# Plans And Investigations Location > Use when about to write an implementation plan, investigation note, design sketch, post-mortem, or any markdown capturing personal process inside a project repo — and especially when about to save under `docs/plans/`, `docs/investigations/`, or `docs/design/`. Routes personal/in-flight work to `.local//` (gitignored) and reserves `docs//` for shared, team-reviewed artefacts. - Skill: `amitkot/plans-and-investigations-location` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add amitkot/plans-and-investigations-location` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/amitkot/plans-and-investigations-location/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Docs & Writing - Author: amitkot (https://skillmd.com/u/amitkot) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/amitkot/plans-and-investigations-location --- # Plans and investigations: `.local/` first, `docs/` only when shared Personal-process markdown — plans you're drafting, investigation notes, design sketches, post-mortem scratch — defaults to `.local//.md` (gitignored). Write to `docs//.md` only when the artefact is explicitly meant for the team or being promoted as canonical. ## Why `docs/` is git-tracked, so every WIP plan and half-finished investigation that lands there becomes commit-history noise teammates see in diffs. `.local/` (excluded via `.git/info/exclude` or `.gitignore`) gives the same `plans/`, `investigations/`, `design/` ergonomics without polluting shared history. The split has to be made at file-creation time — once committed, a private-flavoured doc is harder to retract than to never write there. ## How to apply Default to `.local//` for plans drafted before approval, investigation notes and raw findings, unshared design sketches, anything you'd be mildly embarrassed to see in `git log` next month. Write to `docs//` only when the user asks for a shared artefact, when promoting a reviewed plan to canonical, or for a deliverable in itself (architecture reference, runbook, post-mortem the team will read). Promote `.local/` → `docs/` as an explicit move + commit the user can see, not a quiet `git add`. `.local/` has no git history or backup — anything that becomes load-bearing (referenced across sessions, asked about by others) should graduate to `docs/`.