Plan Work
Reduce uncertainty enough to act. Do not make planning a separate project.
Choose the needed depth
- Unclear goal or real trade-off: inspect the minimum context, identify constraints and success criteria, then compare two to four genuinely different approaches including a direct baseline.
- Clear goal with dependent work: skip ideation and write the delivery path.
- One or two reversible actions: do not create a formal plan.
Ask only for a missing answer that changes the outcome, architecture, cost, or reversibility. Otherwise state the key assumption and continue.
Converge on one direction
Compare alternatives by evidence, feasibility, lifecycle cost, dependencies, reversibility, and failure impact. Recommend one path and name the decisive reason. Keep unsupported possibilities out of the chosen design.
Produce an execution brief
Include only what execution needs:
- Outcome: the observable result.
- Constraints and non-goals: boundaries that change implementation.
- Approach: the selected path and material assumptions.
- Steps: ordered results, touched files or systems, dependencies, and the smallest useful check.
- Risks: only risks that change sequencing, rollback, or user choice.
Use exact commands or code only when they remove ambiguity. Do not add mandatory commits, documents, reviewers, subagents, or full-suite checks without evidence or project requirements.
For reversible work already authorized, publish the brief and continue with execute-work. Pause only for a destructive, externally visible, costly, or materially scope-changing choice.