Planning

Planning

A structured workflow for breaking features or projects into phased, actionable plans.

When to Use

• Large features that span multiple pages or components
• Redesigns or major refactors
• New sections with unclear scope
• When the user asks "how should we approach this?"

When NOT to Use

• Single-component tasks
• Bug fixes
• Simple content updates

Core Principles

• Break work into shippable increments
• Each phase should be independently deployable
• Identify dependencies between phases
• Estimate relative complexity (S/M/L)

The 6 Phases

Phase 1: Discovery

Goal: Understand the full scope.

1. Read the user's request and any reference materials
2. Identify all deliverables
3. List assumptions and open questions

Phase 2: Exploration

Goal: Understand what exists.

1. Survey the current codebase structure
2. Identify reusable components and patterns
3. Note technical constraints (stack, dependencies)
4. Check for similar implementations to reference

Phase 3: Questions

Goal: Resolve ambiguity.

1. List open questions (max 5)
2. Propose defaults for minor decisions
3. Confirm priorities and must-haves vs. nice-to-haves

Phase 4: Plan Design

Goal: Structure the work into phases.

1. Group deliverables into logical phases
2. Order phases by dependency and priority
3. Identify shared components to build first
4. Estimate complexity per phase (S/M/L)

Phase 5: Plan Output

Goal: Produce the actionable plan.

Format:

# Implementation Plan: [Feature Name]

## Overview
[1-2 sentence summary]

## Phases

### Phase 1: [Name] (Size: S/M/L)
**Goal**: [What this achieves]
**Files**:
- [ ] `path/to/file.tsx` — [what to do]
**Dependencies**: None

### Phase 2: [Name] (Size: S/M/L)
**Goal**: [What this achieves]
**Files**:
- [ ] `path/to/file.tsx` — [what to do]
**Dependencies**: Phase 1

## Shared Components
- [Component]: [used in phases X, Y]

## Risks
- [risk]: [mitigation]

Phase 6: Summary

Goal: Confirm the plan with the user.

1. Present the plan
2. Ask for approval or adjustments
3. Identify which phase to start with

Related Skills