plan-compliance

Plan Compliance Review

Purpose

Verify that an implementation matches its plan of record. Flag deviations, missing phases, unimplemented acceptance criteria, and scope drift.

This skill is used as a review lens inside Review Council and can also be invoked standalone.

Plan Source Detection

Locate the plan of record using this priority order:

1. Explicit argument: If a path is provided as the argument, use that file directly.
2. CLI mode: Search docs/plans/active/ then docs/plans/ for plan files. Match plans to the changed files by:

• File references in the plan body that overlap with the diff's changed files.
• Title keywords that match the branch name or commit message subjects.
• Most recently modified plan when multiple candidates match.

3. PR mode: Extract plan references from:

• PR description body (links or file paths mentioning plans).
• Linked issues and their descriptions.
• Fall back to docs/plans/.

If no plan is found after exhausting all sources, report a single finding:

• Title: "No plan of record found for this change"
• Severity: p3
• Confidence: low
• Category: plan-compliance
• Recommended fix: "Create a plan in docs/plans/ or link an existing plan in the PR description."

Review Lenses

Once the plan is located, review the implementation against these lenses:

Phase Completeness

• Are all phases defined in the plan implemented?
• Are any phases skipped or only partially completed?
• If the plan defines an implementation sequence, is the sequence respected?

Acceptance Criteria

• Are all acceptance criteria from the plan met in the implementation?
• For each criterion, identify the specific code, test, or artifact that satisfies it.
• Flag any acceptance criteria with no corresponding implementation evidence.

Scope Compliance

• Does the implementation stay within the plan's defined scope?
• Flag missing items: things the plan describes that are not implemented.
• Flag scope creep: things implemented that the plan does not describe. Not all scope creep is negative — distinguish intentional extensions from drift.

Architecture Alignment

• Does the implementation follow the architecture direction stated in the plan?
• If the plan specifies API boundaries, module structure, or data model choices, verify the implementation honors them.
• Defer deep architecture analysis to the architecture-review skill — focus here on what the plan explicitly states.

Verification Coverage

• Does the implementation include the verification evidence the plan requires?
• If the plan defines specific test scenarios, validation commands, or proof strategies, verify they are present.
• Flag verification gaps where the plan requires proof but the implementation provides none.

Output

Present findings as a markdown checklist with severity and confidence for each item:

• Missing acceptance criteria: p1 high
• Skipped phases: p1 or p2 depending on impact
• Scope creep without justification: p2 medium
• Missing verification: p2 medium
• No plan found: p3 low