Planner Refine Phases

planner-refine-phases

L1 session that refines a combined_plan.json (a PlanDocument with every phase in PhaseElaborated form) by spawning one L0 subagent per phase in parallel. Each L0 reviews its assigned phase in the context of all other phases and returns structured suggestions. L1 collects these suggestions, resolves inter-phase conflicts, applies field-level edits to the plan, and writes refined_plan.json.

When to Use

• Launched by the L2 planner recipe after the parallel phase elaboration merge step
• Accepts the combined_plan.json output from the parallel phase elaboration merge step
• Produces refined_plan.json as input for downstream planner steps

Arguments

• $1 — Absolute path to combined_plan.json (PlanDocument, every phase as PhaseElaborated)
• $2 — Absolute path to the run-scoped planner directory (e.g., {{AUTOSKILLIT_TEMP}}/planner/run-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS). Output is written to $2/refined_plan.json.

Critical Constraints

NEVER:

• Write any file outside $2/
• Directly modify the combined_plan.json ($1) — always write a new refined_plan.json
• Allow an L0 subagent to write files directly (L0s return structured text only)
• Emit refined_plan_path before writing refined_plan.json
• Skip emitting refined_plan_path even if all L0s fail (write unchanged plan, still emit)
• Read {{AUTOSKILLIT_TEMP}} artifacts not passed as positional arguments
• Run subagents in the background (run_in_background: true is prohibited)
• Spawn more than 6 L0s in a single parallel batch

ALWAYS:

• Validate each L0 response for phase_id, changes (array), conflicts (array)
• Log a WARNING to stdout for any L0 response that fails validation (skip that phase)
• Log CRITICAL to stdout for any L0 subagent that fails entirely (proceed with N-1)
• Log each conflict resolution to stdout before applying it
• Emit: refined_plan_path = <absolute path to refined_plan.json>

Workflow

Step 1: Parse input and validate

Read $1 (combined_plan.json). Parse as a PlanDocument. Extract all phase IDs from phases[*].id. Fail immediately (exit non-zero) if phases is empty or the file is malformed — do not proceed to spawn L0s.

Input schema (PlanDocument with PhaseElaborated phases):

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "task": "...",
  "source_dir": "...",
  "phases": [
    {
      "id": "P1",
      "name": "...",
      "goal": "...",
      "scope": [...],
      "ordering": 1,
      "technical_approach": "...",
      "relationship_notes": "...",
      "assignments_preview": [...]
    }
  ]
}

Step 2: Spawn parallel L0 subagents

Read the task field from the combined plan document. Each L0 subagent reviewing a phase must verify that the phase's goal and scope serve the stated task. Phases that appear to address codebase concerns not mentioned in the task should be flagged for scope creep.

If phase count ≤ 6: spawn one L0 subagent per phase in a single parallel batch. If phase count > 6: spawn sequential batches of 6 L0 subagents. Wait for each batch to complete before spawning the next. Process phases in ordering sequence.

Each L0 receives:

• The full serialized combined_plan.json content (pasted inline or via file read)
• Its target_phase_id (e.g., "P2")
• Instructions: review the target phase in light of what all other phases committed to; return structured suggestions only — do NOT edit files

Each L0 must return structured text in this exact format:

phase_id = P2
changes = [
  {"field": "relationship_notes", "new_value": "Depends on P1 for the auth client interface defined in P1-A2-WP1"},
  {"field": "technical_approach", "new_value": "...updated approach..."}
]
conflicts = [
  {"with_phase": "P1", "description": "Both P1 and P2 claim ownership of the token refresh module"}
]

Step 3: Validate L0 responses

For each L0 response:

• phase_id must be present and match the expected phase ID for that L0
• changes must be a valid JSON array (may be empty [])
• conflicts must be a valid JSON array (may be empty [])

On validation failure:

WARNING: L0 response for {phase_id} failed validation — skipping

On L0 subagent complete failure (no response / timeout):

CRITICAL: L0 for {phase_id} failed — proceeding with N-1 suggestions

Step 4: Collect and resolve conflicts

Collect all conflicts arrays from validated L0 responses. Group conflict reports by the pair of phases involved. When multiple L0s report conflicts involving the same resource:

1. Read the conflict descriptions
2. Make an ownership/scope judgment call based on phase goals and scopes
3. Log resolution before applying:

   CONFLICT RESOLUTION: {phase_id} vs {with_phase} — {resolution decision}
   

Step 5: Apply changes

Apply all validated changes to the in-memory plan document, in phase ID order (P1, P2, ... PN). Apply conflict resolutions before applying changes for the affected phases. Only update fields that exist in PhaseElaborated — skip unrecognized field names:

WARNING: Unrecognized field '{field}' in changes for {phase_id} — skipping

Step 6: Write output

Write the updated plan document to $2/refined_plan.json. The output schema is identical to the input combined_plan.json (a PlanDocument with phases: list[PhaseElaborated]).

Step 7: Emit output token

refined_plan_path = <absolute path to $2/refined_plan.json>