Visualize Plan

Plan Visualization

Render planned changes as structured ASCII visualizations with risk analysis, execution order, and impact metrics. Every section answers a specific reviewer question.

Core principle: Encode judgment into visualization, not decoration.

/ork:visualize-plan                          # Auto-detect from current branch
/ork:visualize-plan billing module redesign  # Describe the plan
/ork:visualize-plan #234                     # Pull from GitHub issue
/ork:visualize-plan --quick                  # Header + changes + impact, zero questions
/ork:visualize-plan --playground             # Skip straight to the HTML dashboard
/ork:visualize-plan --infographic            # Skip straight to NotebookLM

Argument Resolution

PLAN_INPUT = "$ARGUMENTS"    # Full argument string
PLAN_TOKEN = "$ARGUMENTS[0]" # First token — could be issue "#234" or plan description
# If starts with "#", treat as GitHub issue number. Otherwise, plan description.
# $ARGUMENTS (full string) for multi-word descriptions (CC 2.1.59 indexed access)

# Flags are stripped from PLAN_INPUT before it is used as a description:
#   --quick        → QUICK=true: tier-1 header + [1] Changes + [5] Impact, no Explore
#                    agent, no questions at all, no memory write. The 15-second answer.
#   --playground   → FORMATS=[ascii, playground]      (no format question)
#   --infographic  → FORMATS=[ascii, infographic]     (no format question)
#   --all          → FORMATS=[ascii, + everything the probe found]

Question budget: ZERO before the first render

This skill used to ask three blocking questions (source, then format, then sections) before a single character rendered, plus a fourth after. That is why fast paths leaked to glyph and to hand-written HTML.

The format answer is not needed to render ASCII — the ASCII floor rule renders it first regardless of what the user picks. So asking up front buys nothing and costs a round-trip. The rule now:

--quick skips even that one.

CRITICAL: Task Tracking

--quick skips this whole block. A 15-second render does not need a dependency graph; the task overhead would cost more than the work.

# 1. Create main task IMMEDIATELY
TaskCreate(subject="Visualize plan: {PLAN_INPUT}", description="Plan visualization with ASCII rendering", activeForm="Analyzing plan context")

# 2. Create subtasks for each phase
TaskCreate(subject="Detect or clarify plan context", activeForm="Detecting plan context")          # id=2
TaskCreate(subject="Gather data and explore architecture", activeForm="Gathering plan data")       # id=3
TaskCreate(subject="Render tier 1 header", activeForm="Rendering header")                          # id=4
TaskCreate(subject="Render sections + dispatch to chosen format(s)", activeForm="Rendering sections") # id=5
TaskCreate(subject="Offer actions and store in memory", activeForm="Finalizing visualization")     # id=6

# 3. Set dependencies for sequential phases
TaskUpdate(taskId="3", addBlockedBy=["2"])  # Data gathering needs context first
TaskUpdate(taskId="4", addBlockedBy=["3"])  # Header needs gathered data
TaskUpdate(taskId="5", addBlockedBy=["4"])  # Sections need header rendered
TaskUpdate(taskId="6", addBlockedBy=["5"])  # Actions need sections done

# 4. Update status as you progress
TaskUpdate(taskId="2", status="in_progress")  # When starting
TaskUpdate(taskId="2", status="completed")    # When done — repeat for each subtask

STEP -1: Check Memory for Prior Plans

# Search for related prior visualizations
mcp__memory__search_nodes(query="plan visualization {PLAN_INPUT}")
# If found, offer to compare with previous plan

STEP 0: Detect or Clarify Plan Context

First, attempt auto-detection by running scripts/detect-plan-context.sh:

bash "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/detect-plan-context.sh"

This outputs branch name, issue number (if any), commit count, and file change summary.

If auto-detection finds a clear plan (branch with commits diverging from main, or issue number in args), proceed to Step 1.

If ambiguous, clarify with AskUserQuestion:

AskUserQuestion(
  questions=[{
    "question": "What should I visualize?",
    "header": "Source",
    "options": [
      {"label": "Current branch changes (Recommended)", "description": "Auto-detect from git diff against main"},
      {"label": "Describe the plan", "description": "I'll explain what I'm planning to change"},
      {"label": "GitHub issue", "description": "Pull plan from a specific issue number"},
      {"label": "Quick file diff only", "description": "Just show the change manifest, skip analysis"}
    ],
    "multiSelect": false
  }]
)

STEP 0.5: Probe Formats (silent — no question here)

Probe capabilities now so STEP 5 can offer only what will actually work. Do not ask anything at this step. Full procedure: Read("references/format-dispatch.md").

Use the established MCP-probe pattern — Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/chain-patterns/references/mcp-detection.md") — not ad-hoc checks:

# infographic is available IFF the notebooklm studio tool resolves:
ToolSearch(query="select:mcp__notebooklm-mcp__studio_create")
# chart-encoding is available IFF the bundled /dataviz skill resolves
# (CC >= 2.1.198, disableBundledSkills off). It is a MARK-layer upgrade
# applied WITHIN a format, not a 4th format — see chart-encoding-standard.md.

Record what is available as AVAILABLE: ascii always (the floor); playground if the playground skill is installed (ships with ork); infographic if studio_create resolved above (server reachable + nlm login done). Orthogonally, if the /dataviz skill resolved, upgrade the chart marks in the non-ASCII formats via its form-heuristic + validated palette; if it did not resolve, charts stay ASCII-card — dataviz is never required.

FORMATS is then set without asking:

if   "--quick" in flags:        FORMATS = ["ascii"]              # and STEP 5 is skipped too
elif "--playground" in flags:   FORMATS = ["ascii", "playground"]
elif "--infographic" in flags:  FORMATS = ["ascii", "infographic"]
elif "--all" in flags:          FORMATS = AVAILABLE
else:                           FORMATS = ["ascii"]              # upgrade offered in STEP 5

ASCII floor rule: ASCII renders first/inline regardless — and because it never depends on the format choice, the choice is deferred to STEP 5 where it costs nothing. Never await the async NotebookLM job.

STEP 1: Gather Data

Run scripts/analyze-impact.sh for precise counts:

bash "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/analyze-impact.sh"

This produces: files by action (add/modify/delete), line counts, test files affected, and dependency changes.

--quick stops here — the impact script alone feeds the header, [1] Changes, and [5] Impact. No Explore agent, no before/after map, no memory write.

For architecture-level understanding and the default before/after section [0], spawn an Explore agent that maps the component graph at BOTH the base and the head:

Agent(
  subagent_type="Explore",
  prompt="Map component architecture of {affected_directories} at TWO points: (a) base = each file as returned by `git show origin/main:<path>` (NOT the working tree — avoids conflating uncommitted edits), (b) head = current working tree. Return per point: components, dependencies, data flows; mark what is added [+], removed [-], or changed [~] between them. Use the glyph skill for diagrams.",
  model="haiku"
)

If the diff touches frontend (*.tsx/*.css/route files), also run a design-context-extract pass so the design surface is part of before/after. Patterns: Read("references/before-after-arch-patterns.md").

Build a compact plan brief (markdown) from this data — the single interchange every non-ASCII format consumes (see format-dispatch.md).

STEP 2: Render Tier 1 Header (Always)

Use assets/tier1-header.md template. Load Read("references/visualization-tiers.md") for field computation (risk level, confidence, reversibility).

PLAN: {plan_name} ({issue_ref})  |  {phase_count} phases  |  {file_count} files  |  +{added} -{removed} lines
Risk: {risk_level}  |  Confidence: {confidence}  |  Reversible until {last_safe_phase}
Branch: {branch} -> {base_branch}

[0] Before/After  [1] Changes  [2] Execution  [3] Risks  [4] Decisions  [5] Impact  [all]

STEP 3: Select Sections (no question — default to all)

Render all six sections. They are the content; asking which ones to render is asking the reviewer to choose before they have seen anything. The tier-1 header is already the progressive-disclosure layer, and a section with nothing to say is skipped with a one-line reason (not padded), so "all" never means "bloated".

SECTIONS = ["0","1","2","3","4","5"]      # default
if QUICK: SECTIONS = ["1","5"]            # --quick: change manifest + impact only

Section [0] Before/After leads whenever the Explore map shows structural changes, and is skipped with a one-line note otherwise. If the user asked for specific sections in their prompt ("just the risks"), honor that — but do not prompt for it.

STEP 4: Render Requested Sections

Render each requested section following rules/section-rendering.md conventions. Use the corresponding reference for ASCII patterns:

STEP 4b: Dispatch to Format(s)

Render the selected sections into the FORMATS chosen in STEP 0.5. ASCII always renders first/inline — the other formats consume the same plan brief. Full table + delegation patterns: Read("references/format-dispatch.md").

<branch-dir> = branch with / → -- (same path the PR Playground gate checks). The filename is always plan-viz.html — not index.html, not a topic name. One name is what makes slug lookup and the artifact gallery work at all.

Playground archetype: a plan visualization is usually a DASHBOARD — and as of 2026-08 that is a first-class archetype with a template, not a free pass. Copy shared/assets/playground-exemplars/plan-dashboard.template.html and swap the plan-state island; do not free-hand the CSS. It ships the §2 tokens, a sticky tier-1 header, <details> sections [0]–[5], a table twin per chart, the copy-prompt bar, and the reduced-motion gate. If the plan instead demonstrates a user-facing flow or a prioritization/decision, route to the user-story-player or decision-board archetype. Apply the §0 routing rule in Read("${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/shared/rules/playground-visual-standard.md") and run its §10 self-audit — including the DASHBOARD rows — before declaring done.

Backlog to dispatch? If the plan is a backlog the user must prioritize and route to execution, use the decision-router variant — each card routes to an ork strategy and emits a plan-only invocation: Read("references/decision-router.md").

Living plan (multi-wave)? If the plan executes over multiple sessions/waves, or completion is verifiable by commands, use the living-plan exemplar (living-plan.template.html): the playground embeds an lpp-state JSON block, every item carries a "done when" evidence check, and progress renders FROM state.

Update mode — detect by SLUG, never by path. The path is derived from the branch name, so a branch rename moves it and a path-keyed check silently forks the plan into a second file. Run the finder BEFORE authoring:

bash "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/find-living-plan.sh" "$SLUG"   # 0=update it · 1=author new · 2=already forked, STOP

On exit 0, MERGE into the file it printed (flip statuses, append changelog, move removed items to dropped) wherever it lives. On exit 2, do not write a third file — name both paths and ask which survives. Full contract: Read("references/format-dispatch.md") §Living-plan update mode. Gated by tests/orphans/test-duplicate-living-plans.sh.

STEP 5: Offer Actions — the ONE question

This is the only blocking question in a default run, and it carries the format choice that used to block at STEP 0.5. Skip it entirely when --quick, or when the format was set by flag and there is nothing left to offer. Build the option list from what the STEP 0.5 probe actually found — never offer a path that will fail.

options = []
if "playground" in AVAILABLE and "playground" not in FORMATS:
    options.append({"label": "Interactive dashboard (Recommended)",
                    "description": "Single-file HTML at docs/<branch-dir>/plan-viz.html, from plan-dashboard.template.html. Also satisfies the PR Playground gate. Multi-wave plans become LIVING plans, updated in place."})
if "infographic" in AVAILABLE and "infographic" not in FORMATS:
    options.append({"label": "NotebookLM infographic",
                    "description": "Stakeholder-ready infographic/slides. Async — fired and notified, never blocks."})
options.append({"label": "Drill deeper",
                "description": "Blast radius, cross-layer consistency, or migration checklist"})
options.append({"label": "Generate GitHub issues",
                "description": "One issue per execution phase, with labels, milestone, and blocked-by links"})

# AskUserQuestion caps at 4 options. "Done" must ALWAYS survive that cap — an
# actions menu with no exit is a trap — so reserve its slot instead of appending.
DONE = {"label": "Done", "description": "Plan visualization complete"}
AskUserQuestion(questions=[{"question": "What next?", "header": "Actions",
                           "options": options[:3] + [DONE], "multiSelect": False}])

Anything squeezed out by the cap stays reachable by asking — the menu is a shortcut, not the whole surface. Write to designs/{branch}.md (template: assets/plan-report.md) is one of these.

Upgrading reuses the plan brief built in STEP 1 — no recomputation (see references/format-dispatch.md). If nothing richer is available, the question drops to drill-deeper / issues / done.

Write to file: Save full report to designs/{branch-name}.md using assets/plan-report.md template.

Generate issues: For each execution phase, create a GitHub issue with title [{component}] {phase_description}, labels (component + risk:{level}), milestone, body from plan sections, and blocked-by references.

Store in memory: Save plan summary to knowledge graph for future comparison:

mcp__memory__create_entities(entities=[{
  "name": "Plan: {plan_name}",
  "entityType": "plan-visualization",
  "observations": [
    "Branch: {branch}",
    "Risk: {risk_level}, Confidence: {confidence}",
    "Phases: {phase_count}, Files: {file_count}",
    "Key decisions: {decision_summary}"
  ]
}])

Deep Dives (Tier 3, on request)

Available when user selects "Drill deeper". Load Read("references/deep-dives.md") for cross-layer and migration patterns.

Key Principles

Rules Quick Reference

References

Load on demand with Read("references/<file>"):

Examples (read one before your first run)

Complete worked runs — real input, real ASCII output, real emitted artifact. The ASCII patterns in them match references/*-patterns.md exactly, so they are safe to imitate directly.

Assets

Load on demand with Read("assets/<file>"):

Quality Bar

Done means all of these hold:

• The Tier 1 header always renders with every field populated — risk, confidence, reversibility, branch, and file/line counts.
• File and line counts come from scripts/analyze-impact.sh, not estimated or guessed.
• Every rendered section answers its reviewer question; a section with no content is skipped with a one-line reason, never padded.
• Section [3] names the point of no return by phase id (--- POINT OF NO RETURN (after P3) ---), not by implication, and each pre-mortem states a mechanism — trigger, sequence, resulting bad state — not a category. "Migration risk" is a heading; "P2 ships while an in-flight retry queue still points at the inline charge path, so the same invoice is charged twice" is a pre-mortem. This is the section's measured failure mode, not a style preference: rules/section-rendering.md §[3] carries the falsifiable test for both.
• Section [0] Before/After maps base (git show origin/main:<path>) against head (working tree), marking each node [+]/[~]/[-], and is skipped with a note when nothing structural changed.
• ASCII renders first/inline regardless of chosen format; any async format (infographic) is fired-and-notified, never awaited.
• The plan summary is stored to the memory knowledge graph for cross-session comparison (skipped under --quick).
• Zero blocking questions before the first render. Source is auto-detected (asked only when genuinely ambiguous), sections default to all, and format is chosen after the ASCII floor is already on screen — at most one question per run, none under --quick.
• A playground output started from plan-dashboard.template.html (or the living-plan / player / board exemplar the §0 routing rule selected) — never hand-rolled CSS — and passed the §10 self-audit including the DASHBOARD rows.
• A living plan was located by slug via scripts/find-living-plan.sh before authoring, so an existing plan is updated in place rather than forked into a second file.

Related Skills

• ork:implement - Execute planned changes
• ork:explore - Understand current architecture
• ork:assess - Evaluate complexity and risks
• ork:memory - Search prior plan visualizations
• ork:remember - Store plan decisions for future reference