agent-planner_skill

Overview

This skill is a strategic planning and task orchestration agent invoked with $agent-planner. It breaks down complex goals into actionable plans, assigns agents and resources, estimates timelines, and flags risks so multi-agent workflows execute reliably. Use it to convert high-level objectives into measurable phases with clear dependencies and success criteria.

How this skill works

The planner analyzes the full scope of a request, decomposes it into atomic tasks, and maps dependencies to reveal the critical path. It allocates agents and resources, produces timeline estimates, and generates risk assessments and mitigation steps. Outputs follow a structured plan format (objective, phases, tasks, critical_path, risks, success_criteria) and can be stored or broadcast via MCP memory hooks for swarm coordination.

When to use it

• Launching multi-agent projects that require coordinated task handoffs and parallel execution
• Designing implementation roadmaps from vague or high-level requirements
• Allocating limited compute or human resources across interdependent tasks
• Estimating timelines and identifying the critical path before execution
• Creating contingency plans and checkpoint validations for high-risk initiatives

Best practices

• Start with a clear objective and measurable success criteria to guide decomposition
• Break work into atomic, testable tasks with explicit inputs, outputs, and owners
• Map dependencies early and highlight critical-path tasks to prioritize effort
• Allocate resources for parallelism when safe, but plan validation checkpoints
• Store plans and status in shared memory so other agents can read and act

Example use cases

• Plan and orchestrate an authentication subsystem: research, design, implement, test, deploy
• Turn a product feature request into phased implementation tasks with agent assignments
• Coordinate a data-pipeline build across data engineers, modelers, and QA agents
• Estimate rollout timelines and contingency plans for a multi-region deployment
• Create a mitigation plan for a high-risk integration involving third-party APIs