0xmsc-plan_skill

Overview

This skill provides a disciplined, iterative planning process for non-trivial tasks or changes before any implementation begins. It produces a clear objective, high-level approach, ordered steps, verification criteria, and at least three clarifying questions with proposed answers. The goal is to align expectations, minimize risk, and avoid touching code during planning.

How this skill works

I inspect the request and any available project context, list relevant dependencies and areas of impact, and draft a compact plan that includes objective, approach, sequential steps, and verification. The plan always contains at least three clarifying questions with suggested answers to uncover assumptions and drive an approval decision. I do not modify files during planning and iterate the draft based on your feedback until you explicitly approve.

When to use it

• When a task or feature has multiple implementation paths or unknown dependencies
• Before making architecture, API, or large refactor decisions
• When coordinating work across teams or contributors
• When you need explicit verification and rollback criteria
• Whenever risk should be minimized before coding starts

Best practices

• Gather key context first: repo layout, dependencies, tests, and CI
• Keep the plan concise: objective, approach, steps, verification, and TODO markers
• Always include at least three clarifying questions with proposed answers
• Prefer zero-impact investigation—do not edit files during planning
• Iterate plans based on feedback and wait for explicit approval before implementing

Example use cases

• Plan a migration of a database schema that affects multiple services
• Design an API change with backward compatibility and rollout steps
• Scope a large refactor by breaking it into safe, verifiable increments
• Coordinate feature delivery involving frontend, backend, and infra changes
• Define verification steps for performance optimizations and how to revert