Renders planned changes — architecture and before/after comparisons, risk heat maps, execution order, dependency graphs, impact metrics — in your chosen output format (ASCII + emojis, an interactive HTML playground, or a NotebookLM infographic). Stores visualizations in memory for cross-session reference. Use when reviewing implementation plans, comparing approaches, assessing risk, or analyzing change propagation.
Renders planned changes — architecture and before/after comparisons, risk heat maps, execution order, dependency graphs, impact metrics — in your chosen output format (ASCII + emojis, an interactive HTML playground, or a NotebookLM infographic). Stores visualizations in memory for cross-session reference. Use when reviewing implementation plans, comparing approaches, assessing risk, or analyzing change propagation.
{"keywords":["visualize","visualize plan","visualize the plan","visualize the","show diagram","before and after","execution order","risk and impact","swimlane","what files will change"],"examples":["visualize the plan for the billing module redesign","show me a before and after diagram for this migration","whats the risk and impact of the changes"],"anti-triggers":["implement","brainstorm","explore","assess","fix"]}
Plan Visualization
Render planned changes as structured ASCII visualizations with risk analysis, execution order, and impact metrics. Every section answers a specific reviewer question.
Core principle: Encode judgment into visualization, not decoration.
/ork:visualize-plan # Auto-detect from current branch
/ork:visualize-plan billing module redesign # Describe the plan
/ork:visualize-plan #234 # Pull from GitHub issue
/ork:visualize-plan --quick # Header + changes + impact, zero questions
/ork:visualize-plan --playground # Skip straight to the HTML dashboard
/ork:visualize-plan --infographic # Skip straight to NotebookLM
Argument Resolution
PLAN_INPUT = "$ARGUMENTS"# Full argument string
PLAN_TOKEN = "$ARGUMENTS[0]"# First token — could be issue "#234" or plan description# If starts with "#", treat as GitHub issue number. Otherwise, plan description.# $ARGUMENTS (full string) for multi-word descriptions (CC 2.1.59 indexed access)# Flags are stripped from PLAN_INPUT before it is used as a description:# --quick → QUICK=true: tier-1 header + [1] Changes + [5] Impact, no Explore# agent, no questions at all, no memory write. The 15-second answer.# --playground → FORMATS=[ascii, playground] (no format question)# --infographic → FORMATS=[ascii, infographic] (no format question)# --all → FORMATS=[ascii, + everything the probe found]
Question budget: ZERO before the first render
This skill used to ask three blocking questions (source, then format, then sections)
before a single character rendered, plus a fourth after. That is why fast paths leaked to
glyph and to hand-written HTML.
The format answer is not needed to render ASCII — the ASCII floor rule renders it
first regardless of what the user picks. So asking up front buys nothing and costs a
round-trip. The rule now:
Decision
When
How
Source
before
Auto-detect. Ask only if detection is genuinely ambiguous (STEP 0).
Sections
never
Default to all. The tier-1 header is the progressive-disclosure layer.
Format
after ASCII
One post-render question (STEP 5), merged with drill-deeper.
--quick skips even that one.
CRITICAL: Task Tracking
--quick skips this whole block. A 15-second render does not need a dependency graph; the
task overhead would cost more than the work.
# 1. Create main task IMMEDIATELY
TaskCreate(subject="Visualize plan: {PLAN_INPUT}", description="Plan visualization with ASCII rendering", activeForm="Analyzing plan context")
# 2. Create subtasks for each phase
TaskCreate(subject="Detect or clarify plan context", activeForm="Detecting plan context") # id=2
TaskCreate(subject="Gather data and explore architecture", activeForm="Gathering plan data") # id=3
TaskCreate(subject="Render tier 1 header", activeForm="Rendering header") # id=4
TaskCreate(subject="Render sections + dispatch to chosen format(s)", activeForm="Rendering sections") # id=5
TaskCreate(subject="Offer actions and store in memory", activeForm="Finalizing visualization") # id=6# 3. Set dependencies for sequential phases
TaskUpdate(taskId="3", addBlockedBy=["2"]) # Data gathering needs context first
TaskUpdate(taskId="4", addBlockedBy=["3"]) # Header needs gathered data
TaskUpdate(taskId="5", addBlockedBy=["4"]) # Sections need header rendered
TaskUpdate(taskId="6", addBlockedBy=["5"]) # Actions need sections done# 4. Update status as you progress
TaskUpdate(taskId="2", status="in_progress") # When starting
TaskUpdate(taskId="2", status="completed") # When done — repeat for each subtask
STEP -1: Check Memory for Prior Plans
# Search for related prior visualizations
mcp__memory__search_nodes(query="plan visualization {PLAN_INPUT}")
# If found, offer to compare with previous plan
STEP 0: Detect or Clarify Plan Context
First, attempt auto-detection by running scripts/detect-plan-context.sh:
bash "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/detect-plan-context.sh"
This outputs branch name, issue number (if any), commit count, and file change summary.
If auto-detection finds a clear plan (branch with commits diverging from main, or issue number in args), proceed to Step 1.
If ambiguous, clarify with AskUserQuestion:
AskUserQuestion(
questions=[{
"question": "What should I visualize?",
"header": "Source",
"options": [
{"label": "Current branch changes (Recommended)", "description": "Auto-detect from git diff against main"},
{"label": "Describe the plan", "description": "I'll explain what I'm planning to change"},
{"label": "GitHub issue", "description": "Pull plan from a specific issue number"},
{"label": "Quick file diff only", "description": "Just show the change manifest, skip analysis"}
],
"multiSelect": false
}]
)
STEP 0.5: Probe Formats (silent — no question here)
Probe capabilities now so STEP 5 can offer only what will actually work. Do not ask
anything at this step. Full procedure: Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/visualize-plan/references/format-dispatch.md").
Use the established MCP-probe pattern — Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/chain-patterns/references/mcp-detection.md") — not ad-hoc checks:
# infographic is available IFF the notebooklm studio tool resolves:
ToolSearch(query="select:mcp__notebooklm-mcp__studio_create")
# chart-encoding is available IFF the bundled /dataviz skill resolves# (CC >= 2.1.198, disableBundledSkills off). It is a MARK-layer upgrade# applied WITHIN a format, not a 4th format — see chart-encoding-standard.md.
Record what is available as AVAILABLE: ascii always (the floor); playground if the
playground skill is installed (ships with ork); infographic if studio_create resolved above
(server reachable + nlm login done). Orthogonally, if the /dataviz skill resolved, upgrade
the chart marks in the non-ASCII formats via its form-heuristic + validated palette; if it did not
resolve, charts stay ASCII-card — dataviz is never required.
FORMATS is then set without asking:
if"--quick"in flags: FORMATS = ["ascii"] # and STEP 5 is skipped tooelif"--playground"in flags: FORMATS = ["ascii", "playground"]
elif"--infographic"in flags: FORMATS = ["ascii", "infographic"]
elif"--all"in flags: FORMATS = AVAILABLE
else: FORMATS = ["ascii"] # upgrade offered in STEP 5
ASCII floor rule: ASCII renders first/inline regardless — and because it never depends on the
format choice, the choice is deferred to STEP 5 where it costs nothing. Never await the async
NotebookLM job.
STEP 1: Gather Data
Run scripts/analyze-impact.sh for precise counts:
bash "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/analyze-impact.sh"
This produces: files by action (add/modify/delete), line counts, test files affected, and dependency changes.
--quick stops here — the impact script alone feeds the header, [1] Changes, and [5] Impact.
No Explore agent, no before/after map, no memory write.
For architecture-level understanding and the default before/after section [0], spawn an Explore agent that maps the component graph at BOTH the base and the head:
Agent(
subagent_type="Explore",
prompt="Map component architecture of {affected_directories} at TWO points: (a) base = each file as returned by `git show origin/main:<path>` (NOT the working tree — avoids conflating uncommitted edits), (b) head = current working tree. Return per point: components, dependencies, data flows; mark what is added [+], removed [-], or changed [~] between them. Use the glyph skill for diagrams.",
model="haiku"
)
If the diff touches frontend (*.tsx/*.css/route files), also run a design-context-extract pass so the design surface is part of before/after. Patterns: Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/visualize-plan/references/before-after-arch-patterns.md").
Build a compact plan brief (markdown) from this data — the single interchange every non-ASCII format consumes (see format-dispatch.md).
STEP 2: Render Tier 1 Header (Always)
Use assets/tier1-header.md template. Load Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/visualize-plan/references/visualization-tiers.md") for field computation (risk level, confidence, reversibility).
STEP 3: Select Sections (no question — default to all)
Render all six sections. They are the content; asking which ones to render is asking the
reviewer to choose before they have seen anything. The tier-1 header is already the
progressive-disclosure layer, and a section with nothing to say is skipped with a one-line reason
(not padded), so "all" never means "bloated".
Section [0] Before/After leads whenever the Explore map shows structural changes, and is
skipped with a one-line note otherwise. If the user asked for specific sections in their prompt
("just the risks"), honor that — but do not prompt for it.
STEP 4: Render Requested Sections
Render each requested section following ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/visualize-plan/rules/section-rendering.md conventions. Use the corresponding reference for ASCII patterns:
Render the selected sections into the FORMATS chosen in STEP 0.5. ASCII always renders first/inline — the other formats consume the same plan brief. Full table + delegation patterns: Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/visualize-plan/references/format-dispatch.md").
Format
Action
ASCII
Native render (above) — always, the floor
Playground
Classify the archetype (below), then hand the plan brief to the playground skill → write docs/<branch-dir>/plan-viz.html, link it
Infographic
Run the notebooklmstudio_create(artifact_type=infographic|slides) flow — fire-and-notify, poll studio_status, never await
All
ASCII inline now + the rest linked as they finish
Charts (marks within Playground / Infographic)
For sections with quantitative marks — [3] Risk, [5] Impact, [6] Blast Radius — pick the form via /dataviz (choosing-a-form) and the palette via its 6-check formula, then run validate_palette.js. On validator FAIL or/dataviz absent, fall back to the ASCII-card layout. Chrome stays ork tokens (§2 of playground-visual-standard.md); only the data marks come from the validated palette. See ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/shared/rules/chart-encoding-standard.md.
<branch-dir> = branch with / → -- (same path the PR Playground gate checks). The filename is
always plan-viz.html — not index.html, not a topic name. One name is what makes slug lookup
and the artifact gallery work at all.
Playground archetype: a plan visualization is usually a DASHBOARD — and as of 2026-08 that
is a first-class archetype with a template, not a free pass. Copy
skills/shared/assets/playground-exemplars/plan-dashboard.template.html and swap the plan-state
island; do not free-hand the CSS. It ships the §2 tokens, a sticky tier-1 header, <details>
sections [0]–[5], a table twin per chart, the copy-prompt bar, and the reduced-motion gate.
If the plan instead demonstrates a user-facing flow or a prioritization/decision, route to the
user-story-player or decision-board archetype. Apply the §0 routing rule in
Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/shared/rules/playground-visual-standard.md") and run its §10
self-audit — including the DASHBOARD rows — before declaring done.
Backlog to dispatch? If the plan is a backlog the user must prioritize and route to execution,
use the decision-router variant — each card routes to an ork strategy and emits a plan-only
invocation: Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/visualize-plan/references/decision-router.md").
Living plan (multi-wave)? If the plan executes over multiple sessions/waves, or completion is
verifiable by commands, use the living-plan exemplar (living-plan.template.html): the playground
embeds an lpp-state JSON block, every item carries a "done when" evidence check, and progress renders
FROM state.
Update mode — detect by SLUG, never by path. The path is derived from the branch name, so a branch
rename moves it and a path-keyed check silently forks the plan into a second file. Run the finder
BEFORE authoring:
bash "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/find-living-plan.sh""$SLUG"# 0=update it · 1=author new · 2=already forked, STOP
On exit 0, MERGE into the file it printed (flip statuses, append changelog, move removed items to
dropped) wherever it lives. On exit 2, do not write a third file — name both paths and ask which
survives. Full contract: Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/visualize-plan/references/format-dispatch.md")
§Living-plan update mode. Gated by tests/orphans/test-duplicate-living-plans.sh.
STEP 5: Offer Actions — the ONE question
This is the only blocking question in a default run, and it carries the format choice that used to
block at STEP 0.5. Skip it entirely when --quick, or when the format was set by flag and there
is nothing left to offer. Build the option list from what the STEP 0.5 probe actually found —
never offer a path that will fail.
options = []
if"playground"in AVAILABLE and"playground"notin FORMATS:
options.append({"label": "Interactive dashboard (Recommended)",
"description": "Single-file HTML at docs/<branch-dir>/plan-viz.html, from plan-dashboard.template.html. Also satisfies the PR Playground gate. Multi-wave plans become LIVING plans, updated in place."})
if"infographic"in AVAILABLE and"infographic"notin FORMATS:
options.append({"label": "NotebookLM infographic",
"description": "Stakeholder-ready infographic/slides. Async — fired and notified, never blocks."})
options.append({"label": "Drill deeper",
"description": "Blast radius, cross-layer consistency, or migration checklist"})
options.append({"label": "Generate GitHub issues",
"description": "One issue per execution phase, with labels, milestone, and blocked-by links"})
# AskUserQuestion caps at 4 options. "Done" must ALWAYS survive that cap — an# actions menu with no exit is a trap — so reserve its slot instead of appending.
DONE = {"label": "Done", "description": "Plan visualization complete"}
AskUserQuestion(questions=[{"question": "What next?", "header": "Actions",
"options": options[:3] + [DONE], "multiSelect": False}])
Anything squeezed out by the cap stays reachable by asking — the menu is a shortcut, not the
whole surface. Write to designs/{branch}.md (template: assets/plan-report.md) is one of these.
Upgrading reuses the plan brief built in STEP 1 — no recomputation
(see references/format-dispatch.md). If nothing richer is available, the question drops to
drill-deeper / issues / done.
Write to file: Save full report to designs/{branch-name}.md using assets/plan-report.md template.
Generate issues: For each execution phase, create a GitHub issue with title [{component}] {phase_description}, labels (component + risk:{level}), milestone, body from plan sections, and blocked-by references.
Store in memory: Save plan summary to knowledge graph for future comparison:
Available when user selects "Drill deeper". Load Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/visualize-plan/references/deep-dives.md") for cross-layer and migration patterns.
Section
What It Shows
Reference
[6] Blast Radius
Concentric rings of impact (direct -> transitive -> tests)
Rendering conventions for all 6 core sections ([0]–[5])
ASCII diagrams
MEDIUM
Via glyph skill (box-drawing, file trees, workflows)
References
Load on demand with Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/visualize-plan/references/<file>"):
File
Content
visualization-tiers.md
Progressive disclosure tiers and header field computation
change-manifest-patterns.md
Change manifest ASCII patterns
execution-swimlane-patterns.md
Execution swimlane ASCII patterns
risk-dashboard-patterns.md
Risk dashboard ASCII patterns
decision-log-patterns.md
Decision log ASCII patterns
blast-radius-patterns.md
Blast radius ASCII patterns
deep-dives.md
Cross-layer consistency and migration checklist
format-dispatch.md
Output-format capability probe, ASCII-floor rule, delegation to playground/notebooklm
before-after-arch-patterns.md
Section [0] before/after architecture per output format
Examples (read one before your first run)
Complete worked runs — real input, real ASCII output, real emitted artifact. The ASCII patterns in
them match references/*-patterns.md exactly, so they are safe to imitate directly.
File
Shows
examples/01-dashboard-run.md
The default path end to end: detect → gather → header → all six sections → the one question → the emitted HTML. Same scenario as the sample state in plan-dashboard.template.html.
examples/02-living-plan-update.md
Update mode on a renamed branch: slug-keyed detection, the JSON merge, the evidence gate, and the exit-2 fork case.
examples/03-quick-run.md
--quick: what is skipped, what the output looks like, and what it must never fabricate.
Assets
Load on demand with Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/visualize-plan/assets/<file>"):
File
Content
plan-report.md
Full mustache-style report template
impact-dashboard.md
Impact table template
tier1-header.md
5-line summary template
Quality Bar
Done means all of these hold:
The Tier 1 header always renders with every field populated — risk, confidence, reversibility, branch, and file/line counts.
File and line counts come from scripts/analyze-impact.sh, not estimated or guessed.
Every rendered section answers its reviewer question; a section with no content is skipped with a one-line reason, never padded.
Section [3] names the point of no return by phase id (--- POINT OF NO RETURN (after P3) ---), not by implication, and each pre-mortem states a mechanism — trigger, sequence, resulting bad state — not a category. "Migration risk" is a heading; "P2 ships while an in-flight retry queue still points at the inline charge path, so the same invoice is charged twice" is a pre-mortem. This is the section's measured failure mode, not a style preference: rules/section-rendering.md §[3] carries the falsifiable test for both.
Section [0] Before/After maps base (git show origin/main:<path>) against head (working tree), marking each node [+]/[~]/[-], and is skipped with a note when nothing structural changed.
ASCII renders first/inline regardless of chosen format; any async format (infographic) is fired-and-notified, never awaited.
The plan summary is stored to the memory knowledge graph for cross-session comparison (skipped under --quick).
Zero blocking questions before the first render. Source is auto-detected (asked only when
genuinely ambiguous), sections default to all, and format is chosen after the ASCII floor is
already on screen — at most one question per run, none under --quick.
A playground output started from plan-dashboard.template.html (or the living-plan / player /
board exemplar the §0 routing rule selected) — never hand-rolled CSS — and passed the §10
self-audit including the DASHBOARD rows.
A living plan was located by slug via scripts/find-living-plan.sh before authoring, so an
existing plan is updated in place rather than forked into a second file.
Related Skills
ork:implement - Execute planned changes
ork:explore - Understand current architecture
ork:assess - Evaluate complexity and risks
ork:memory - Search prior plan visualizations
ork:remember - Store plan decisions for future reference
