Claude Planner

Claude Planner

Generate deterministic plans with Claude and hand back a strict JSON envelope for downstream execution.

Workflow

1. Capture inputs:

   • user_request: the exact task to plan.
   • executor_constraints: tools, environment limits, and safety constraints for the executor.
   • schema: load from references/plan-schema.json.

2. Choose execution path based on context:

   Path A — running inside Claude Code (you ARE Claude Code): Do NOT invoke plan.sh or any subprocess. CLAUDECODE is set, which blocks nested CLI invocations. Instead, act as the planner directly:

   • Load the schema from references/plan-schema.json.
   • Apply the Prompt Contract below to generate the plan JSON in your response.
   • Validate the output against the Validation Requirements below.
   • Wrap it in the handoff envelope and return it. Do not wrap in markdown.

   Path B — running as an external agent (bash, CI, orchestrator, etc.):

   scripts/plan.sh \
     --request "Implement feature X safely" \
     --constraints "Use only local files, run tests before edits"
   

   The script calls claude --print as a subprocess and emits the handoff JSON.

3. Return the JSON output directly. Do not wrap it in markdown:

{"type":"plan","planner":"claude","plan":{...}}

Prompt Contract

Use these hard constraints when constructing the planner prompt:

• Output valid JSON only.
• Output no markdown, prose, or commentary.
• Use the provided schema as authoritative.
• Include unknown dependencies in open_questions.
• Still produce a best-effort plan if some details are unknown.

The script already enforces this and validates the returned structure.

Validation Requirements

Reject the plan when any check fails:

• Top-level keys do not match the schema exactly.
• milestones is missing or empty.
• Any step misses id.
• Step IDs are duplicated.
• Required fields have invalid types.

CLI Notes (Path B only)

• Default Claude command: claude --print.
• Override command with --cmd "claude-code --print" or environment variable CLAUDE_PLANNER_CMD.
• Use --pretty for human-readable output.
• Use --raw-output-file <path> to debug malformed model output.

Files

• scripts/claude_planner.py: build prompt, call Claude, parse JSON, validate schema, emit handoff object.
• scripts/plan.sh: portable shell wrapper.
• references/plan-schema.json: strict plan contract for prompt + validation.

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