Executing Plan

Executing Plans

Overview

This skill orchestrates the execution of implementation plans generated by the decomposing-tasks skill. It handles the complete lifecycle of plan execution including worktree verification, resume detection, phase-by-phase execution (sequential or parallel), quality verification, and final stack completion.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Executing an implementation plan from /spectacular:execute
• Resuming interrupted plan execution
• Orchestrating multi-phase feature implementation

Announce: "I'm using executing-plan to orchestrate implementation of the plan."

Architecture

The execute command uses an orchestrator-with-embedded-instructions architecture for cognitive load reduction:

Orchestrator Skills (executing-sequential-phase, executing-parallel-phase)

• Responsibilities: Setup, worktree management, dispatch coordination, code review orchestration
• Size: ~464 lines (sequential), ~850 lines (parallel)
• Dispatches: Task tool with embedded execution instructions (~150 lines per task)
• Focus: Manages workflow lifecycle, embeds focused task instructions for subagents

Verification Skill (phase-task-verification)

• Responsibilities: Shared git operations (add, branch create, HEAD verify, detach)
• Size: ~92 lines
• Used by: Task subagents via Skill tool (both sequential and parallel)
• Focus: Eliminates duplication of branch creation/verification logic

Cognitive Load Reduction:

• Original: 750-line monolithic skills (orchestration + task + verification mixed)
• Current: Subagents receive ~150 lines of focused task execution instructions via Task tool
• Benefit: 80% reduction in content subagents must parse (only see task instructions, not orchestration)
• Verification: Shared 92-line skill eliminates duplication

Maintainability benefit: Orchestrator features (resume support, enhanced error recovery, verification improvements) can be added without affecting task execution instructions. Subagents receive focused, consistent instructions while orchestrators handle workflow complexity.

Testing framework: This plugin uses Test-Driven Development for workflow documentation. See tests/README.md and CLAUDE.md for the complete testing system. All changes to commands and skills must pass the test suite before committing.

Available Skills

Skills are referenced on-demand when you encounter the relevant step. Do not pre-read all skills upfront.

Phase Execution (read when you encounter the phase type):

• executing-parallel-phase - Mandatory workflow for parallel phases (Step 2)
• executing-sequential-phase - Mandatory workflow for sequential phases (Step 2)

Support Skills (read as needed when referenced):

• understanding-cross-phase-stacking - Reference before starting any phase (explains base branch inheritance)
• validating-setup-commands - Reference if CLAUDE.md setup validation needed (Step 1.5)
• using-git-spice - Reference for git-spice command syntax (as needed)
• requesting-code-review - Reference after each phase completes (Step 2)
• verification-before-completion - Reference before claiming completion (Step 3)
• finishing-a-development-branch - Reference after all phases complete (Step 4)
• troubleshooting-execute - Reference if execution fails (error recovery)
• using-git-worktrees - Reference if worktree issues occur (diagnostics)

Multi-Repo Support

Detecting Multi-Repo Mode

At the start of execution, detect workspace mode:

# Detect workspace mode
REPO_COUNT=$(find . -maxdepth 2 -name ".git" -type d 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
if [ "$REPO_COUNT" -gt 1 ]; then
  echo "Multi-repo workspace detected ($REPO_COUNT repos)"
  WORKSPACE_MODE="multi-repo"
  REPOS=$(find . -maxdepth 2 -name ".git" -type d | xargs -I{} dirname {} | sed 's|^\./||' | tr '\n' ' ')
  echo "Available repos: $REPOS"
else
  echo "Single-repo mode"
  WORKSPACE_MODE="single-repo"
fi

Multi-Repo Execution Differences

Passing Repo Context to Phase Skills

When dispatching phase execution, include repo context:

**Multi-repo context for phase:**
- WORKSPACE_MODE: multi-repo
- WORKSPACE_ROOT: {absolute path}
- Task repos: {list of repos with tasks in this phase}
- Per-task repo: extracted from plan's `**Repo**: {repo}` field

The Process

Input

User will provide: /spectacular:execute {plan-path}

Example: /spectacular:execute @specs/a1b2c3-magic-link-auth/plan.md

Where a1b2c3 is the runId and magic-link-auth is the feature slug.

Step 0a: Extract Run ID from Plan

User provided plan path: The user gave you a plan path like .worktrees/3a00a7-main/specs/3a00a7-agent-standardization-refactor/plan.md

Extract RUN_ID from the path:

The RUN_ID is the first segment of the spec directory name (before the first dash).

For example:

• Path: .worktrees/3a00a7-main/specs/3a00a7-agent-standardization-refactor/plan.md
• Directory: 3a00a7-agent-standardization-refactor
• RUN_ID: 3a00a7

# Extract RUN_ID and FEATURE_SLUG from plan path (replace {the-plan-path-user-provided} with actual path)
PLAN_PATH="{the-plan-path-user-provided}"
DIR_NAME=$(echo "$PLAN_PATH" | sed 's|^.*specs/||; s|/plan.md$||')
RUN_ID=$(echo "$DIR_NAME" | cut -d'-' -f1)
FEATURE_SLUG=$(echo "$DIR_NAME" | cut -d'-' -f2-)

echo "Extracted RUN_ID: $RUN_ID"
echo "Extracted FEATURE_SLUG: $FEATURE_SLUG"

# Verify RUN_ID and FEATURE_SLUG are not empty
if [ -z "$RUN_ID" ]; then
  echo "Error: Could not extract RUN_ID from plan path: $PLAN_PATH"
  exit 1
fi

if [ -z "$FEATURE_SLUG" ]; then
  echo "Error: Could not extract FEATURE_SLUG from plan path: $PLAN_PATH"
  exit 1
fi

CRITICAL: Execute this entire block as a single multi-line Bash tool call. The comment on the first line is REQUIRED - without it, command substitution $(...) causes parse errors.

Store RUN_ID and FEATURE_SLUG for use in:

• Branch naming: {run-id}-task-X-Y-name
• Filtering: git branch | grep "^ {run-id}-"
• Spec path: specs/{run-id}-{feature-slug}/spec.md
• Cleanup: Identify which branches/specs belong to this run

Announce: "Executing with RUN_ID: {run-id}, FEATURE_SLUG: {feature-slug}"

Step 0b: Verify Worktree Exists

Multi-repo mode: Skip worktree verification at orchestrator level. Each task will create its own worktree in its repo during phase execution.

if [ "$WORKSPACE_MODE" = "multi-repo" ]; then
  echo "Multi-repo mode: Worktrees created per-task during execution"
  # Verify spec exists at workspace root
  if [ ! -f "specs/${RUN_ID}-${FEATURE_SLUG}/plan.md" ]; then
    echo "Error: Plan not found at specs/${RUN_ID}-${FEATURE_SLUG}/plan.md"
    exit 1
  fi
  echo "Plan verified: specs/${RUN_ID}-${FEATURE_SLUG}/plan.md"
fi

Single-repo mode: Continue with existing worktree verification.

After extracting RUN_ID, verify the worktree exists:

# Get absolute repo root (stay in main repo, don't cd into worktree)
REPO_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)

# Verify worktree exists
if [ ! -d "$REPO_ROOT/.worktrees/${RUN_ID}-main" ]; then
  echo "Error: Worktree not found at .worktrees/${RUN_ID}-main"
  echo "Run /spectacular:spec first to create the workspace."
  exit 1
fi

# Verify it's a valid worktree
git worktree list | grep "${RUN_ID}-main"

IMPORTANT: Orchestrator stays in main repo. All worktree operations use git -C .worktrees/{run-id}-main or absolute paths.

This ensures task worktrees are created at the same level as {run-id}-main, not nested inside it.

Announce: "Verified worktree exists: .worktrees/{run-id}-main/"

Step 0c: Check for Existing Work

Check if implementation work already exists:

# Get repo root
REPO_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)

# Check current branch in main worktree
CURRENT_BRANCH=$(git -C "$REPO_ROOT/.worktrees/${RUN_ID}-main" branch --show-current 2>/dev/null || echo "")

# Count existing task branches for this RUN_ID
EXISTING_TASKS=$(git branch 2>/dev/null | grep -c "^  ${RUN_ID}-task-" || echo "0")

# Report status
if [ "$EXISTING_TASKS" -gt 0 ]; then
  echo "Found $EXISTING_TASKS existing task branch(es) for RUN_ID: $RUN_ID"
  echo "   Current branch: $CURRENT_BRANCH"
  echo ""
  echo "Resuming from current state. The execution will:"
  echo "- Sequential phases: Continue from current branch"
  echo "- Parallel phases: Skip completed tasks, run remaining"
  echo ""
else
  echo "No existing work found - starting fresh execution"
  echo ""
fi

CRITICAL: Execute this entire block as a single multi-line Bash tool call. The comment on the first line is REQUIRED - without it, command substitution $(...) causes parse errors.

Resume behavior:

• If EXISTING_TASKS > 0: Execution continues from current state in main worktree
• If EXISTING_TASKS = 0: Execution starts from Phase 1, Task 1
• Main worktree current branch indicates progress (latest completed work)

Note: Orchestrator proceeds immediately to Step 1. Phase execution logic in Step 2 handles resume by checking current branch and existing task branches.

Step 1: Read and Parse Plan

Read the plan file and extract:

• Feature name
• All phases (with strategy: sequential or parallel)
• All tasks within each phase

For each task, extract and format:

• Task ID and name
• Files to modify (explicit paths)
• Acceptance criteria (bullet points)
• Dependencies (which tasks must complete first)

Store extracted task info for subagent prompts (saves ~1000 tokens per subagent):

Task 4.2:
Name: Integrate prompts module into generator
Files: - src/generator.ts - src/types.ts
Acceptance Criteria: - Import PromptService from prompts module - Replace manual prompt construction with PromptService.getCommitPrompt() - Update tests to mock PromptService - All tests pass
Dependencies: Task 4.1 (fallback logic removed)

Multi-repo plan parsing:

For multi-repo plans, also extract the repo field from each task:

Task 4.2:
Name: Integrate prompts module into generator
Repo: backend  # NEW - required in multi-repo mode
Files: - src/generator.ts - src/types.ts
Acceptance Criteria: - Import PromptService from prompts module - Replace manual prompt construction with PromptService.getCommitPrompt() - Update tests to mock PromptService - All tests pass
Dependencies: Task 4.1 (fallback logic removed)

Pass repo information to phase execution skills.

Verify plan structure:

• Has phases with clear strategies
• All tasks have files specified
• All tasks have acceptance criteria
• Dependencies make sense

Step 1.5: Validate Setup Commands (REQUIRED)

Use the validating-setup-commands skill:

This skill validates that CLAUDE.md defines required setup commands BEFORE creating worktrees. It provides clear error messages with examples if missing.

The skill will extract and return:

• INSTALL_CMD - Required dependency installation command
• POSTINSTALL_CMD - Optional post-install command (codegen, etc.)

Store these commands for use in dependency installation steps throughout execution.

Step 1.6: Detect Project Commands (Optional)

Optionally detect project-specific quality check commands for subagents to use.

This is optional - most projects define commands in CLAUDE.md that subagents can discover.

If you want to provide hints, check for common patterns:

• TypeScript/JavaScript: package.json scripts
• Python: pytest, ruff, black
• Go: go test, golangci-lint
• Rust: cargo test, cargo clippy

If detected, mention in subagent prompts:

• TEST_CMD - Command to run tests
• LINT_CMD - Command to run linting
• FORMAT_CMD - Command to format code
• BUILD_CMD - Command to build project

If not detected, subagents will check CLAUDE.md or skip quality checks with warning.

IMPORTANT: Do NOT read constitution files here. Let subagents read them as needed to reduce orchestrator token usage.

Step 1.7: Configure Code Review Frequency

Determine when to run code reviews:

# Check if REVIEW_FREQUENCY env var is set
REVIEW_FREQUENCY=${REVIEW_FREQUENCY:-}

If not set, prompt user for preference:

If REVIEW_FREQUENCY is empty, use AskUserQuestion tool to prompt:

Question: "How frequently should code reviews run during execution?"
Header: "Review Frequency"
Options:
  1. "After each phase"
     Description: "Run code review after every phase completes (safest - catches errors early, prevents compounding issues)"
  2. "Optimize automatically"
     Description: "Let Claude decide when to review based on phase risk/complexity (RECOMMENDED - balances speed and quality)"
  3. "Only at end"
     Description: "Skip per-phase reviews, run one review after all phases complete (faster, but errors may compound)"
  4. "Skip reviews"
     Description: "No automated code reviews (fastest, but requires manual review before merging)"

Store user choice:

• Option 1 -> REVIEW_FREQUENCY="per-phase"
• Option 2 -> REVIEW_FREQUENCY="optimize"
• Option 3 -> REVIEW_FREQUENCY="end-only"
• Option 4 -> REVIEW_FREQUENCY="skip"

Announce decision:

Code review frequency: {REVIEW_FREQUENCY}

Note: This setting applies to all phases in this execution. Phase skills check REVIEW_FREQUENCY to determine whether to run code review step.

Step 2: Execute Phases

If resuming: Start from the incomplete phase/task identified in Step 0.

For each phase in the plan, execute based on strategy:

Multi-repo phase execution:

When dispatching phase skills, include:

• WORKSPACE_MODE: "multi-repo" or "single-repo"
• WORKSPACE_ROOT: Absolute path to workspace
• For each task: TASK_REPO field from plan

Example dispatch context:

WORKSPACE_MODE: multi-repo
WORKSPACE_ROOT: /home/user/workspace
Phase 2 tasks:
- Task 2.1: repo=backend
- Task 2.2: repo=frontend
- Task 2.3: repo=frontend

Phase skills use this to:

• Create worktrees in the correct repo
• Read CLAUDE.md from the task's repo
• Read constitution from the task's repo

Code Review Gates: Phase execution skills check REVIEW_FREQUENCY (set in Step 1.7) to determine when to run code reviews:

• per-phase: Review after each phase before proceeding
• optimize: LLM decides whether to review based on phase risk/complexity
• end-only: Skip per-phase reviews, review once after all phases
• skip: No automated reviews (manual review required)

Cross-Phase Stacking

Use the understanding-cross-phase-stacking skill:

This skill explains how sequential and parallel phases automatically chain together through base branch inheritance. Key concepts:

• Main worktree tracks progress (current branch = latest completed work)
• Parallel phases inherit from current branch (not original base)
• Natural chaining creates linear stack across all phases

Read this skill before starting any new phase to understand how phases build on each other.

Sequential Phase Strategy

Use the executing-sequential-phase skill:

This skill provides the complete workflow for executing sequential phases. Key concepts:

• Execute tasks one-by-one in existing {runid}-main worktree
• Trust natural git-spice stacking (no manual gs upstack onto)
• Tasks build on each other cumulatively
• Stay on task branches for automatic stacking

The skill includes detailed subagent prompts, quality check sequences, and code review integration.

CRITICAL: When dispatching subagents, substitute {run-id} and {feature-slug} with the values extracted in Step 0a. Subagents need these to read the spec at specs/{run-id}-{feature-slug}/spec.md.

Parallel Phase Strategy

Use the executing-parallel-phase skill:

This skill provides the complete mandatory workflow for executing parallel phases. Key requirements:

• Create isolated worktrees for EACH task (even N=1)
• Install dependencies per worktree
• Spawn parallel subagents in single message
• Verify completion before stacking
• Stack branches linearly, then cleanup worktrees
• Code review after stacking

The skill includes the 8-step mandatory sequence, verification checks, N=1 edge case handling, and stacking algorithm.

CRITICAL: When dispatching subagents, substitute {run-id} and {feature-slug} with the values extracted in Step 0a. Subagents need these to read the spec at specs/{run-id}-{feature-slug}/spec.md.

Step 3: Verify Completion

After all phases execute successfully:

Use the verification-before-completion skill:

This skill enforces verification BEFORE claiming work is done.

Required verifications (if commands detected):

# Run full test suite
if [ -n "$TEST_CMD" ]; then
  $TEST_CMD || { echo "Tests failed"; exit 1; }
fi

# Run linting
if [ -n "$LINT_CMD" ]; then
  $LINT_CMD || { echo "Linting failed"; exit 1; }
fi

# Run production build
if [ -n "$BUILD_CMD" ]; then
  $BUILD_CMD || { echo "Build failed"; exit 1; }
fi

# Verify all detected checks passed
echo "All quality checks passed - ready to complete"

If no commands detected:

Warning: No test/lint/build commands found in project.
Add to CLAUDE.md or constitution/testing.md for automated quality gates.
Proceeding without verification - manual review recommended.

Critical: Evidence before assertions. Never claim "tests pass" without running them.

Step 4: Finish Stack

After verification passes:

Use the finishing-a-development-branch skill to:

1. Review all changes
2. Choose next action:
   • Submit stack as PRs: gs stack submit (per using-git-spice skill)
   • Continue with dependent feature: gs branch create
   • Mark complete and sync: gs repo sync

Step 5: Final Report

Multi-repo final report:

Feature Implementation Complete

**RUN_ID**: {run-id}
**Feature**: {feature-name}
**Workspace Mode**: multi-repo
**Workspace Root**: {path}

## Per-Repo Summary

| Repo | Tasks | Branches | Status |
|------|-------|----------|--------|
| backend | 4 | 4 | Complete |
| frontend | 3 | 3 | Complete |
| shared-lib | 1 | 1 | Complete |

## Branch Stacks (per-repo)

**backend:**
- {runId}-task-1-1-database
- {runId}-task-2-1-api

**frontend:**
- {runId}-task-2-2-hook
- {runId}-task-2-3-ui

## Next Steps

### Submit PRs (per-repo)
```bash
cd backend && gs stack submit
cd ../frontend && gs stack submit

**Single-repo final report:**

```markdown
Feature Implementation Complete

**RUN_ID**: {run-id}
**Feature**: {feature-name}
**Worktree**: .worktrees/{run-id}-main/
**Stack**: {count} task branches (all stacked on {run-id}-main)

## Execution Summary

**Phases Completed**: {count}

- Sequential: {count} phases
- Parallel: {count} phases

**Tasks Completed**: {count}
**Commits**: {count}

**Isolation**: All work completed in worktree. Main repo unchanged.

## Parallelization Results

{For each parallel phase:}
**Phase {id}**: {task-count} tasks in parallel

- Estimated sequential time: {hours}h
- Actual parallel time: {hours}h
- Time saved: {hours}h

**Total Time Saved**: {hours}h ({percent}%)

## Quality Checks

Quality checks are project-specific (detected from CLAUDE.md, constitution, or common patterns):

- Tests passing (if `TEST_CMD` detected)
- Linting clean (if `LINT_CMD` detected)
- Formatting applied (if `FORMAT_CMD` detected)
- Build successful (if `BUILD_CMD` detected)

If no commands detected, quality gates are skipped with warning to user.
- {total-commits} commits across {branch-count} task branches

## Next Steps

### Review Changes (from main repo)

```bash
# All these commands work from main repo root
gs log short                      # View all branches and commits in stack
gs log long                       # Detailed view with commit messages
git branch | grep "^  {run-id}-"  # List all branches for this run

# To see changes in worktree:
cd .worktrees/{run-id}-main
git diff main..HEAD               # See all changes in current stack
cd ../..                          # Return to main repo

Submit for Review (from main repo)

# git-spice commands work from main repo
gs stack submit  # Submits entire stack as PRs (per using-git-spice skill)

Or Continue with Dependent Feature (from worktree)

cd .worktrees/{run-id}-main       # Navigate to worktree
gs branch create  # Creates new branch stacked on current
cd ../..                          # Return to main repo when done

Cleanup Worktree (after PRs merged)

# From main repo root:
git worktree remove .worktrees/{run-id}-main

# Optional: Delete the {run-id}-main branch
git branch -d {run-id}-main

Important: Main repo remains unchanged. All work is in the worktree and task branches.

## Error Handling

**Use the `troubleshooting-execute` skill:**

This skill provides comprehensive diagnostic and recovery strategies for execute command failures:
- Phase execution failures (sequential and parallel)
- Parallel agent failures with 4 recovery options
- Merge conflicts during stacking
- Worktree not found errors
- Parallel task worktree creation failures

The skill includes diagnostic commands, recovery strategies, and prevention guidelines.

Consult this skill when execution fails or produces unexpected results.

## Important Notes

- **Orchestrator delegates, never executes** - The orchestrator NEVER runs git commands directly. All git operations are delegated to subagents (setup, implementation, cleanup)
- **Subagents own their git operations** - Implementation subagents create branches and commit their own work using `gs branch create -m`
- **Skill-driven execution** - Uses using-git-spice, using-git-worktrees, and other superpowers skills
- **Automatic orchestration** - Reads plan strategies, executes accordingly
- **Git-spice stacking** - Sequential tasks stack linearly; parallel tasks branch from same base (per using-git-spice skill)
- **No feature branch** - The stack of task branches IS the feature; never create empty branch upfront
- **Worktree isolation** - Parallel tasks run in separate worktrees (per using-git-worktrees skill)
- **Critical: HEAD detachment** - Parallel task subagents MUST detach HEAD after creating branches to make them accessible in parent repo
- **Context management** - Each task runs in isolated subagent to avoid token bloat
- **Constitution adherence** - All agents follow project constitution (@docs/constitutions/current/)
- **Quality gates** - Tests and linting after every task, code review after every phase
- **Continuous commits** - Small, focused commits with [Task X.Y] markers throughout

Now execute the plan from: {plan-path}