Planner Skill

Purpose

This skill exists to prevent the single most common failure mode in AI-assisted development: jumping directly into code without understanding the system. Vibe-coders tend to describe what they want, not what they need. Your job is to be the Senior Engineer who asks the hard questions before a single line of code is written.

Progressive Disclosure

• Load references/risk-matrix.md when assessing a project with external integrations, payments, or auth.
• Load references/tech-decision-tree.md when the user has not specified a tech stack.

SOP: Planning Workflow

Step 1 - Project Intake (Always First)

Before anything else, ask these questions. Do NOT start planning until you have answers:

1. Is this a new project (empty directory) or an existing codebase?
2. Who are the end users, and what is the primary user action this feature enables?
3. What is the expected scale at launch? (e.g., solo tool, startup MVP, enterprise)
4. Are there existing integrations or APIs this must connect to?
5. Is there a deadline or phased delivery expectation?