Plan

# Plan Skill

> **Quick Ref:** Decompose goal into trackable issues with waves. Output: `.agents/plans/*.md` + bd issues.

**YOU MUST EXECUTE THIS WORKFLOW. Do not just describe it.**

## Loop position

Moves **3 (vertical slice decomposition)** and **5 (wave validity check)** of the [operating loop](../../docs/architecture/operating-loop.md). Consumes the [BDD intent issue](../../docs/templates/intent-issue.md); produces a [slice validation plan](../../docs/templates/slice-validation.md) — one slice per Given/When/Then row with a first-failing-test target, write-scope, bounded context, and ownership. Slices group into a wave only when every row of the wave-validity check passes (distinct write scopes, no shared migration/contract/CLI surface, declared integration order, owner per slice, discard path per slice). Default to sequential when in doubt — parallel waves are an optimization, not a default.

**CLI dependencies:** bd (issue creation). If bd is unavailable, write the plan to `.agents/plans/` as markdown with issue descriptions, and use TaskList for tracking instead. The plan document is always created regardless of bd availability.

## Discovery Boundary

Use the [Skill Ports and Adapters](../../docs/contracts/skill-ports-and-adapters.md)
vocabulary and the [Intent-to-Loop Hexagon](../../docs/architecture/intent-to-loop-hexagon.md)
for the boundary from Discovery into Plan:

| Boundary piece | Plan contract |
|---|---|
| Inbound port | `plan_slices` from BDD intent, bead, research artifact, or execution packet |
| Outbound ports | `persist_issue`, `verify_symbols`, `retrieve_context`, `seed_execution_packet` |
| Driving adapter | `/plan` skill invocation |
| Driven adapters | bd, `rg`, `.agents/findings`, `.agents/plans`, execution-packet writer |
| Context packet | slice plan, file dependency matrix, acceptance criteria, test levels |
| Guard adapter | stale-scope verification, symbol verification, wave-validity check |

```gherkin
Feature: Plan converts dense intent into executable slices
  Scenario: Plan consumes Discovery output
    Given Discovery provides density fields and artifact links
    When Plan receives the `plan_slices` port request
    Then each slice has acceptance criteria, write scope, test levels, and ownership
    And no slice depends on raw Discovery chat context
```

## Flags

| Flag | Default | Description |
|------|---------|-------------|
| `--auto` | off | Skip human approval gate. Used by `/rpi --auto` for fully autonomous lifecycle. |
| `--fast-path` | off | Force Minimal detail template (see Step 3.2) |
| `--skip-symbol-check` | off | Skip symbol verification in Step 3.6 (for greenfield plans) |
| `--skip-audit-gate` | off | Skip baseline audit gate in Step 6 (for documentation-only plans) |

## Execution Steps

Given `/plan <goal> [--auto]`:

### Step 0: Bead-Input Pre-Flight (Stale-Scope Gate)

When the input to `/plan` is a bead ID (matches pattern `[a-z]{2,6}-[0-9a-z.]+`) AND **any** of the following conditions hold, automatically run `ao beads verify <bead-id>` as the **very first action** before any other planning step:

- complexity is `"full"`
- the bead is older than 7 days
- the bead description was filed by a prior session (e.g., handoff-sourced, deferred, or reopened)

```bash
# Example guard — run before Step 1
if [[ "$INPUT" =~ ^[a-z]{2,6}-[0-9a-z.]+$ ]]; then
    ao beads verify "$INPUT" || true
fi
```

If `ao beads verify` reports any STALE