specflow-plan

---

name: specflow-plan description: REQUIRED after discover when REQs are approved. Breaks approved requirements into architecture (ARCH), detailed design (DDD), and stories (STORY). Triggers when the user says "design the architecture," "plan the implementation," "break this down," or when REQs are approved and the user is ready to move forward. Also triggers for reverse lifecycle: "rethink the architecture," "revise the plan," "go back to planning," or when the user wants to revisit architecture after executing. This is step 2 of the core lifecycle — use it BEFORE any implementation begins. NOT for: quick bug fixes (use specflow-execute with lean path), research tasks, or infrastructure setup.

Freeform Input Handling

This skill accepts freeform user input alongside the command. Interpret the user's message to determine scope and depth:

• No additional context → run the standard workflow (deterministic core only)
• A question or concern → run the deterministic core, then address the question directly using the results
• A request for depth ("go deep", "be thorough", "all lenses") → run deterministic core + full agent-driven analysis
• A specific focus ("focus on REQ-003", "check compliance only") → narrow scope to the request, still run deterministic core first

Always run the deterministic core regardless of input. It costs zero tokens and provides the foundation for any analysis.

---

SpecFlow Plan

Break down approved requirements into architecture, detailed design, and user stories.

Workflow

Step 1: Phase Gate Check

1. Recall first: run uv run specflow brief for a one-call digest of phase, inventory, suspects, and recent changes — then drill into specific _index.yaml files or full artifact bodies only as needed.

2. Reverse lifecycle check: If the user said "rethink the architecture," "revise the plan," or "go back to planning" (or if you detect the user wants to revisit architecture after executing), ask: "Do you want to (a) revise existing ARCH/DDD artifacts in place, (b) re-decompose from the same REQs, or (c) go back to requirements first (run /specflow-discover)?" If revising, read the existing ARCH/DDDs and offer targeted edits. If re-decomposing, proceed with the existing approved REQs. For (a) or (b), record the rewind so brief --next routes correctly: uv run specflow phase-set planning --reason "<why>". For (c), route to /specflow-discover — it records its own phase-set.

3. Read all REQ artifacts from _specflow/specs/requirements/.

4. Verify all REQs have status: approved. If any are still draft, tell the user which ones need approval before planning can proceed.

5. Run the phase gate: uv run specflow artifact-lint --type gate --gate specifying-to-planning. Run it by default — only skip if the user explicitly declines.

6. If gate fails, report blockers and stop.

Step 2: Read & Understand Requirements

1. Read every approved REQ artifact in full — body and acceptance criteria, not just titles.
2. Read domain context from .specflow/config.yaml:
   • Read project.domain (set during discover via specflow domain set).
   • Read project.domain_tags list.
   • If domain is set: prefix the summary with "This is a <domain> project with focus on <tags>. Domain-specific decomposition considerations apply."
   • Apply the concept→artifact map (../specflow-discover/references/domain-checklists/<domain>.md when it has one). Not every concept becomes a STORY: in quant/ml, measured outcomes are autoresearch goals (COMP.metric), offline runs are EXPT, and live deployments/drift are RUN/MONITOR (ops pack). Decompose into the artifact type the map says, with the why — this is the auto-adaptive core.
3. Load decision artifacts created during discovery. Read any DEC artifacts from _specflow/work/decisions/ that were produced by the discover skill's challenge step. These contain assumptions, risks, and dropped requirements that inform architectural choices.
4. Identify:
   • Core domain concepts and entities
   • Cross-cutting concerns (auth, logging, error handling)
   • External system integrations
   • Non-functional constraints (performance, scale, compliance)
5. Summarize your understanding back to the user: "Here's what I see as the system scope. Correct?"

Step 2.5: Load Best Practices

Read existing BP artifacts from _specflow/specs/best-practices/. If no planning-phase BPs exist yet, generate them as BP artifacts covering architecture, detailed design, and story best practices. Create each with structured body (## Practice / ## Rationale / ## Verification).

Proactive Enforcement Loop: Do not just passively read the BPs or thinking techniques. You must actively audit your own output against them.

1. Draft your architecture/design internally.
2. Run a self-audit against the BPs and thinking-techniques.md.
3. If your draft violates a BP (e.g., missed a security boundary, failed a coupling check), revise it before presenting it to the user.
4. When presenting to the user, briefly explain how the BPs and techniques shaped your proposal (e.g., "Following BP-001 to separate data from rules, I split X and Y. I also ran a premortem check and added Z as a fallback."). This shows your work and guides the user toward better architectural decisions.

Step 2.6: Parallel Architecture Candidate Generation (Optional, for complex systems)

For systems with 3+ REQs, multiple external integrations, or cross-cutting concerns spanning security/performance/compliance, generate 2-3 alternative architecture decompositions before committing to one. This prevents single-approach myopia.

Trigger conditions (any one of):

• 5+ approved REQs in scope
• REQs span 2+ domains (e.g., web + data pipeline + auth)
• Architecture will have 4+ components
• User explicitly asks for alternatives or says "what are my options?"

Pattern (DEFAULT on Claude Code/OpenCode; sequential single-agent fallback on hosts without native subagents — see ../specflow-references/references/adversarial-lenses.md § Multi-Agent Strategy; context budget ~3000 tokens/arch candidate; identical output either way):

1. Prepare a brief with: all approved REQ summaries, domain context, external system constraints, and NFRs.
2. Spawn 2-3 subagents with different decomposition seeds:
   • Seed A (domain-driven): Decompose by business domain / bounded context
   • Seed B (technical-layers): Decompose by technical layer (API → Service → Data)
   • Seed C (risk-first): Decompose by what's most likely to fail — isolate risky components
3. Each subagent returns: component list with responsibilities, interfaces between components, rationale for the decomposition.
4. The parent agent presents the 2-3 alternatives to the user as a comparison, highlighting trade-offs (coupling, deployability, team fit). The user picks one; the parent proceeds with detailed ARCH creation.

Fallback (no subagent support): Generate alternatives sequentially — draft Seed A, then deliberately re-think from Seed B's perspective, then Seed C. Present the same comparison.

Subagent prompt template:

"You are a software architect using a [SEED] decomposition strategy. Design an architecture for [system summary]. Approved REQs: [summaries]. Constraints: [NFRs, external systems, domain]. Return: component list with responsibilities, interface map, rationale for this decomposition vs alternatives."

Step 3: Architecture Proposal

Discuss component structure with the user. For each component:

1. Name and responsibility — What does this component own?
2. Public interface — What does it expose to other components?
3. Dependencies — What does it consume from other components or external systems?
4. Data flow — How does data enter and leave this component?

Present the architecture as a discussion, not a fait accompli. Ask:

• "Does this decomposition make sense for your team structure?"
• "Are there existing components or services that must be preserved?"
• "Any components that should be isolated for independent deployment?"

For each agreed component, create an ARCH artifact:

uv run specflow create \
  --type architecture \
  --title "<component name>" \
  --priority "<high|medium|low>" \
  --tags "<comma-separated>" \
  --links "[{\"target\": \"REQ-001\", \"role\": \"derives_from\"}]" \
  --body "<architecture description with interfaces and data flow>"

Step 4: Detailed Design (Where Needed)

Not every ARCH component needs a DDD. Read references/ddd-selection.md for the 6-question decision checklist to determine which ARCHs need DDD artifacts. Create DDD artifacts only for components that answer YES to at least one question — complex logic, state machines, data transformations, protocol handling, concurrent access, or error recovery.

For each DDD:

1. Specify function signatures with input/output types
2. Define data structures and their relationships
3. Describe error handling at system boundaries
4. Note preconditions and invariants

uv run specflow create \
  --type detailed-design \
  --title "<design name>" \
  --links "[{\"target\": \"ARCH-001\", \"role\": \"refined_by\"}]" \
  --body "<detailed design with function signatures, data structures, error handling>"

Step 4.5: Stress-Test Architecture

Before finalizing ARCHs and DDDs, apply planning-stage thinking techniques from references/thinking-techniques.md:

Technique	When to apply	What it catches
Premortem	Every ARCH	Sound designs that fail in practice
Dependency shock	ARCHs with external deps	Hidden coupling, missing fallbacks
Composition	When ARCHs share state or resources	Emergent conflicts between features
Stress-scale (×100)	When NFRs mention performance	Hard and soft scaling limits
Worst-case user	DDDs for user-facing or API features	Missing validation, security gaps

For each ARCH, briefly: "6 months from now this failed — what went wrong? Any dependencies that could vanish? What breaks at 100× scale?"

Present concerns and let the user revise before creating artifacts.

If the user requested specific techniques or said "go deep", expand the selection accordingly.

After applying thinking techniques, record which techniques were applied to each artifact — even if they passed cleanly:

uv run specflow update <ARCH-ID> --thinking-techniques <technique1,technique2>
uv run specflow update <DDD-ID> --thinking-techniques <technique1,technique2>

Step 5: Story Breakdown (SPIDR)

Read references/spidr-decomposition.md for the full SPIDR framework. Decompose requirements into stories using the five sources:

1. Spike — Research stories for uncertain areas
2. Path — End-to-end user journeys through the system
3. Interface — Stories for each external boundary
4. Data — Stories for each core entity and its lifecycle
5. Rules — Stories for business logic and constraints

Story writing rules:

• Each story delivers testable user value through the full stack (vertical slice).
• Each story has minimum 3 acceptance criteria: happy path + 2 error/edge cases.
• Stories are independent and can be implemented in any order within a wave.
• Read references/story-writing.md for the story template.
• Use all applicable link roles on each STORY: implements → the REQ it realizes, guided_by → each ARCH it touches, specified_by → any DDD that constrains its internals. Omit a role only if there is no corresponding artifact.

For each story:

uv run specflow create \
  --type story \
  --title "<story title>" \
  --priority "<high|medium|low>" \
  --links "[{\"target\": \"REQ-001\", \"role\": \"implements\"}, {\"target\": \"ARCH-001\", \"role\": \"guided_by\"}]" \
  --body "<story description with acceptance criteria>"

Step 6: Validation

Run full validation:

uv run specflow artifact-lint

Report any issues. Fix broken links or schema violations.

Step 7: User Review (Approval Gate)

You must follow the Approval Presentation Format (see ../specflow-references/references/approval-presentation.md). Present:

1. TLDR — What was planned and why (1-3 sentences, no jargon).
2. What this does (functional) — The system behavior being proposed, in plain terms (purpose · what's in · what's out · flow if multi-part). Plain language, not component IDs.
3. Changes inline — List every ARCH, DDD, STORY, and SPIKE with key content. The human should not need to open any file to understand the proposal.
4. Assessment lenses — Apply traceability, completeness, linkage, coverage, and staleness lenses, then a Risk Profile per change (reversibility, blast radius via specflow change-impact, and your confidence + the reason it isn't higher). Show ✅/⚠️/❌ results.
5. Key decisions (2–3) — The decisions that determine whether this plan is right (what was chosen · alternative · tradeoff · what validates it). Fold the coverage/assumption checks in here, not after the gate: Is every approved REQ covered by ≥1 STORY? Any STORY that should be a SPIKE? Any ARCH whose public interface needs a DDD? Key assumptions needing validation (deployment model, story sizing, NFR targets)? Make it the approve-or-improve loop: proceed · discuss #N · revise and re-present.
6. Risk-proportional gate — Assign a tier (0 light / 1 normal / 2 stop) from the risk profile and present accordingly; for Tier 2 changes, point at the specific concern. Do not calibrate the tier from past approvals.
7. Action options — Approve / Request changes / Discuss / Reject.

CRITICAL: You must NOT self-approve. All artifacts remain in draft until the human explicitly approves. The plan phase is conversational — the human may iterate, discuss, and request changes as many times as needed. Wait for explicit approval.

If the human requests changes:

1. Identify which lens failed (from the feedback).
2. Revise the relevant artifact(s).
3. Re-present with updated assessment, highlighting what changed.
4. Repeat until approved or abandoned.

Only on explicit "approve" → run specflow update <ID> --status approved for each artifact.

Step 7.5: Human-Review Summary

The checks formerly listed here (REQ coverage, STORY→SPIKE, ARCH-needs-DDD, key assumptions) are now surfaced as Key decisions (§5) during the gate in Step 7, not after it. Before the phase transition, simply ensure the user has explicitly acknowledged those decisions. Wait for user acknowledgement before the phase transition.

Step 8: Phase Transition

Update .specflow/state.yaml: set current: planning, add history entry.

Exit message: Provide a handoff checkpoint (rides the artifact graph + "Recent decisions" in specflow brief):

## Handoff checkpoint
**Accomplished:** ARCH ×N, DDD ×N, STORY ×N, SPIKE ×N (all draft).
**Key decisions + rationale:** <the 2–3 architecture decisions from the approval gate, each with the why>
**Pending / blocked:** Artifacts are draft — need human approval before execution. <any assumption/premortem DECs>
**Exact next command:** `specflow approve --type STORY` (and ARCH/DDD as needed), then `/specflow-execute`.

Rules

• Gate severity:
  • blocking → Stop. Report the failure. Ask the user to fix before proceeding.
  • warning → Present. Ask whether to proceed. Do not proceed silently.
  • info → Note for awareness. Proceed.
• Escape hatch: The user can always override. When the user says "skip," "proceed anyway," or "move on," do exactly that. But before proceeding past a blocking item, articulate: "Proceeding past [specific blocking item]. Risk: [what could go wrong]. Noted."
• ARCH answers "HOW is the system structured?" — defines interfaces between components, not user-facing behavior.
• DDD answers "HOW does each part work internally?" — implementation-level detail for developers.
• STORY references specs, doesn't replace them. Use link roles: implements (→ REQ), guided_by (→ ARCH), specified_by (→ DDD).
• Respect level boundaries — no user-facing behavior in ARCH, no code-level detail in REQ.
• Stories must be vertically sliced — each delivers end-to-end value.
• When unsure about link roles, read references/link-roles.md.
• When unsure about level boundaries, read references/level-boundaries.md.

References

• references/spidr-decomposition.md — SPIDR story decomposition framework.
• references/story-writing.md — Story template and acceptance criteria patterns.
• references/link-roles.md — Complete link role vocabulary with usage examples.
• references/level-boundaries.md — REQ vs ARCH vs DDD boundary rules with examples.
• references/thinking-techniques.md — Planning-stage adversarial thinking techniques (points to shared catalog at ../specflow-references/references/adversarial-lenses.md).