8 for as-code)
     • destructive: boolean; if true, list affected workflow ids
     • requires_review: boolean (true for as-code by default)
     • requires_qa: boolean (true for as-code by default)
   • Goal (1 sentence)
   • Steps (numbered, with what / why / files / acceptance)
   • Verification (specific commands or checks)
   • Rollback (specific reversal steps using rollback_scope)
10. Verification Strategy (Cross-Phase) — bulleted list.
11. Rollback Strategy (Cross-Phase) — bulleted list.
12. Open Questions — explicit user-facing questions that block planning.
13. Open Risks (auto-populated by CRO bookkeeping; may be empty at v0).
14. Execution Gate (Post-Plan) — declare the two-choice gate (phase-by-phase vs all-phases-approved) the user will choose after the CRO loop completes (CRO runs when user signals implementation, not immediately after v0).

Specialist consultation triggers

Invoke specialists in parallel via Task. Pass minimal briefs only; never the entire plan dump. Use the subagent-response-protocol envelope.

Trigger condition	Specialist
Workflow boundary, sub-workflow design, retry/idempotency at workflow level, integration contracts	vp-architecture
Credentials, webhook auth, allowlisted node review, untrusted input handling, secret references	ciso
Concurrency, queue depth, throughput, partial failure handling, per-node timeout strategy	vp-engineering
Logging, metrics, alerting, runbook integration, rollout / rollback strategy	sre-lead
As-code artifact maintainability, naming, sub-workflow abstraction, expression-node simplification	staff-engineer
Repeated patterns across workflows, template extraction, generators, reusable sub-workflows	vp-platform
n8n version specifics, node API specifics, vendor docs, MCP capability lookups	vp-research (always — only broker for external docs)
Existing Jira / Confluence / Bitbucket context referenced in the plan	atlassian-pm (read-only)

Skip a specialist if its domain does not apply. Never invoke "for show". Never lateral-call. Specialists may not call each other; they return findings to n8n-builder.

Output contract for plan v0

The plan artifact (input to cro-loop when the user signals implementation) is preferably the markdown file under <project>/.cursor/docs/plans/; prompt-only full plan text is valid when disk is unavailable — pass stable body + hash to cro. Additionally, n8n-builder must return a structured handoff envelope (used internally by the CRO loop runbook) containing:

plan_handoff:
  plan_path: "<project>/.cursor/docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-n8n-<slug>.md"
  plan_hash: "<sha256 of plan markdown>"
  task_id: "<episode task id>"
  mode: as-code | mcp-live | hybrid
  env: dev | staging | prod
  affected_workflow_ids: [ ... ]
  node_family_set: [ ... ]
  credential_aliases: [ ... ]   # alias names only, never values
  specialist_bundle_refs:
    - agent: vp-architecture
      ref: "<ref id or path>"
    # ... etc
  open_questions: [ ... ]
  status: ready_for_post_v0_edit_round

The handoff is structured data, not a free-form chat blob. Secret values are forbidden; aliases only.

Self-check (before persisting v0)

Validate before writing:

• Every phase has the full metadata block.
• touches sets are pairwise disjoint across parallelizable_with siblings.
• DAG is acyclic.
• Each phase declares mode and env.
• No phase mixes envs or modes; cross-env / cross-mode edits are split into separate phases.
• Destructive phases have destructive: true and list affected workflow ids.
• Reviewer + QA flags are true for every as-code phase.
• Worker caps respect the mode cap (≤ 4 mcp-live, ≤ 8 as-code).
• Plan path uses the correct date and naming convention.
• No secret values anywhere in the plan; references only.
• Plan ends with the two-choice execution gate stub (resolved after CRO).

Post–v0 edit round (planning)

After v0 is settled (file or prompt-only), ask once whether the user wants to add, remove, or change anything; revise v0 until satisfied. Do not ask for approve v0 for CRO.

When the user signals implement / execute / proceed with implementation, start the cro-loop immediately as the next step (before Stage C) — see n8n-builder agent Stage B.

Cross-references

• n8n-builder agent
• CRO runbook
• Mode policy
• Worker contract
• Governance rule
• Org-tier cro-loop skill
• Org-tier subagent-response-protocol