Create Plan

Create Plan

Create detailed, phased implementation plans (sprints + atomic tasks) for bugs, features, or refactors. This skill produces a plan document only; it does not implement.

Contract

Prereqs:

• User is asking for an implementation plan (not asking you to build it yet).
• You can read enough repo context to plan safely (or the user provides constraints).
• plan-tooling available on PATH for linting/parsing/splitting (validate, to-json, batches, split-prs; install via brew install nils-cli).

Inputs:

• User request (goal, scope, constraints, success criteria).
• Optional: repo context (files, architecture notes, existing patterns).

Outputs:

• A new plan file saved to docs/plans/<slug>-plan.md.
• A short response that links the plan path and summarizes the approach.

Exit codes:

• N/A (conversation/workflow skill)

Failure modes:

• Request remains underspecified and the user won’t confirm assumptions.
• Plan requires access/info the user cannot provide (credentials, private APIs, etc.).

Entrypoint

• None. This is a workflow-only skill with no scripts/ entrypoint.

Workflow

1. Decide whether you must ask questions first

• If the request is underspecified, ask 1–5 “need to know” questions before writing the plan.
• Follow the structure from $AGENT_HOME/skills/workflows/conversation/ask-questions-if-underspecified/SKILL.md (numbered questions, short options, explicit defaults).

1. Research the repo just enough to plan well

• Identify existing patterns, modules, and similar implementations.
• Note constraints (runtime, tooling, deployment, CI, test strategy).

1. Write the plan (do not implement)

• Follow the shared baseline in skills/workflows/plan/_shared/references/PLAN_AUTHORING_BASELINE.md.
• Fill Complexity when it materially affects batching/splitting or when a task looks oversized.
• You may omit sprint scorecards unless the user explicitly wants deeper sizing analysis or execution modeling.

1. Save the plan file

• Use the shared save rules from skills/workflows/plan/_shared/references/PLAN_AUTHORING_BASELINE.md.

1. Lint the plan (format + executability)

• Use the shared lint flow from skills/workflows/plan/_shared/references/PLAN_AUTHORING_BASELINE.md.

1. Run an executability + grouping pass (mandatory)

• Use the shared executability + grouping workflow in skills/workflows/plan/_shared/references/PLAN_AUTHORING_BASELINE.md.
• Add sprint metadata only when the plan needs explicit grouping/parallelism metadata or the user asks for that level of execution detail.

1. Review “gotchas”

• Use the shared Risks & gotchas guidance from skills/workflows/plan/_shared/references/PLAN_AUTHORING_BASELINE.md.

Plan Template

Shared markdown scaffold:

• skills/workflows/plan/_shared/assets/plan-template.md

Canonical shared authoring and validation rules:

• skills/workflows/plan/_shared/references/PLAN_AUTHORING_BASELINE.md

Optional scaffold helper (creates a placeholder plan; fill it before linting):

• plan-tooling scaffold --slug <kebab-case> --title "<task name>"

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