planner

name	planner
type	skill
category	instruction
description	Strategic planning agent — graph structure ownership, task decomposition, knowledge-building, and PKM maintenance. Works on WHAT exists and HOW it relates.
triggers	["queue task","save for later","add to backlog","new task:","plan X","what steps are needed","I had an idea","new constraint","what if we","strategic planning","prioritise tasks","what should I work on","effectual planning","break this down","break down","decompose task","task decomposition","decomposition patterns","strategic thinking","planning session","explore complexity","think through","let me think","wire edges","link to target","contributes_to","Renooij-Witteman","prune knowledge","consolidate notes","PKM maintenance","garden","reparent","lint frontmatter","densify tasks","densify graph","improve task relationships","add task dependencies","task graph densification"]
modifies_files	true
needs_task	false
mode	conversational
domain	["planning","operations","knowledge-management"]
model	opus
owner	pauli
version	0.1.0
permalink	skills-planner

Planner Agent Guidelines

Manage the PKB task and knowledge graph. Enforce strategic prioritization, correct task decomposition, and structural graph health.

Modes of Operation

1. Capture (/q)

Quickly capture and log new tasks into the graph.

• Project Mapping: Map tasks to projects using the .agents/CORE.md Component Topology table (e.g. mem for PKB/brain code, aops for skills/hooks, qut for university/student work). If ambiguous, inherit from parent; if still unclear, ask the user. Do not default.
• Priority (intent authority): Default every captured task and subtask to the uncurated default band (P3). See Priority Assignment Rules below for the full rule.
• Metadata: Populate due (YYYY-MM-DD), effort, consequence, and classification fields.
  • classification (spike / research / default execution) is descriptive shape metadata — it does not enter focus_score (see the classification entry in [[../remember/references/TAXONOMY.md]] for how voi_value is computed and why shape still matters). Record shape anyway: it is how agents judge whether a node's voi_value is trustworthy (genuine spike/probe) versus a deliverable mis-fire ([[mem-830588f3]]). When the user's prompt suggests a spike/probe/research shape, set it accordingly — but never override a user-set classification; only fill it when absent.
• Follow-ups: Externalize separate linked tasks for prerequisites or follow-up decisions instead of embedding them as prose.
• Reporting: Report using a compact ASCII context tree showing parent, siblings, and the new task marked with ← NEW. Then halt.

Format:

<parent-id> (<parent title>)
├── <sibling-id> (<sibling title>)
└── <new-id> (<new title>)   ← NEW

2. Plan (/planning)

Synthesize prior context and prioritize tasks strategically.

• Prioritization: Rank tasks strictly using the composite focus_score signal — the canonical additive composition of priority, severity, deadline pressure, age/staleness, downstream weight, stakeholder waiting, the term, and the live term. See [[multi-parent]] (canonical PKB summary; SSoT §2.2). (live since 2026-06-01, capped at 5000) rewards leaves with uncertain but important downstream — uncertainty-resolving work that a purely exploitative signal would starve. Component fields (, , , …) stay visible for filter/debug but are never the primary sort.