Phase Plan Review
This skill has two modes. Pick by what you were asked to review.
Mode 1 — Single phase (default)
This is the only review pass this plan gets — never ask to be re-run on the same
plan. Go over the plan for the provided phase in the linked task and make sure it has no
flaws; make suggestions if there are changes you'd consider (keep the full context for
the task in mind). Anything unresolved goes to the human as BLOCKING.
Tag every finding High / Medium / Low (same scale defined under ## File access
below), one line per finding.
High is decided by criteria, not by judgement. A finding is High if any of these is true — and is otherwise not High:
- (a) It cannot work as written. A named anchor, file, path, symbol or section does not exist in the live tree, or a step depends on something no earlier step creates.
- (b) It contradicts an explicit instruction in
task.md,AGENTS.md, or an ADR the task is bound by. - (c) Parallel/dependency conflict.
## Files Modifiedintersects another phase in the sameparallel_group, orblocked_by/Depsdisagree between state.json and task.md. (Already High under Mode 1's mechanical check below — this keeps the two scales consistent.) - (d) A required plan section is missing —
## Verification(with success criteria and a demo statement),## Testsfor any behaviour change, or## Files Modified. - (e) A verification step is wrong against the live files — a stated command or grep that fails before the change lands, or passes whether or not it lands. A guard that cannot fail, or fails on arrival, is not a guard.
- (f) It widens a tool permission, grant, hook or
agents:scope not named in the task's approved scope.
Binding rule — the verdict is computed, not chosen:
- one or more High findings →
BLOCKING, always; - no High, at least one Medium or Low →
APPROVED WITH SUGGESTIONS; - no findings →
APPROVED.
Close with exactly one of APPROVED, APPROVED WITH SUGGESTIONS, or
BLOCKING — [what must change, in one line a non-author can act on]. If the tags and
the verdict disagree, the tags win — re-derive the verdict.
Do not tune the tag to reach a preferred verdict. Never soften a High to avoid
BLOCKING; never tag a nitpick High to force attention. Cosmetic, stylistic and
count-off-by-a-few findings are Low, never High. The criteria above are the whole
test — a confidence percentage is not a severity and does not substitute for one.
If the phase has a parallel_group assigned, additionally check:
- File overlap (mechanical): Read the
## Files Modifiedsection from each phase plan in the same parallel group. Compute the intersection of their file lists. Flag any overlap as High severity — parallel phases must not modify overlapping files. - Shared state: Check if this phase reads state that another parallel phase writes (e.g., shared config files, database migrations that must be ordered). Flag as Medium severity if detected.
Mode 2 — Cross-phase analyze (opt-in, multi-phase tasks only)
Use when asked to analyze a task across its phases (e.g. "analyze phases", "check consistency across phases"). Skip for single-phase tasks — there is nothing to cross-check.
Read task.md (phase table, overview, goal) and ALL plan/*.md for the task, then cross-check
the phases against each other and against the goal for:
- Contradictions — phases that assume conflicting state, ordering, or interfaces.
- Duplication — two phases doing the same work.
- Gaps — a goal/overview item or a stated dependency with no owning phase.
- Ordering/dependency — a phase that depends on the output of a later phase.
- Parallel group safety — phases in the same
parallel_groupthat modify overlapping files or share mutable state. Severity: High if file overlap, Medium if shared-state risk. - Dependency consistency —
blocked_byedges in state.json match theDepscolumn in task.md. Flag mismatches as Medium severity. - Scope drift — a phase doing work outside the task goal.
- Convention misalignment — phases that diverge from AGENTS.md Learned Patterns / project conventions (when an AGENTS.md is present).
File access
Do NOT modify task.md, any file in plan/, or any source code files. Write your findings
as your response; the orchestrating agent presents them to the user for adoption or rejection.
For cross-phase mode, structure findings as a list, each item:
- Severity — High (blocks correct implementation) / Medium (likely rework) / Low (minor).
- Phases involved — the phase numbers.
- Issue — one line.
- Recommended resolution — what to change (a suggestion; you do not apply it).
End with an overall consistency verdict (consistent / issues found) and a one-line summary.