Plan Assist

plan-assist — layered planning docs

Three root docs. charter.md = stable directives (DO/DO NOT, invariants, build-order status table, gotchas). work-plan.md = current plan + handoff. log.md = append-only journal, canonical. Goal: prevent drift.

INVARIANTS (never break)

• I1. If charter.md and log.md disagree → log.md wins. charter.md only distills it.
• I2. log.md is append-only: never edit/delete old entries; newest at bottom; absolute dates only (resolve "today" to the real date).
• I3. log.md is a write-ahead log: append AND commit a dated entry BEFORE any risky op, not after — so a destructive op can't lose it. (A session once lost its tree on a mv; the journal was the only recovery.)

SESSION CONTRACT — do each, in order

1. START: read charter.md → work-plan.md → log.md (skim recent). Always, even if the prompt seems narrow.
2. ON CHANGE: edit work-plan.md in the SAME commit as the code change — never let it lag.
3. BEFORE RISKY OP (mv workdir · git reset --hard · force-push · big migration): commit a dated log.md entry FIRST (per I3).
4. PHASE LANDS: summarize it into log.md, prune it from work-plan.md (keep < ~250 lines).
5. STOP MID-TASK: write a SESSION HANDOFF block atop work-plan.md (shape below).
6. SESSION END: append a dated log.md entry (decided/changed · new gotchas · status changes · open questions).
7. EACH COMMIT + BOUNDARY: run the HEARTBEAT.

Keep live status OUT of charter.md (it lives in work-plan.md); the build-order table is the only exception.

SESSION HANDOFF shape (atop work-plan.md)

## ⏸ SESSION HANDOFF — <YYYY-MM-DD>
**Done + verified:** <what shipped, with commit hashes>
**Left to do:** <next concrete steps, in order>
**How to run / diagnose:** <build / test / smoke commands>
**Environment notes:** <traps, env vars, anything non-obvious>

Remove it once the next session picks the work back up.

HEARTBEAT (cheap; one line — "in sync, on-phase" — unless something fires)

drift? · stale build-order marker in charter.md (⏳ but shipped / ✅ but broken)? · journal debt → append to log.md now? · work-plan.md > 250 lines → prune? · periodically run build/tests/smoke? · stale open questions in log.md? Full text + hook snippets: hooks/heartbeat.md. Only stop to act when a check fires.

BOOTSTRAP (only if the docs are absent)

Never clobber — if a target exists, read it and offer to merge, don't overwrite. Use today's date for <YYYY-MM-DD>.

1. Infer the project name; skim the code for a first-pass DO/DO-NOT list and build-order skeleton (placeholders if nothing's discoverable).
2. Create charter.md, work-plan.md, log.md from templates/ with <project-name> filled in.
3. Add the templates/CLAUDE-orientation.md block to CLAUDE.md (create if absent; don't duplicate if present).
4. Seed log.md with a ## Session 1 work log — <today> baseline entry.
5. Offer the heartbeat hook — default skill-baked (no config); install the hooks/heartbeat.md snippet only if the user wants harness enforcement.
6. (Opt-in) offer to add the read-only allowlist below to .claude/settings.local.json so session-start/heartbeat inspection stops prompting. Only with the user's OK. Never allowlist risky ops (git reset --hard, mv, force-push, migrations) — keeping them prompt-gated is the safety guardrail this skill is built around.

{ "permissions": { "allow": [
  "Bash(git status:*)", "Bash(git log:*)", "Bash(git diff:*)",
  "Bash(git show:*)", "Bash(wc -l:*)", "Bash(date:*)"
] } }