J03Fr0st Planning and Task Breakdown
Turn an agreed outcome into independently verifiable slices and a ready frontier: the unfinished slices whose prerequisites are satisfied.
1. Establish the contract
Read the requested outcome, repository instructions, existing plan or tracker, relevant code, and available checks. Separate confirmed behavior from assumptions. Resolve discoverable facts directly; use research for external facts and codebase-design for a consequential module decision.
Ask about an unresolved choice only when it changes acceptance, scope, architecture, or risk. Use grilling for an interview when several material choices depend on each other. For a backlog readiness decision, recommend the explicit agile-refine command. Continue planning independent parts while a decision is pending.
Complete when: the outcome, exclusions, acceptance conditions, existing state, and unresolved decision owners are explicit.
2. Slice by observable outcomes
Create the smallest useful end-to-end slices, each leaving a working, checkable result. Put uncertainty and irreversible dependencies early enough to test the approach. A preparatory slice is justified when it removes a named blocker and has its own observable result.
For each slice record:
- stable ID and outcome;
- affected owners, contracts, or likely files supported by inspection;
- acceptance conditions and the check that could falsify each one;
- blocking slice IDs or external decisions;
- status and, where relevant, migration, rollback, or external-action gates.
Keep estimates conditional on evidence. Use code examples only when they settle an important contract; leave implementation details to the executing agent. A supplied plan that already satisfies these requirements can be reused.
Complete when: every required outcome belongs to a verifiable slice, and every dependency resolves to a slice, existing capability, or named external gate.
3. Check the graph and frontier
Walk dependencies for missing IDs, cycles, and work falsely marked independent. Shared schemas, files, mutable environments, and unresolved contracts can serialize otherwise separate tasks. Name an integration owner if parallel execution is proposed; execution and delegation remain within the caller's authority.
List the ready frontier and why each other slice is blocked. The final integration check must cover the combined user outcome, even when every slice has passed its own check.
Ready means ready to start: required inputs and permissions are present. Distinguish entry prerequisites from decisions or evidence a slice is meant to produce. A discovery slice can be ready while implementation remains blocked; name that distinction explicitly.
Complete when: the graph has no unexplained cycle or dependency, the ready frontier is accurate, and combined acceptance has a verification path.
4. Save and return the plan
Use the canonical plan or tracker already designated for this work. A planning request authorizes a local plan artifact unless the user requests chat-only or no file changes. Follow repository conventions; otherwise use a unique docs/plans/<task>.md. Preserve another task's unfinished plan. For an external tracker, prepare local content unless writing there is already authorized; use links instead of maintaining duplicate status lists.
Record the inspected revision or snapshot, material decisions, evidence pointers, frontier, and next action. Refresh these at slice boundaries. Keep active constraints and failing evidence available; leave old exploration behind pointers. Use handoff when work must move to another session, harness, directory, or person.
Complete when: the plan is saved or delivered in the requested form and another agent can identify its next executable slice. If implementation is already authorized, return to implement and continue from that frontier; a request for planning alone ends with the plan.