🔗 Workflow Provenance

Source: This skill augments the baseline workflow located at ./workflows/spec-kitty.plan.md. It acts as an intelligent wrapper that is continuously improved with each execution.

<!-- spec-kitty-command-version: 3.0.3 -->

/spec-kitty.plan - Create Implementation Plan

Version: 0.11.0+

📍 WORKING DIRECTORY: Stay in the project root checkout

IMPORTANT: Plan works in the project root checkout. NO worktrees created.

# Run from project root (same directory as /spec-kitty.specify):
# You should already be here if you just ran /spec-kitty.specify

# Creates:
# - kitty-specs/###-feature/plan.md → In project root checkout
# - Commits to target branch
# - NO worktrees created

Do NOT cd anywhere. Stay in the project root checkout root.

In repos with multiple features, always pass --feature <slug> to every spec-kitty command.

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

You MUST consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).

Branch Strategy Confirmation (MANDATORY)

Before asking planning questions or generating artifacts, you must make the branch contract explicit.

• Never describe the landing branch vaguely. Always name the actual branch value.
• If the user says the feature should land somewhere else, stop and resolve that before writing plan.md.
• You must repeat the branch contract twice during this command:
  1. immediately after parsing setup-plan --json
  2. again in the final report before suggesting /spec-kitty.tasks

Constitution Context Bootstrap (required)

Before planning interrogation, load constitution context for this action:

spec-kitty constitution context --action plan --json

• If JSON mode is bootstrap, apply JSON text as first-run governance context and follow referenced docs as needed.
• If JSON mode is compact, continue with condensed governance context.

Location Check (0.11.0+)

This command runs in the project root checkout, not in a worktree.

• Resolve branch context from deterministic JSON output, not from meta.json inspection:
  • Run spec-kitty agent feature setup-plan --feature <feature-slug> --json
  • Use current_branch, target_branch / base_branch, and planning_base_branch / merge_target_branch (plus uppercase aliases) from that payload
  • Use branch_matches_target from that payload to detect branch mismatch; do not probe branch state manually inside the prompt
• Planning artifacts live in kitty-specs/###-feature/
• The plan template is committed to the target branch after generation

Path reference rule: When you mention directories or files, provide either the absolute path or a path relative to the project root (for example, kitty-specs/<feature>/tasks/). Never refer to a folder by name alone.

Planning Interrogation (mandatory)

Before executing any scripts or generating artifacts you must interrogate the specification and stakeholders.

• Scope proportionality (CRITICAL): FIRST, assess the feature's complexity from the spec:

  • Trivial/Test Features (hello world, simple static pages, basic demos): Ask 1-2 questions maximum about tech stack preference, then proceed with sensible defaults
  • Simple Features (small components, minor API additions): Ask 2-3 questions about tech choices and constraints
  • Complex Features (new subsystems, multi-component features): Ask 3-5 questions covering architecture, NFRs, integrations
  • Platform/Critical Features (core infrastructure, security, payments): Full interrogation with 5+ questions

• User signals to reduce questioning: If the user says "use defaults", "just make it simple", "skip to implementation", "vanilla HTML/CSS/JS" - recognize these as signals to minimize planning questions and use standard approaches.

• First response rule:

  • For TRIVIAL features: Ask ONE tech stack question, then if answer is simple (e.g., "vanilla HTML"), proceed directly to plan generation
  • For other features: Ask a single architecture question and end with WAITING_FOR_PLANNING_INPUT

• If the user has not provided plan context, keep interrogating with one question at a time.

• Conversational cadence: After each reply, assess if you have SUFFICIENT context for this feature's scope. For trivial features, knowing the basic stack is enough. Only continue if critical unknowns remain.

Planning requirements (scale to complexity):

1. Maintain a Planning Questions table internally covering questions appropriate to the feature's complexity (1-2 for trivial, up to 5+ for platform-level). Track columns #, Question, Why it matters, and Current insight. Do not render this table to the user.
2. For trivial features, standard practices are acceptable (vanilla HTML, simple file structure, no build tools). Only probe if the user's request suggests otherwise.
3. When you have sufficient context for the scope, summarize into an Engineering Alignment note and confirm.
4. If user explicitly asks to skip questions or use defaults, acknowledge and proceed with best practices for that feature type.

Outline

1. Check planning discovery status:

   • If any planning questions remain unanswered or the user has not confirmed the Engineering Alignment summary, stay in the one-question cadence, capture the user's response, update your internal table, and end with WAITING_FOR_PLANNING_INPUT. Do not surface the table. Do not run the setup command yet.
   • Once every planning question has a concrete answer and the alignment summary is confirmed by the user, continue.

2. Resolve feature context deterministically (CRITICAL - prevents wrong feature selection):

   • Prefer an explicit feature slug from user direction or from the current directory path (kitty-specs/<feature-slug>/...)
   • If you do not yet have an explicit feature slug, run spec-kitty agent feature setup-plan --json once without --feature
   • If that call succeeds, treat its JSON as the canonical setup payload and skip step 3
   • If that call returns an ambiguity error with available_features, stop and resolve one explicit feature slug before continuing

3. Setup: If step 2 did not already return a successful setup payload, run spec-kitty agent feature setup-plan --feature <feature-slug> --json from the repository root and parse JSON for:

   • result: "success" or error message
   • feature_slug: Resolved feature slug
   • spec_file: Absolute path to resolved spec.md
   • plan_file: Absolute path to the created plan.md
   • feature_dir: Absolute path to the feature directory
   • current_branch: branch checked out when planning started
   • target_branch / base_branch (deterministic branch contract for downstream commands)
   • planning_base_branch / merge_target_branch: explicit aliases for planning and merge intent
   • branch_strategy_summary: canonical sentence describing the branch strategy

   Before proceeding, explicitly state to the user:

   • Current branch at plan start
   • Intended planning/base branch
   • Final merge target for completed changes
   • Whether branch_matches_target says the current branch matches that intended target

   Example:

   # If detected feature is 020-my-feature:
   spec-kitty agent feature setup-plan --feature 020-my-feature --json
   

   Error handling: If the command fails with "Cannot detect feature" or "Multiple features found", verify your feature detection logic in step 2 and ensure you're passing the correct feature slug.

4. Load context: Read spec_file from setup-plan JSON output and .kittify/constitution/constitution.md if it exists. If the constitution file is missing, skip Constitution Check and note that it is absent. Load IMPL_PLAN template (already copied).

5. Execute plan workflow: Follow the structure in IMPL_PLAN template, using the validated planning answers as ground truth:

   • Update Technical Context with explicit statements from the user or discovery research; mark [NEEDS CLARIFICATION: …] only when the user deliberately postpones a decision
   • If a constitution exists, fill Constitution Check section from it and challenge any conflicts directly with the user. If no constitution exists, mark the section as skipped.
   • Evaluate gates (ERROR if violations unjustified or questions remain unanswered)
   • Phase 0: Generate research.md (commission research to resolve every outstanding clarification)
   • Phase 1: Generate data-model.md, contracts/, quickstart.md based on confirmed intent
   • Phase 1: Update agent context by running the agent script
   • Re-evaluate Constitution Check post-design, asking the user to resolve new gaps before proceeding

6. STOP and report: This command ends after Phase 1 planning. Report branch, IMPL_PLAN path, and generated artifacts.

   ⚠️ CRITICAL: DO NOT proceed to task generation! The user must explicitly run /spec-kitty.tasks to generate work packages. Your job is COMPLETE after reporting the planning artifacts.

Phases

Phase 0: Outline & Research

1. Extract unknowns from Technical Context above:

   • For each NEEDS CLARIFICATION → research task
   • For each dependency → best practices task
   • For each integration → patterns task

2. Generate and dispatch research agents:

   For each unknown in Technical Context:
     Task: "Research {unknown} for {feature context}"
   For each technology choice:
     Task: "Find best practices for {tech} in {domain}"
   

3. Consolidate findings in research.md using format:

   • Decision: [what was chosen]
   • Rationale: [why chosen]
   • Alternatives considered: [what else evaluated]

Output: research.md with all NEEDS CLARIFICATION resolved

Phase 1: Design & Contracts

Prerequisites: research.md complete

1. Extract entities from feature spec → data-model.md:

   • Entity name, fields, relationships
   • Validation rules from requirements
   • State transitions if applicable

2. Generate API contracts from functional requirements:

   • For each user action → endpoint
   • Use standard REST/GraphQL patterns
   • Output OpenAPI/GraphQL schema to /contracts/

3. Agent context update:

   • Run ``
   • These scripts detect which AI agent is in use
   • Update the appropriate agent-specific context file
   • Add only new technology from current plan
   • Preserve manual additions between markers

Output: data-model.md, /contracts/*, quickstart.md, agent-specific file

Key rules

• Use absolute paths
• ERROR on gate failures or unresolved clarifications

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⛔ MANDATORY STOP POINT

This command is COMPLETE after generating planning artifacts.

After reporting:

• plan.md path
• research.md path (if generated)
• data-model.md path (if generated)
• contracts/ contents (if generated)
• Agent context file updated

YOU MUST STOP HERE.

Do NOT:

• ❌ Generate tasks.md
• ❌ Create work package (WP) files
• ❌ Create tasks/ subdirectories
• ❌ Proceed to implementation

The user will run /spec-kitty.tasks when they are ready to generate work packages.

Next suggested command: /spec-kitty.tasks (user must invoke this explicitly)