# Plan Em

> Engineering Manager skill. Reads an approved PRD, runs pre-flight checks against AHA.md, GLOSSARY.md and ARCHITECTURE.md, auto-runs plan-review certification inline (no ask), identifies specialist agents to activate (roster approval — the single human gate), spins them up to write engineering sections directly into the PRD, then synthesises the full output. Sizes itself on the PRD's intake grade: a medium PRD runs one fused plan+build wave behind one certification, a large PRD keeps the two-wave path with a certification before each. Runs in --team mode by default (an Opus orchestrator engineer decomposes each wave into file-disjoint, model-tiered packets fanned out to leaf eng subagents) or --solo (one leaf subagent per roster stack). Refuses without a referenced PRD .md path.

- Skill: `ndisisnd/plan-em` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add ndisisnd/plan-em`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/ndisisnd/plan-em/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Product & Planning
- Author: ndisisnd (https://skillmd.com/u/ndisisnd)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/ndisisnd/plan-em

---


# plan-em

**This file is a router.** The five-step protocol lives in `refs/protocol-em.md` and the team-lane fan-out in `refs/protocol-team.md` — neither is restated here.

## Usage

**Invoke**: `/plan-em <prd-path>`. The PRD path is a `.md` file inside a PRD folder in any lane — `features/{planned,wip,done}/prd-[n]-[slug]/` or the legacy flat `features/prd-[n]-[slug]/`.

- Slash command: `/plan-em` · natural language: "engineering plan for <PRD>", "scope this PRD", "spin up eng agents" · context: a path to an existing approved PRD `.md` file, typically passed forward from `plan-pm` or `plan-review`
- `/plan-em <prd-path> --quiet` / `--status <n>m` — suppress or retune this run's status heartbeat; flag beats policy beats default (`../shared/refs/status-heartbeat.md`)

**Hard refusals:**
- Invocation without a PRD path: refuse. State that `plan-em` requires an existing PRD. Offer two paths: run `/plan-pm` to create one, or supply a path to an existing PRD `.md` file.
- PRD path does not exist or does not match a lane-lifecycle path — `features/{planned,wip,done}/prd-*/prd-*.md` (top-level) or `features/{planned,wip,done}/prd-*/prd-*/prd-*.md` (nested sub-PRD, per `plan-pm`'s § Sub-PRD mode) — or the legacy flat `features/prd-*/prd-*.md` / `features/prd-*/prd-*/prd-*.md`: refuse. State the expected location.

## Execution mode

Two mutually exclusive execution lanes — **`--team` is the default**. The flag changes
only **how the wave is dispatched at Step 4**; every other step is identical in both lanes.

| Flag | Lane | Step 4 dispatch |
|------|------|-----------------|
| `--team` (default) | **Team** | one **orchestrator engineer agent on Opus** decomposes the wave below the roster/stack level into file-disjoint, model-tiered packets and fans them out to leaf `eng` subagents. |
| `--solo` | **Solo** | **one leaf `eng` subagent per roster stack**, whole-stack scope each, on the inherited model. |

In `--team` mode plan-em is a **thin dispatcher**: it spawns the orchestrator
**backgrounded** as one watched leaf and relays its `REPORT` blocks; run-ids stay disjoint
(`emteam-<epoch>` vs `em-<epoch>`) — mechanics in `refs/protocol-em.md` Step 4 +
`../shared/refs/status-heartbeat.md` § *Relaying across a subagent boundary*. The mode is a
**persisted preference**, not just a per-run flag (`refs/protocol-em.md` Step 0; pref file: `../shared/refs/exec-mode-pref.md`).

## Size tier — how many invocations a PRD costs

Independent of the lane, the **size tier** decides the PRD's ceremony, resolved once from
the intake complexity grade (`refs/protocol-em.md` Step 1e — no flag, no question): `C:`
**< 8** or unresolvable ⇒ **medium**, one fused plan+build invocation behind one product
certification (a mechanical plan-shape check replaces the eng cert); `C:` **≥ 8** ⇒
**large**, plan wave then build wave, a certification before each. An interrupted fused run is resumed by re-invoking `/plan-em` on the same PRD — no flag, no state file.

## Inputs

| Name | Format | Source |
|------|--------|--------|
| PRD file path | `.md` file path matching `features/{planned,wip,done}/prd-*/prd-*.md` (or legacy flat `features/prd-*/prd-*.md`) | User message at invocation, or handoff from `plan-pm` / `plan-review` |
| Execution-mode flag · clarification answers | `--team` (default) / `--solo` · `AskUserQuestion` selections | User message at invocation · human during ambiguity resolution and agent approval |

## Outputs

| Name | Format | Destination |
|------|--------|-------------|
| Pre-flight report | Markdown findings file — **written only when the scan found something**; a clean run emits one inline line and no file | `features/prd-[n]-[slug]/preflight.md` |
| Engineering sections | Structured markdown per agent | Appended to the PRD file |
| Synthesis report | Numbered findings with severity | Emitted inline at end of run |
| Stage timing log | Append-only TSV, one line per stage boundary | `features/prd-[n]-[slug]/reports/timings-<date>.log` |

**No separate engineering plan files — all output lives in the PRD.** The pre-flight
report is the one exception, and it sits inside the PRD's own folder. `[n]` is the first
numeric segment of the input PRD's parent directory name; `[slug]` is the remainder.
Resolve the actual matched directory once at Step 1 and write every artifact relative to
it — do not reconstruct a bare `features/prd-[n]/` path.

## Step-by-step protocol

Follow `refs/protocol-em.md` end-to-end — it owns the steps, their order, their scripts, and their outputs. In `--team` mode Step 4 hands the wave to the orchestrator whose protocol is `refs/protocol-team.md`.

**Closing message (both lanes, every outcome):** end with the closing message per `../shared/refs/closing-message.md` — the last chat output, after Step 5's synthesis. Take the next step from the registry's `plan-em` row; never compose it, never invoke it.

**Harness incidents (both lanes):** log unexpected script failures, tool errors, retries, and missed writes to `devkit/DOCTOR.md` per `../shared/refs/doctor-logging.md` — logging never changes what the run does next.

## References

- `refs/protocol-em.md` — end-to-end execution protocol (Step 0 mode resolve + five steps); followed from § Step-by-step protocol
- `refs/protocol-team.md` — the Opus orchestrator engineer's protocol, spawned at Step 4 in `--team` mode · `refs/template-exec-table.md` — execution-table shape + concern checklist (Step 3)
- `../shared/refs/` — `exec-mode-pref.md` (the persisted team/solo pref, `.claude/msg/pref.json`) · `closing-message.md` · `doctor-logging.md` · `status-heartbeat.md`
- `.claude/skills/eng/SKILL.md` — eng agent entry point; Step 4 subagents read this and run `--plan` or `--build` mode · `.claude/skills/eng/refs/plan/template-todo.md` — the todo ticket schema consumed by build agents