phase-plan
phase-plan
Using this skill: announce "Using phase-plan", make a todo per numbered step in
## Steps, and do not skip the gates. This skill's worth is its process, not a hand-reproduced outcome. If you were told to "run phase-plan", run it, do not improvise its result. (Suite standard: https://github.com/horizon-foundry/foundry/blob/main/reference/skill-authoring.md)
Overview
A unit of work is not done when it is merged. It is done when it is merged and what happens next is written down and indexed: usually the next unit's plan, and when there is honestly no next unit, an explicit terminal entry. This skill writes that record. It runs at a meaningful handoff, not after every PR. A handoff is where context loss would be expensive: a phase completing, a long interruption, work the next session has to resume cold. A routine one-file PR that leaves nothing to resume does not need a permanent plan artifact; manufacturing one for it just adds files the next session has to sort through. When there is no handoff, an honest terminal entry (or nothing) is the right output, not a filler plan. The reading half is a standing instruction: a scaffolded project's CLAUDE.md carries it, and a session-start hook can enforce it. On a terse continuation prompt, read the indexed plan before acting, then reconcile it against the repo (below).
Why plan at the end, not the start
Most planning happens when context is weakest: at the start of a fresh session, reconstructed cold. Plan the next unit when context is strongest instead, right after finishing the last one. The next session then opens on a plan written while the work was warm, not a cold guess, and the user never has to ask whether the next plan exists.
When NOT to use
- Planning a whole product or its phase set from scratch: that is the master plan, a different artifact this skill links to but does not author.
- Tracking tasks mid-execution: the harness's own todo list owns in-flight work; the plan chain records handoffs between sessions.
- A routine PR that leaves nothing to resume: the honest output is no plan or a terminal entry, never a filler artifact.
- Recording decisions or product truth: NOTES.md and the forever spec own those; a plan is a handoff, not a record of why.