Synthesis Preplan — Architecture-Decision Locker

Runs the pre-planning Q&A loop on tickets or issues with real design choices. Produces a locked-decisions file and hands off to your planning step with a previewed prompt.

The skill exists because the hard part of planning is deciding what to build, not breaking the build into commits. Once architectural decisions are locked, the commit-by-commit plan is mechanical. This skill makes the decision-locking explicit so your planner inherits a clear, reviewable input instead of designing inside its own output.

Where this sits

This skill runs before any code exists, on the architectural layer: which base branch, what's in and out of scope, and the design questions a competent engineer could answer more than one way. Two siblings sit next to it:

• synthesis-code-planning evaluates code-level approaches once the architecture is settled — competing implementations of a decision this skill has already locked. Reach for it inside a commit; reach for this skill before the commit list exists.
• synthesis-preflight is the pre-merge gate at the other end of the arc. The plan this skill hands off ends in that gate.

The full lifecycle: preplan → code-planning → implementation-integrity → code-audit → preflight → pr-review.

When to use

Heuristic: a competent engineer could reasonably implement this ticket in three or more valid ways AND the choice has long-term consequences. Apply for: