" --brief "<user's own words, verbatim>" 2. dolly plan check <ref> → your interview agenda 3. ASK USER the open items. One batch. Wait for answers. 4. dolly plan qa <ref> -q "..." -a "..." record each answer dolly plan set <ref> "<Section>" --text "..." fill sections 5. repeat 2-4 until `plan check` say complete 6. dolly plan finalize <ref> → spec + criteria generated, status → todo ``` Then hand to the **dolly** skill and work it. ## Sections you must fill | Section | What good looks like | |---|---| | **Problem** | What hurt today, who feel it, evidence — bug id, metric, user quote. Not "we lack X". | | **Goal** | One paragraph. What is true after ship. | | **Scope** | `**In:**` bullets · `**Out:**` bullets. Out is the valuable half — write it. | | **Success Criteria** | Checkbox list. Each verifiable by human or test. "fast" bad, "p95 < 300ms on 1M rows" good. | | **Changes** | Files, modules, schemas, configs, migrations. Guesses fine — mark them `(guess)`. | | **Risks** | What break, what uncertain, fallback for each. | | **Test Plan** | Named cases per layer. Unit / integration / manual. Not framework names. | | **Open Questions** | Blockers. `- [ ]` unchecked = blocks finalize. Check when answered. | ## Asking questions — rules - **Never invent an answer.** Unknown → Open Question → ask. - Batch them. One message, grouped by section, max ~7 at a time. Not a 20-question interrogation, not one question per turn. - Concrete and closed where possible. Offer options with a recommendation: > Country source: (a) GeoIP at session start, (b) user profile field, (c) both with GeoIP fallback. Recommend (a) — already stored, zero extra write path. Which? - Ask what a senior engineer would ask before writing code: what happen at scale, what happen on failure, who consume this, what already exist that do half of it, what must NOT change. - Read the code before asking. Question already answered by the repo is a wasted turn — grep first, then ask only what code can't tell you. - Record every answer with `dolly plan qa`. Answers become the Decisions section of the spec. Unrecorded answer is lost the moment context resets. ## The gate `dolly plan check <ref>` exit 1 while any section blank/`_TBD_` or any Open Question unchecked. `dolly plan finalize` refuse the same. Genuinely can't resolve something and user says ship anyway → `dolly plan finalize <ref> --force`. Then record the unknown as a Risk. Don't reach for `--force` to skip work. ## Finalize output `finalize` derive: - **full spec** → `context/spec.md` (Problem, Goal, Scope, Criteria, Changes, Risks, Test Plan, Decisions from Q&A). Previous spec moves to "Superseded versions" in the same file. - **short spec** → `task.md` (Goal + out-of-scope line) - **criteria** → checkbox list in `task.md` - status → `todo` `plan.md` stay as the interview record. Never deleted. ## Override the derived spec Wrote a better spec by hand: ``` dolly plan finalize <ref> --file /tmp/spec.md --short "<2-5 lines>" ``` ## Small task, no interview ``` dolly new "<title>" --short "<spec>" ``` Don't run a planning interview on a typo fix.

# Dolly Planning > Planning mode for a new feature. Interview the user until success criteria, scope, risks, changes and test plan are all pinned down, then generate the spec. Use when: user describes a feature or change rather than a one-line fix, says "plan this", "let's design", "I want to build X", "spec this out", "/dolly-plan", or when a task sits in status `planning`. Not for small bounded fixes. - Skill: `nick-delirium/dolly-planning` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add nick-delirium/dolly-planning` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/nick-delirium/dolly-planning/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Productivity - Author: nick-delirium (https://skillmd.com/u/nick-delirium) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/nick-delirium/dolly-planning --- Plan before code. Interview until nothing ambiguous. Then spec write itself. ## Flow ``` 1. dolly plan start "" --brief "<user's own words, verbatim>" 2. dolly plan check <ref> → your interview agenda 3. ASK USER the open items. One batch. Wait for answers. 4. dolly plan qa <ref> -q "..." -a "..." record each answer dolly plan set <ref> "<Section>" --text "..." fill sections 5. repeat 2-4 until `plan check` say complete 6. dolly plan finalize <ref> → spec + criteria generated, status → todo ``` Then hand to the **dolly** skill and work it. ## Sections you must fill | Section | What good looks like | |---|---| | **Problem** | What hurt today, who feel it, evidence — bug id, metric, user quote. Not "we lack X". | | **Goal** | One paragraph. What is true after ship. | | **Scope** | `**In:**` bullets · `**Out:**` bullets. Out is the valuable half — write it. | | **Success Criteria** | Checkbox list. Each verifiable by human or test. "fast" bad, "p95 < 300ms on 1M rows" good. | | **Changes** | Files, modules, schemas, configs, migrations. Guesses fine — mark them `(guess)`. | | **Risks** | What break, what uncertain, fallback for each. | | **Test Plan** | Named cases per layer. Unit / integration / manual. Not framework names. | | **Open Questions** | Blockers. `- [ ]` unchecked = blocks finalize. Check when answered. | ## Asking questions — rules - **Never invent an answer.** Unknown → Open Question → ask. - Batch them. One message, grouped by section, max ~7 at a time. Not a 20-question interrogation, not one question per turn. - Concrete and closed where possible. Offer options with a recommendation: > Country source: (a) GeoIP at session start, (b) user profile field, (c) both with GeoIP fallback. Recommend (a) — already stored, zero extra write path. Which? - Ask what a senior engineer would ask before writing code: what happen at scale, what happen on failure, who consume this, what already exist that do half of it, what must NOT change. - Read the code before asking. Question already answered by the repo is a wasted turn — grep first, then ask only what code can't tell you. - Record every answer with `dolly plan qa`. Answers become the Decisions section of the spec. Unrecorded answer is lost the moment context resets. ## The gate `dolly plan check <ref>` exit 1 while any section blank/`_TBD_` or any Open Question unchecked. `dolly plan finalize` refuse the same. Genuinely can't resolve something and user says ship anyway → `dolly plan finalize <ref> --force`. Then record the unknown as a Risk. Don't reach for `--force` to skip work. ## Finalize output `finalize` derive: - **full spec** → `context/spec.md` (Problem, Goal, Scope, Criteria, Changes, Risks, Test Plan, Decisions from Q&A). Previous spec moves to "Superseded versions" in the same file. - **short spec** → `task.md` (Goal + out-of-scope line) - **criteria** → checkbox list in `task.md` - status → `todo` `plan.md` stay as the interview record. Never deleted. ## Override the derived spec Wrote a better spec by hand: ``` dolly plan finalize <ref> --file /tmp/spec.md --short "<2-5 lines>" ``` ## Small task, no interview ``` dolly new "<title>" --short "<spec>" ``` Don't run a planning interview on a typo fix.