create-a-plan

name	create-a-plan
description	Conduct a focused technical planning interview to produce an implementable, parallelizable plan or spec with clear dependencies, risks, and open questions.

Create a Plan Skill

This skill runs a structured technical interview to turn a rough idea or an existing spec into a detailed, implementable plan. The output is organized for parallel execution: foundations first, then independent workstreams, then merge and integration.

Invocation

The user will provide one of:

• A path to a spec or plan file (for example: SPEC.md, PLAN.md, RFC.md)
• A rough description of what they want to build
• A feature request or problem statement

Output is always written to PLAN.md in the repo root.

Process

Phase 0: Preflight

1. If a file path is provided, read it first and note goals, non-goals, constraints, and gaps.
2. Confirm you will produce PLAN.md as the output in the repo root. If PLAN.md already exists, update it rather than creating a new file.

Phase 1: Discovery

Summarize what is known, then identify missing details. Focus on:

• Goals and non-goals
• Constraints (time, budget, platform, dependencies)
• Success metrics and acceptance criteria

Phase 2: Deep Interview

Use the AskUserQuestion (Claude) and/or request_user_input (Codex) tools in rounds. Ask 1-3 questions per round. Each round should go deeper and avoid repeating what is already known.

CRITICAL RULES:

1. Never ask obvious questions. If the codebase or spec already answers it, do not ask it again.
2. Ask about edge cases and failure modes.
3. Probe for hidden complexity (state transitions, migrations, concurrency).