Code Planning

A structured methodology for choosing and implementing code approaches against the user's outcome and constraints.

Binding rules

1. Before choosing or asking, apply the shared decision ownership contract.
2. Honor explicit supervised checkpoints; decide technical choices within delegated work and continue.
3. Existing user grants persist within their scope. A skill, preference or receipt cannot create new authority.
4. Compare approaches only when a real choice remains. If the constraints determine one approach, state that reason and proceed; do not manufacture a second option.
5. Before editing code to fix a defect, record the hypothesis, a falsifiable prediction and the observation that would change the approach.
6. A close technical tradeoff is not a new approval gate. The delegated decision owner selects; clarify only material outcome ambiguity or an actual unsatisfied gate.
7. Delegation changes approval cadence, not verification obligations. Run the consumer checks and required audits, and invalidate affected evidence after a change.
8. Fix the root cause, not its surface, with built-in features, the codebase's conventions and the least code that does the job.

Contents

• references/coverage-map.md: where each part of the 1.1.1 text now lives.
• Inputs, Process (Steps 1 to 4: analyze, generate approaches, evaluate and select, implement), When to skip multi-approach evaluation, Principles: below.