Writing Plans

Overview

Write comprehensive implementation plans assuming the engineer has zero context for our codebase and questionable taste. Document everything they need to know: which files to touch for each task, code, testing, docs they might need to check, how to test it. Give them the whole plan as bite-sized tasks.

Assume they are a skilled developer, but know almost nothing about our toolset or problem domain. Assume they don't know good test design very well.

Announce at start: "I'm using the writing-plans skill to create the implementation plan."

Save plans to: <repository-root>/plans/YYYY-MM-DD_<plan-name>.md

Plan Structure

Plan: <Feature Name>

Summary

<One paragraph describing what this builds>

Prerequisites

<Setup steps, deps to install, docs to read — skip if none>

Open Questions

<Unknowns or decisions to resolve before/during implementation — skip if none>

Out of Scope

<What this plan explicitly does NOT cover>

Overview

<A couple of paragraphs about approach>

Task <n>: <name>

Files: path/to/file.ts:42, ... Depends on: Task <m> (if any)

<What to do and why. Verbose — include code when useful.>

Verify: <How to confirm this task is done — command, test, manual check>

Remember

• Exact file paths always, with line-numbers if relevant

• Verbose description of implementation, or even complete code in plan (not "add validation")

• Exact commands with expected output

• Reference relevant skills

• Order tasks by dependency; call out blocking relationships

• Each task should be independently verifiable