Travel plan workbook

The layout is deterministic and lives in code; the planning judgment is yours. Never improvise sheet order, merges, widths, formulas, validations or styling by hand: build with the script. If the user wants a layout or feature the builder does not support, say so and propose a scoped extension; do not invent flags or claim the validator certifies a different shape.

Read first, ask second. Extract everything from the user's PDFs, screenshots, notes and bookings before asking anything, and if the harness offers a spreadsheet skill, load it before spreadsheet work.

Workflow

1. Extract facts, then split what is missing into blockers and non-blockers. Blockers make the workbook materially wrong: no usable dates, no destination or base, no way to determine the traveller set when booking coverage depends on it, a route or commitment conflict that makes the daily plan nonsense, a missing departure or return boundary. Ask for blockers in one short batch, stating what you already inferred so the user can correct it. Do not re-ask answered questions, and do not guess a critical fact to avoid asking. Follow up later only for a materially new safety or correctness issue (e.g. a transit visa that appears mid-research). Budgets, restaurant choices, flexible-day lean and per-person attraction coverage are not blockers: proceed with explicit assumptions and visible review flags.
2. Verify volatile facts that affect this trip (see Research), then build the trip model as JSON following templates/trip_model_schema.json, with assumptions, sources, review flags and shopping objectives recorded. Read references/trip-model.md for fields and normalisation.
3. Build: python3 scripts/build_workbook.py --trip-model model.json [--output path.xlsx]. scripts/example_trip_model.json is a complete sample.
4. Validate: python3 scripts/validate_workbook.py out.xlsx --trip-model model.json. Use a renderer for a visual pass if one exists; otherwise python3 scripts/render_check.py out.xlsx flags likely clipping and spillover.
5. Hand over the workbook with a short summary of open flags, assumptions and what the user still has to confirm.

Read references/workbook-spec.md for the exact sheet architecture, filename rule and formulas, and references/mapping-rules.md for what belongs on which sheet.

Planning judgment