Epic Planning

EPIC Planning

Overview

Specifications-first. Architecture and human intent are turned into shaped EPICs, each of which derives a gated PLAN. In the Meaningfy spine the artifacts are OpenSpec-native (see the spine): the EPIC ≡ proposal.md (the Shape-Up work shape) and the PLAN ≡ design.md + tasks.md (the pair the clarity gate scores). One artifact per concept — never a parallel EPIC.md/PLAN.md file. Ask before assuming; never ship a spec with hidden assumptions (Human Sovereignty).

This skill authors. The living-spec lifecycle after authoring — archive, grooming specs/, regenerating the orientation index — belongs to spec-stewardship.

Procedure (maps to the /opsx build-tier flow — see spine/workflows.md)

1. Seed intake (/opsx:explore). Read every human seed and supporting input — seed notes, architecture/ADRs, sample/test data, free notes, and for brownfield an existing-codebase analysis (optionally via GitNexus). Enumerate what you read. Details: references/seed-intake.md.
2. Elicit (/opsx:explore + superpowers:brainstorming). Drive a myriad of clarifying questions, one concern at a time, to surface and decide every ambiguity, conflict, and assumption before writing the EPIC. After each round, summarise what you understood and confirm. Make no silent assumptions. Include a test-scenario interview: help the human enumerate what the EPIC must prove — key assertions, scenarios, edge cases — so the design phase can author .feature coverage (handed to bdd-gherkin; the PLAN's design half references that coverage and clarity-gate scores it). Step definitions stay in implement.
3. Archive the seeds. Write the captured seeds and the Q&A record to changes/<id>/inputs/, marked secondary and never deleted or groomed — the authored EPIC supersedes them but does not replace them (the EPIC is the primary, shaped truth).
4. Shape the EPIC (/opsx:propose → proposal.md). Use the spine template (openspec/schemas/meaningfy/templates/proposal.md): appetite, why, solution outline, key decisions (each with a citeable DEC- id), rabbit-holes, no-gos (mandatory). Cite the EPIC's golden-thread parents (the requirement/architecture it derives from — see spine/golden-thread.md). Keep it at shaping altitude — leave implementation room.
5. EPIC readiness check (lightweight). Before deriving the PLAN, run the lightweight variant of clarity-gate over the EPIC — a quick readiness pass that catches bet-level ambiguity (vague problem, missing no-gos, undecided key decisions). This is not the full ≥9/10 gate (the Shape-Up bet stays deliberately looser); it just stops a vague EPIC producing a vague PLAN.
6. Derive the PLAN (design.md + tasks.md). From the shaped EPIC, produce the design half (algorithm, concrete examples, anti-patterns, error matrix, decisions) and the tasks half (ordered breakdown with layers/dependencies/acceptance, roadmap). Each PLAN cites its parent EPIC id (golden thread).
7. Gate the PLAN (full clarity-gate, ≥9/10). Score the design.md+tasks.md pair. Block progression to BDD/implementation until it passes. Below 9: list the specific gaps and revise the PLAN — never patch code to dodge a gap (Rule of Divergence).

When the bet itself is wrong (freeze vs re-shape)

The EPIC freezes once shaped. But elicitation or implementation can reveal two different kinds of wrongness — handle them differently:

• PLAN-level wrongness (the approach/breakdown is off, the bet still holds) → revise the PLAN. Normal divergence.
• EPIC-level wrongness (the bet itself is invalid) → re-shape the EPIC as a deliberate, logged event — record why in the EPIC's decisions and the change inputs, not a silent edit. A re-shape is a visible decision with an audit trail, which keeps the freeze meaningful.

What you do NOT do

• Write implementation code, Gherkin step definitions, or commit changes.
• Run the living-spec lifecycle (archive/groom/memory) — that is spec-stewardship.
• Make architectural decisions unilaterally — propose options with trade-offs; the developer decides.

Boundary & Related Skills

Owns: the authoring practice — seed intake, elicitation, EPIC shaping (= proposal.md), the lightweight EPIC readiness check, and PLAN derivation (= design.md + tasks.md). Delegates: PLAN scoring → clarity-gate; the living-spec lifecycle (archive, grooming, memory-index regen) → spec-stewardship; Gherkin → bdd-gherkin; code → cosmic-python; the doc-first build loop → external stream-coding. For the texture of the EPIC/PLAN narrative prose (the proposal "why" and "solution outline" are Explanation-quadrant), the writing family applies: technical-writing and explanatory-writing — referenced, not restated. Related: clarity-gate, spec-stewardship, bdd-gherkin, architecture, technical-writing, explanatory-writing, stream-coding (external).