# Itinerary Builder > Assemble a trip's day-by-day schedule once route, stays, and food are mostly decided. Trigger when the user says "build the itinerary" (or equivalent), when trips//trip.md's Route/Stays/Food sections are largely settled, or during the itinerary phase of "plan my whole trip" (travelers -> route -> stays/food -> itinerary). Assembles departure times, drive blocks with breaks, meal stops, check-ins, and anchor activities, respecting traveler logistics like early bird/night owl rhythms and motion-sickness breaks. Flags unresolved blockers instead of guessing, and flips trip status planning -> ready when complete. - Skill: `skandm/itinerary-builder` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add skandm/itinerary-builder` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/skandm/itinerary-builder/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: skandm (https://skillmd.com/u/skandm) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/skandm/itinerary-builder --- # Itinerary builder This skill turns a mostly-decided `trip.md` into a concrete hour-by-hour schedule. ## Step 1: Check readiness before scheduling Read `trips//trip.md` and `profiles/travelers.md`. Assemble the schedule only from what's already decided — this skill never invents a booking, a restaurant, or a time slot to fill a gap. **Running outside the repo** (e.g. a claude.ai chat with no files attached) — ask the user to attach their `trip.md`. There's nothing to schedule without it; say so plainly rather than improvising an itinerary from memory or invented details. Scan for blockers: - Stays marked `unbooked` or missing. - Food slots marked `_to scout_` or without a chosen option. - Route segments marked `tentative`. If blockers exist, **surface them rather than schedule around them**. Tell the user what's missing and either wait, or build the itinerary around the settled parts and leave the blocked days as open placeholders with a note. Don't silently pick a restaurant or hotel just to complete the schedule — that's food-scout's and the user's call, not this skill's. If a Budget section exists, do a quick sanity check: does its lodging/fuel actuals line up with what Route and Stays actually settled on? A mismatch (e.g. a stay chosen at $210/night against a stated $160 cap) isn't a blocker on its own, but flag it rather than silently scheduling around a plan that's quietly over budget. ## Step 2: Apply traveler logistics and interests Pull from `profiles/travelers.md` Logistics: - **Early bird vs. night owl** — set departure and dinner times accordingly; don't schedule a 6am departure for a stated night owl without flagging the tension. - **Motion sickness** — insert stop breaks on driving legs (roughly every 1.5-2h), matching what route-planner already flagged. - **Kids or mobility limits** — build in slack; avoid back-to-back long activities with no downtime. - **Driving shifts** — if multiple people share driving, note who's driving which leg if that was decided. Pull from `profiles/travelers.md` Interests when picking each day's anchor activity: favor stops the group's stated interests actually match (a museum afternoon for someone who loves museums, a trailhead for the hiker), and skip options that clash with a stated dislike. If a city offers several viable anchors and no interest data points to one, ask rather than guessing — don't silently default to the generic tourist option. ## Step 3: Assemble the schedule Write into `trip.md` as a new **Itinerary** section (or per-day subsections under existing days — match whatever structure the trip already uses). Per day, include: - Departure time and place. - Drive blocks with break points. - Meal stops with arrival times (pulled from the Food section's chosen options). - Check-in time at the night's stay. - Any anchor activity for the day. ```markdown ## Itinerary ### Day 1 — - 8:00 depart - 10:30 stop (15 min) — - 12:30 lunch — []() - 15:00 arrive - 15:30 check in — - Evening: []() ``` - **Reuse links, don't reinvent them.** Meal stops already carry a Google Maps place link from food-scout's Food section — copy it over rather than re-deriving. Any *new* anchor activity this skill introduces (a museum, a trailhead, a viewpoint) gets its own place link the same way food-scout and route-planner build theirs: `https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=`, plus the real website if you found one. - **Mark new anchors on the day's route map, if one exists.** If that day already has a Route section with a `Map:` link, add the anchor activity to its waypoints too (same mechanic food-scout uses for meal stops) so it shows up as a pin alongside the drive — update the Route section's `Map:` line in the same turn. Skip this if the day has no driving segment or no Map link yet. Keep it human-readable and hand-editable — this is a markdown file the user edits directly, not a generated artifact to be regenerated wholesale each time. ## Step 4: Flip status when actually complete Set `status: ready` in the frontmatter only when every day has a full schedule with no blockers left. If any day is still incomplete, leave `status: planning` and list the specific gaps under **Open items** — don't flip status to make the trip look more finished than it is. ## Step 5: Optional export If the user wants something to carry on the road or share, hand off to the **trip-exporter** skill — it renders `trip.md` into a shareable `itinerary.html` in the trip folder (privacy-scrubbed, optionally published as an Artifact link). For a calendar import, an `.ics` file next to `trip.md` still works too. These are exports, not the source of truth; `trip.md` stays authoritative and exports are regenerated from it, not hand-maintained separately. ## Step 6: Log and hand off Append a dated `Log` entry noting the itinerary was built (or partially built, naming what's still open). If status flipped to `ready`, say so plainly — that's the signal the trip is set. If blockers remain, name them as the next concrete step ("Once North Platte dinner is scouted, Day 2 is ready too").