Project Planner Skill

Purpose

Generate a comprehensive PLAN.md file at the start of any new project. This plan serves as the single source of truth that an Orchestrator agent (or human) can use to drive the entire build.

When to Use

• Starting a new project from scratch
• When the user says "plan this project", "create a plan", or "help me scope this"
• When a project needs structured planning before implementation

Required Inputs

Before generating the plan, gather these from the user (ask if not provided):

Behavior Rules

1. Only create PLAN.md - Do not implement code or create other files
2. Do not describe future agents or tmux usage - Keep the plan implementation-agnostic
3. Make explicit assumptions - If details are missing, document assumptions clearly
4. Write for an Orchestrator - The plan should be actionable by another agent or developer

PLAN.md Structure

Use these exact section headings in this exact order:

1. Overview

Short description of what we're building and what success looks like.

2. Non Goals

What is explicitly out of scope.

3. Assumptions

Assumptions made to proceed with planning.

4. Constraints

Technical, time, tooling, and platform constraints.

5. Architecture Sketch

• High-level architecture and data flow
• Key modules and their responsibilities
• External integrations
• Specific enough to guide implementation, but not pseudo-code heavy

6. Definition of Done

Objective criteria determining the app is complete:

• Build requirements
• Test requirements
• Run requirements
• Basic user validation

7. Task Backlog

This section is the source of truth for work.

Create 10-25 initial tickets following this exact format:

### Ticket: T### Title
- **Priority:** P0 | P1 | P2
- **Status:** Todo
- **Owner:** Unassigned
- **Scope:** [Small, bounded slice of work]
- **Acceptance Criteria:** [Testable criteria]
- **Validation Steps:** [Commands or concrete checks]
- **Notes:** [Empty initially]

Ticket Rules:

• Each ticket must be independently completable
• Scope must be small and bounded
• Acceptance criteria must be testable
• Validation steps must be commands or concrete checks

8. Open Questions

Unknowns requiring decisions, each with context.

9. Discovered Issues Log

Start with this line:

New issues must be appended here with a timestamp and brief context.

This section is append-only during development.

Output Rules

• Write only the PLAN.md content
• Do not wrap in markdown fences
• Do not include commentary outside the plan
• Place the file in the repository root

Example Usage

User: "I want to build a CLI tool for managing dotfiles"

Claude should:

1. Ask for any missing inputs (constraints, nice-to-haves, etc.)
2. Create PLAN.md in the repo root with all sections populated
3. Stop - do not begin implementation

Validation

After creating the plan, verify:

• All 9 sections are present with correct headings
• 10-25 tickets exist in the backlog
• Each ticket has all required fields
• Definition of Done has testable criteria
• File is saved as PLAN.md in repo root