Founder Plan Skill
Routes founder-specific planning requests to the founder-plan-agent, enabling interactive forcing questions workflow for market sizing, competitive analysis, and GTM strategy planning.
Context Pointers
Reference (do not load eagerly):
- Path:
.claude/context/formats/subagent-return.md - Purpose: Return validation
- Load at: Subagent execution only
Note: This skill is a thin wrapper. Context is loaded by the delegated agent, not this skill.
Trigger Conditions
This skill activates when:
Direct Invocation
/plancommand on a task withlanguage: founder- Extension routing lookup finds
routing.plan.founder
Task-Type-Based Routing
- Task type is "founder"
/plan {N}where task {N} has language="founder"
When NOT to trigger
Do not invoke for:
- Tasks with other language types (general, meta, neovim, etc.)
- Quick mode operations (
--quickflag) - Tasks already in [PLANNED] or [COMPLETED] status
Execution
1. Input Validation
Validate inputs from delegation context:
task_number- Required, integerresearch_path- Optional, path to existing research reportssession_id- Required, string
# Validate task_number is present
if [ -z "$task_number" ]; then
return error "task_number is required"
fi
# Validate session_id is present
if [ -z "$session_id" ]; then
return error "session_id is required"
fi
2 + 3. Preflight Status Update and Postflight Marker
Source skill-base.sh once, then follow @.claude/context/patterns/skill-preflight-flow.md in
full for Stage 2 (preflight status update) and Stage 3 (marker creation):
source .claude/scripts/skill-base.sh
padded_num=$(printf "%03d" "$task_number")
project_name=$(jq -r --argjson num "$task_number" \
'.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num) | .project_name' \
specs/state.json)
task_dir="specs/${padded_num}_${project_name}"
mkdir -p "$task_dir"
skill_name="skill-founder-plan"
operation="plan"
4. Context Preparation
Extract task_type from state.json (null-safe):
# Extract task_type from state.json (null-safe)
task_type=$(jq -r --argjson num "$task_number" \
'.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num) | .task_type // null' \
specs/state.json)
Prepare delegation context for agent:
{
"task_context": {
"task_number": 234,
"project_name": "market_sizing_fintech_payments",
"description": "Market sizing: fintech payments",
"task_type": "founder",
"task_type": "market"
},
"research_path": "specs/234_market_sizing_fintech_payments/reports/01_context.md",
"metadata_file_path": "specs/234_market_sizing_fintech_payments/.return-meta.json",
"metadata": {
"session_id": "sess_{timestamp}_{random}",
"delegation_depth": 2,
"delegation_path": ["orchestrator", "plan", "skill-founder-plan"]
}
}
5. Invoke Agent
CRITICAL: You MUST use the Agent tool to spawn the agent.
Required Tool Invocation:
Tool: Agent (NOT Skill, NOT Plan)
Parameters:
- subagent_type: "founder-plan-agent"
- prompt: [Include task_context, research_path, metadata_file_path, metadata]
- description: "Create founder analysis plan with forcing questions"
The agent will:
- Load existing context (research reports if any)
- Conduct interactive forcing questions to gather data
- Generate plan artifact with gathered context stored
- Write metadata file for postflight consumption
- Return brief text summary
5b. Self-Execution Fallback
CRITICAL: If you performed the work above WITHOUT using the Agent tool (i.e., you read files,
wrote artifacts, or updated metadata directly instead of spawning a subagent), you MUST write a
.return-meta.json file now before proceeding to postflight. Use the schema from
return-metadata-file.md with the appropriate status value for this operation.
If you DID use the Agent tool, skip this stage -- the subagent already wrote the metadata.
Postflight (ALWAYS EXECUTE)
The following stages MUST execute after work is complete, whether the work was done by a subagent or inline (Stage 5b). Do NOT skip these stages for any reason.
6. Read Metadata File
Read the metadata file:
metadata_file="specs/${padded_num}_${project_name}/.return-meta.json"
metadata=$(cat "$metadata_file")
status=$(echo "$metadata" | jq -r '.status')
7. Postflight Status Update
If agent succeeded (status == "planned"):
# Update state.json
bash .claude/scripts/state-write.sh \
'(.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num)) += {
status: "planned",
last_updated: $ts
}' \
--session-id "$session_id" \
--argjson num "$task_number" \
--arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)"
# Link artifact in state.json
plan_path=$(echo "$metadata" | jq -r '.artifacts[0].path')
plan_summary=$(echo "$metadata" | jq -r '.artifacts[0].summary')
bash .claude/scripts/state-write.sh \
'(.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num)).artifacts += [{
type: "plan",
path: $path,
summary: $summary
}]' \
--session-id "$session_id" \
--argjson num "$task_number" \
--arg path "$plan_path" \
--arg summary "$plan_summary"
Update TODO.md status marker to [PLANNED] and link plan artifact per @.claude/context/patterns/artifact-linking-todo.md with field_name=**Plan**, next_field=**Description**.
8. Git Commit
Apply the plan scope from .claude/context/standards/git-staging-scope.md — targeted staging,
never a repo-wide add:
git add "${task_dir}/" "specs/TODO.md" "specs/state.json"
git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
task {N}: create implementation plan
Session: {session_id}
EOF
)"
9. Cleanup and Return
Follow @.claude/context/patterns/skill-postflight-flow.md's Stage 9 (cleanup):
skill_cleanup "$padded_num" "$project_name"
Return brief text summary to caller.
MUST NOT (Postflight Boundary)
After the agent returns -- whether with status planned, partial, or failed -- this skill MUST proceed immediately to postflight (Stage 6). The skill MUST NOT:
- Edit plan/report files - All plan generation is done by agent
- Run domain analysis or calculations - Analysis is agent work
- Use MCP or WebSearch tools - Domain tools are for agent use only
- Analyze or grep source - Analysis is agent work
- Write plan artifacts - Artifact creation is done by agent
PROHIBITION: If the subagent returned partial or failed status, the lead skill MUST NOT attempt to continue, complete, or "fill in" the subagent's work. Report the partial/failed status and let the user re-run
/planto resume.
The postflight phase is LIMITED TO:
- Reading agent metadata file
- Calling
update-task-status.shfor status updates (state.json + TODO.md) - Linking artifacts in state.json
- Git commit
- Cleanup of temp/marker files
Reference: @.claude/context/standards/postflight-tool-restrictions.md
Return Format
Brief text summary (NOT JSON).
Expected successful return:
Founder plan created for task {N}:
- {questions_asked} forcing questions completed, {phase_count} phases planned
- Context gathered: {brief summary of key data points}
- Plan: specs/{NNN}_{SLUG}/plans/01_{short-slug}.md
- Status updated to [PLANNED]
- Changes committed with session {session_id}
- Next: Run /implement {N} to execute the plan and generate report
Error Handling
Session ID Missing
Return immediately with failed status.
Task Not Found
Return error with guidance to check task number.
Agent Errors
Pass through the agent's error return verbatim.
User Abandonment
Return partial status with progress made, keep status as "planning".