Rite Plan

$rite-plan: (re)plan an active feature

Update a plan invalidated by evidence, drift, or user decision. Read the active workspace first. Missing .devrites/ACTIVE/workspace stops to $rite-spec <feature>. Revise is artifact-only: reconcile spec.md / architecture.md / plan.md / tasks.md / traceability.md without editing source code.

Rules consulted (read on demand from .agents/skills/devrites-lib/reference/standards/)

Pull development-workflow.md via Read when reshaping slice cadence or DoD criteria. Load repository-topology.md, data-integrity.md, or integration-reliability.md when the spec applicability map or observed drift triggers them. Before classifying any Reslice, read .agents/skills/devrites-lib/reference/standards/acceptance-preserving-reslice.md.

• FOLD → reconcile architecture.md, plan.md, tasks.md, and traceability.md atomically; invalidate Vet/readiness; Vet.
• GUARD_AND_REPAIR → no planning writes; Spec Drift Guard → Clarify → Plan repair → Vet.
• BLOCKED_INPUT → no planning writes; exact diagnostic; recover input; reclassify.

Operating rules

• Update the spec when needed, but never plan around a known-wrong assumption.
• Keep each slice small enough for one focused build → prove cycle.
• Derive slice count: reslice when work cannot build+prove in one cycle, not to hit a requested tally. Treat counts as hints and explain honest differences; see slicing.md.
• Size by complexity, order by dependency. A slice carries a Complexity: N/5 score (from $rite-define); a slice scoring >3 is a reslice trigger unless its inline reason justifies the irreducible complexity. Honor each slice's depends_on:: the next buildable slice is the lowest pending one whose dependencies are all built. This preserves one-slice-at-a-time execution.
• Root writes; drafter proposes. Follow agents.md. The controlling chat owns human questions, decisions, reconciliation, and planning writes.
• Nested repair preserves its caller. When state.md contains a valid technical-backtracking return cursor, preserve any valid return cursor byte-for-byte. $rite-vet is the next internal prerequisite, not a command to hand back to the human.

Workflow

0. Read .agents/skills/devrites-lib/reference/standards/core.md (operating rules) before reshaping anything. Then resolve the explicit or active slug, require its state.md, and read the cursor directly.
1. Read spec.md, decision-coverage.md, plan.md, tasks.md, state.md, drift.md, eng-review.md, and the current git diff (if a repo). Read decisions.md and assumptions.md. Require Decision coverage: CLEAR; otherwise STOP → $rite-clarify. Apply .agents/skills/devrites-lib/reference/standards/tooling.md: use the primary available structural index, and cross-check only for a named unresolved predicate rather than reassurance. For an external dependency's current API surface, consult context7 if available.
2. Pick the mode ($ARGUMENTS or infer): Apply the marked action before writes and retain its decision/coverage evidence.
   • decompose: first/again break the feature into vertical slices.
   • reslice: a slice is too large; split into thinner end-to-end slices.
   • repair: a Spec Drift Guard event; fold the resolution into plan + tasks.
   • reorder: fix the dependency order.
   • split: separate backend/frontend contracts (see devrites-api-interface).
   • unblock: a verification failed; re-route around the blocker.
   • course-correct: mid-build user pivot; apply the marked action, choose rollback/forward-fix, and update permitted artifacts atomically (MVP cut is the named retreat).
   • revise: reconcile a requested artifact revision; propose/confirm its file set and never edit source. Only explicit $rite-upgrade with a repairable assessment naming rule, evidence, gate, paths, and delta can authorize its neutral workspace edit—not source/history. Revise or new? Same intent? >50% scope survives? Original not completable without it? Two “no” answers mean new work: seal/ship current scope (MVP cut if named), then $rite-spec, and stop. See replan-and-repair for each mode's steps. 2a. Draft fresh. Dispatch devrites-plan-drafter in repair mode with frozen mode, affected artifacts, settled contract, and failure/drift. Await one atomic, read-only the drafter's candidate_files bundle; human choices return separately. When the observed failure is missing or ambiguous consumptive-action evidence, require the drafter to apply one-shot-actions.md and return the bounded diagnostic-amplification design, injective boundary map, per-seam fixtures, and collision mutant. Past evidence loss is not terminal. The drafter supplies no bodies. Bind exact active .devrites/work/<slug>/ targets and executable contract; after Vet READY, root materializes the exact vetted workflow-artifact paths under workflow-artifacts.md without dispatching the product wright.
3. Reason about dependencies: dependency-graph. Reconcile the horizon register against ../rite-define/reference/plan-template.md. Preserve every HZN-### and unresolved item. Cite evidence when reclassifying the earliest honest decision point; resolution or supersession also needs evidence. Never silently delete an item. Planning choices resolve from source evidence or become bounded risk spikes with discriminating criteria and fallback branches; local/checkpoint entries retain their owner, trigger, bounds/fallback, and proof. A new human-owned blocker stops to $rite-clarify. Reconcile plan.md's canonical Shared contract proof: changed provider/consumer boundaries keep one reused contract artifact ahead of both asserting tests, and unaffected plans retain the specific no-impact statement. Missing, one-sided, duplicated-contract, vague, or non-consuming proof routes to $rite-vet only after repair. Reconcile the spec applicability map and retain every applicable standard's required topology/data/integration owner, failure/recovery, deployment order, and proof output. Completion: the slice graph is cycle-free and every dependency names an existing slice.
4. Re-slice using vertical-slice rules: slicing and task-breakdown. Prefer thin, shippable, verifiable. Completion: every slice is independently shippable/provable or carries an irreducibility reason.
5. Reconcile the candidate against steps 3 and 4, then the root updates plan.md, tasks.md, state.md, and appends rationale to decisions.md. Any change to architecture.md, plan.md, tasks.md, or traceability.md invalidates the previous vet verdict: set Phase: plan, Next step: $rite-vet, and, when eng-review.md exists, set Implementation readiness: NEEDS REPLAN. Never retain READY across changed planning inputs. Preserve Plan approved only for behavior/acceptance-neutral technical repair; clear it for a contract-changing or newly blocking horizon item and reconfirm only after Clarify and Vet close it. If you stopped for drift, mark the drift.md entry resolved. Never remove or overwrite a valid caller return cursor while writing the Plan checkpoint.
6. After editing brief.md, spec.md, decisions.md, assumptions.md, or questions.md, re-scan affected coverage, assumptions, uncertainty, and gates. Partial/Missing, unowned material assumption, or open blocking/escalating question routes $rite-clarify/HITL. Restore CLEAR only from current evidence.
7. Done when: every slice is sized (builds + proves in one cycle; no slice scoring >3 left unjustified), the dependency order is acyclic, every drift.md entry you stopped for is marked resolved, revised artifacts agree with each other, no source files changed in revise mode, the marked action is complete, and every changed plan ends at $rite-vet rather than returning directly to build; horizon IDs stay stable, reclassifications cite evidence, and no unresolved item vanished. The Shared contract proof table or justified no-impact statement must still match the revised boundary set. If any check fails, loop back: don't hand off a half-reshaped plan.

When invoked inline by a controlling rite, return the completed Plan checkpoint to that caller so it can invoke Vet immediately. The phase boundary is not a user-facing stop unless a genuine HITL, safety/access, or exhausted-recovery condition was recorded.

Mid-flight discipline. Do not change product behavior without confirmation or absorb drift silently. See anti-patterns.