Planning

Core Principle

Context window = RAM (volatile, limited)
Filesystem     = Disk (persistent, unlimited)
→ Anything important gets written to disk.

Planning tokens are cheaper than implementation tokens. Front-load thinking; scale effort to complexity.

Goal Quality Gate

Run this gate before reaching for When to Plan below — a weak goal makes either path (full plan, flat list, or skip) waste tokens. Confirm the goal is measurable; a weak goal produces a weak plan and an unverifiable skip. Answer these five questions before proceeding: