| name | plan-explore |
| description | Explore implementation plans, status, and relationships. Provides comprehensive plan ecosystem navigation with filtering, health analysis, and actionable recommendations. |
| allowed-tools | Read, Grep, Glob, Bash(bash *), Bash(jq *) |
| context | fork |
| agent | design-doc-agent |
Plan Exploration
Provides comprehensive exploration and navigation of the plan ecosystem,
enabling agents to understand project status at a glance, discover plans,
identify health issues, and navigate relationships between plans and design docs.
Overview
The plan-explore skill enables agents to:
- Understand project status - See active, ready, blocked, and completed plans
- Discover plans - Filter by module, status, design doc, or owner
- Identify health issues - Detect stale, orphaned, or blocked plans
- Get recommendations - Receive actionable next steps based on plan state
- Navigate relationships - Explore plan-design doc bidirectional links
Key Features:
- Multiple output formats (summary, detailed, timeline, JSON)
- Rich filtering capabilities (module, status, design-doc, owner)
- Health analysis (staleness, orphans, blockers, schedule)
- Smart recommendations for next actions
- Fast metadata caching (5-minute TTL)
Implementation Script
The entire exploration workflow — filtering, health analysis, and every output format — is implemented by a deterministic script that ships with this skill. Run it instead of re-implementing the logic with ad-hoc Bash or Grep:
bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/plan-explore/scripts/explore-plans.sh" [module] [options]
The slash-command invocations below map directly onto the script's arguments (e.g. /design-docs:plan-explore --stale runs explore-plans.sh --stale). Use --help for the full option list.
Quick Start
Show all active plans:
/design-docs:plan-explore --status=in-progress
Show plans for specific module:
/design-docs:plan-explore effect-type-registry
Find orphaned plans:
/design-docs:plan-explore --orphans
Show stale plans:
/design-docs:plan-explore --stale --age-threshold=60
Timeline view:
/design-docs:plan-explore --format=timeline
Parameters
Filters
module: Filter by module name (e.g., effect-type-registry)--status: Filter by status (ready, in-progress, blocked, completed, abandoned)
- Supports multiple:
--status=ready,in-progress
--design-doc: Filter by related design doc path--owner: Filter by plan owner username
Display Options
--format: Output format (summary, detailed, timeline, json) [default: summary]--show-phases: Show phase details [default: false]--show-health: Show health analysis [default: true]
Analysis Options
--orphans: Show only orphaned plans (no design docs)--stale: Show only stale plans--blocked: Show only blocked plans--age-threshold: Days since update for staleness [default: 30]
Output Formats
Summary Format (Default)
Concise overview with status summary, active plans, health insights, and
next actions. Typically <50 lines for clarity.
Implementation Plans Overview
============================
Status Summary:
Ready: 3 plans
In Progress: 5 plans (avg 45% complete)
Blocked: 2 plans
Completed: 12 plans
Active Plans (In Progress):
• Subagent Integration [45%] - 2 weeks old
Modules: design-doc-system
Design: architecture-proposal.md
Health Insights:
⚠️ 2 plans stale (>30 days since update)
✅ All blocked plans have clear dependencies
Next Actions:
1. Update stale plans: performance-tracking-plan.md
2. Review blocked plans for unblocking
Detailed Format
Shows full plan metadata including phases, dates, blockers, and complete
design doc relationships.
Timeline Format
Chronological view grouped by date/month with schedule status:
Implementation Timeline
======================
January 2026
------------
✅ Jan 5-10: Cache System v1 (completed)
🚧 Jan 15-25: Subagent Integration (45% - in progress)
⏸️ Jan 20-30: Performance Phase 2 (blocked)
Health:
2 plans behind schedule
3 plans on track
JSON Format
Machine-readable output for programmatic processing.
Health Analysis
The skill performs automatic health analysis:
Staleness Detection:
- Plans with
updated > 30 days ago (configurable)
- Plans in-progress with no updates for 2 weeks
- Plans with target-completion in past
Orphan Detection:
- Plans with no design-docs references
- Plans referencing non-existent design docs
Blocker Analysis:
- Plans blocked by other blocked plans (cascading blocks)
- Plans blocked by completed plans (stale blockers)
Schedule Analysis:
- Plans beyond target-completion date
- Plans with unrealistic progress rates
Supporting Documentation
When you need detailed information, load the appropriate supporting file:
For Implementation Details
See instructions.md for:
- Step-by-step exploration process
- Query algorithm details
- Health analysis implementation
- Caching strategy
- Performance optimization
Load when: Implementing the skill or debugging issues
For Usage Examples
See examples.md for:
- Common query patterns
- All filter combinations
- Output format examples
- Health analysis scenarios
- Integration with other skills
Load when: User needs examples or clarification
Integration
Works well with:
/design-docs:plan-list - Quick list of plans (lighter weight)/design-docs:plan-validate - Validate plan structure/design-docs:design-review - Review design docs with plan context/design-docs:design-sync - Sync design docs and check plan progress
Success Criteria
A successful exploration:
- ✅ Returns relevant plans based on filters
- ✅ Health analysis is accurate and actionable
- ✅ Recommendations are clear and specific
- ✅ Output format is clean and readable
- ✅ Performance is acceptable (<500ms for detailed mode)
- ✅ No false positives in health checks
