Planning Setup Skill

I scaffold planning-with-files infrastructure for your project:

• Three planning files (task_plan.md, findings.md, progress.md)
• CLAUDE.md methodology guidance
• .claude/rules enforcement for planning discipline

When to Use This vs EnterPlanMode

• Use this skill when starting a new project that needs persistent planning infrastructure across sessions
• Use EnterPlanMode for single-session implementation tasks where built-in task tracking suffices

This skill creates files that persist; EnterPlanMode is for in-session planning that doesn't need to survive restarts.

Interactive Setup Workflow

I use the AskUserQuestion tool to gather your preferences interactively, presenting options with descriptions so you can make informed choices. I'll ask you 6-8 questions to customize the planning infrastructure:

1. Project name: What should I call this project?
2. Goal: What's the one-sentence goal of this project?
3. Phases: What are the major phases? (Or should I suggest phases based on the goal?)
4. Key questions: What are the 3-5 key questions this project needs to answer?
5. Constraints: What constraints or requirements should I know about?
6. File location: Should planning files go in the project root or a subdirectory (like planning/ or docs/)?
7. CLAUDE.md: Does CLAUDE.md already exist? Should I create it or append to it?
8. Hybrid tracking: Want to use TaskCreate/TaskUpdate for individual tasks within phases?

What Gets Created

Planning Files (Customized from Templates)

task_plan.md - Phase tracking, decisions, errors

• Goal and current phase
• Phase checklist with status
• Key questions to answer
• Decisions made table
• Errors encountered table

findings.md - Research discoveries, visual findings

• Requirements section
• Research findings
• Technical decisions table
• Issues encountered
• Visual/browser findings (with 2-Action Rule reminder)

progress.md - Session log, test results

• Session-by-session log format
• Test results table
• Error log
• 5-Question Reboot Check

CLAUDE.md Updates

Adds planning methodology section:

• High-level overview
• When to use planning-with-files
• Reference to this skill

.claude/rules/planning-with-files.md

Enforcement rules:

• Create plan first - For complex tasks requiring >5 tool calls
• 2-Action Rule - Save findings after browser/search ops
• Read before decide - Refresh goals before major decisions
• Log all errors - Track and mutate approach

Workflow

After gathering your answers, I:

1. Create the planning directory (if requested)
2. Generate customized task_plan.md with your goal, phases, and questions
3. Generate findings.md with initial structure
4. Generate progress.md with session log template
5. Update or create CLAUDE.md with planning guidance
6. Create .claude/rules/planning-with-files.md with enforcement rules
7. Provide a summary of what was created and how to use it

Integration with TaskCreate/TaskUpdate

The planning-with-files approach works alongside Claude's built-in task tools:

• task_plan.md tracks project phases (high-level)
• TaskCreate/TaskUpdate manage individual tasks within each phase (granular)

This hybrid approach gives you:

• Big-picture phase tracking in files
• Detailed task management in the task system
• Full context preserved across sessions

After Setup

Once setup is complete, see references/usage-guide.md for:

• Daily workflow
• When to update each file
• The 5-Question Reboot Test
• Working with the 4 core rules

For the principles behind this system, see references/manus-principles.md.

Templates

All templates are in templates/ and are customized during setup.