| name | planning-engine |
| description | Use when producing a lightweight implementation plan before coding, including scope, affected systems, migration, rollback, tests, reuse, and architecture impact. |
Planning Engine
Use this skill before implementation when sequencing, migration, rollback, validation, or coordination risk needs structure. Cross-file impact alone does not require a plan.
Goal
Create a short, executable plan that helps agents implement the right change in the right order.
If the goal, non-goals, constraints, acceptance criteria, or target docs are not stable, run clarification-gate before writing the plan.
Plan Requirements
A plan should answer:
- What changes
- Why it changes
- Affected systems
- Existing code or docs to reuse
- Migration requirements
- Rollback strategy
- Testing strategy
- Architecture impact
- Risks and open questions
- Version impact and whether user confirmation is needed
Output
Use templates/PLAN.template.md as the default shape. Save plans under docs/plans/ when the repository keeps persistent plans. Otherwise, keep the plan in the conversation and execute it.
Rules
- Keep plans lightweight.
- Prefer the shortest viable path.
- Do not turn routine changes into ceremony.
- Do not create a plan solely because a change touches multiple files.
- Use a spec instead when durable behavior, acceptance criteria, or compatibility alignment is the only need; use both only when execution risk also justifies a plan.
- Put active tasks in
docs/TASKS.md only when execution spans multiple stages, people, or agents.
- Do not proceed to implementation if the plan exposes unresolved blockers that would make the work risky or incoherent.
- Use Clarification Gate output as the preferred input when the request started broad, ambiguous, or cross-cutting.
- Use
version-governance when the plan implies patch, minor, or major release impact.
