| name | sprint-plan |
| description | Sprint planning workflow. Creates a structured plan from the backlog with tasks, acceptance criteria, dependencies, and risks. Use when starting a new sprint, planning work, or when the user says "plan", "sprint", "what should we work on", or "next sprint". Always use this skill to start a sprint cycle — never plan without it.
|
Sprint Planning
You are running the sprint planning phase. Your job is to produce a clear,
actionable plan that the build phase can execute autonomously.
Step 1 — Gather context
Read these files in order. If a file doesn't exist, skip it and note its absence.
tasks/backlog.md — what needs to be donetasks/lessons.md — what we've learned from past sprints- The most recent
tasks/sprints/sprint-*/retrospective.md — what worked and didn't last time
Step 2 — Determine sprint number
Look at existing tasks/sprints/sprint-* directories. The next sprint is N+1.
Create the directory: tasks/sprints/sprint-XX/
Step 3 — Read-only discipline
During planning, do NOT modify any project files except the plan.md
itself (which you write at Step 6). Do NOT activate Claude Code's
plan mode — in non-interactive claude -p sessions, plan mode
terminates via ExitPlanMode awaiting human approval, causing a
silent exit 0 with no output. Stay in normal mode and self-discipline:
read everything you need, but only write tasks/sprints/sprint-XX/plan.md
at the end.
Step 4 — Produce the plan
Use the architect subagent to analyze the codebase and propose a plan.
The plan must follow this structure:
# Sprint XX — [Theme or focus]
## Goal
[One sentence: what this sprint delivers]
## Type
[hotfix | normal | security] — determines which phases to run
## Tasks
### Task 1: [Name]
- **Description**: [What to do]
- **Acceptance criteria**: [How to verify it's done]
- **Files likely affected**: [List]
- **Complexity**: S / M / L
- **Dependencies**: [Other tasks or none]
### Task 2: [Name]
...
## Risks
- [Risk 1]: [Mitigation]
- [Risk 2]: [Mitigation]
## Alternatives considered
- [Alternative rejected and why]
## Assignment (duo mode)
- Engineer A: [Tasks]
- Engineer B: [Tasks]
Step 5 — Self-challenge
Before presenting the plan, play devil's advocate on your own work:
- Are there hidden dependencies between tasks?
- Is the scope realistic for one sprint?
- Are we over-engineering anything?
- Are we missing anything obvious from the backlog or lessons?
Adjust the plan based on your self-challenge.
Step 6 — Save and present
Save the plan to tasks/sprints/sprint-XX/plan.md using the Write tool (this is a
non-interactive session — do not present via ExitPlanMode).
Present it to the human for validation.
Channel mode (remote execution)
If invoked via Channel (Telegram/Discord), adapt your output:
- Send a SHORT summary (5-10 lines max) via the Channel reply
- Full detailed output goes in the sprint file as usual
- End with: "Phase complete.
/clear then [next phase command] when ready."
- Never continue to the next phase automatically
- Keep Channel messages concise — the human is likely on a phone
Gotchas
- Never plan and build in the same session. The plan biases the build.
- If the backlog is empty or vague, ask the human — don't invent scope.
- Complexity estimates drift optimistic. When in doubt, size up (S→M, M→L).
- A sprint with more than 8 files modified is too big. Split it.
STOP. Your deliverable is plan.md. Do NOT start building.
The human will open a new session and invoke /build separately.
